Atwood presents Moira as strong willed character that will not be terrorised into even outward conformity, succeeding to escape from the centre. The character of Moira is not only important in the sense of a single character but also the effect that she has on other characters in the novel. To the other women at the Centre she represents all that they would like to do but would not dare: 'Moira was our fantasy. We hugged her to us, she was with us in secret, a giggle; she was lava beneath the crust of daily life. In the light of Moira, the Aunts were less fearsome and more absurd’.
Even when working as a prostitute in Jezebel's. The character of Moira is presented as still expressing her dissidence, for she remains a declared lesbian and her costume is a deliberate travesty of feminine sexual allure. Behind the comedy of Moira, Atwood shows how sad this character actually is Moira never manages to escape. She has been consigned to the brothel, where she tells Offred that she has 'three or four good years' ahead of her, drinking and smoking as a Jezebel hostess, before she is sent to the Colonies. The last view that Atwood lets us see of Moira working in Jezebel’s brothel. This is where the reader is presented with the idea that in fact even the brightest and boldest characters can be worn down and the sheer irony of Moira’s final occupation 'I'd like her to end with something daring and spectacular, some outrage, something that would befit her. But as far as I know that didn't happen'.
Moira is one of the spirited feminist heroines, like Offred's mother
Another major female character portrayed in the novel is Offred's mother. Atwood uses this character to symbolise and different type of feminism than the extreme feminism of Moira. Offreds mother symbolises the ideas of the Women's Liberation Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, campaigning for women's sexual and social freedom. Atwood presents her as a strong willed but lonely character that is set in her ways as a political activist. The character doesn’t really appear in the present of the narrative only in the flash backs of Offred her daughter. Only much later does Offred learn that she has been condemned as an Unwoman and sent to the Colonies.
Like Moira, and possessing the same kind of energy, Offred's mother resists classification. Although the character is predominately in the past Atwood uses her image twice in the present, both times on film at the Rachel and Leah Centre. On one occasion Offred is shocked to see her as a young woman marching toward her in a pro-abortion march, and later Moira reports seeing her as an old woman working as slave labour in the Colonies. Offred's mother is however represents more than just a feminist. As the character of Offred thinks more and more about the past and her mother she gradually comes to understand her mother's independence of mind and to admire her courage.
Atwood uses the character of Offreds mother as more to show an effect of feminism on the narrator. The narrator remains nostalgic of feminist events in her ‘past life’ Atwood presents a number of different events, Offreds mother being involved in a feminist pornographic book burning ‘Good riddance to bad rubbish’ Atwood use this imagery to show the danger of censorship of any kind. Atwood discusses the idea of abortion and how women use to want ‘the right to choose’ which contrasts the ideas of pregnancy in Gilead society where all women want to have children. The character of Offreds mother is shown as a sad lonely woman in some sections of the novel defending her position as a single parent to Offred's husband, while accusing her daughter of naive and political irresponsibility. Her ideas are still quite extreme even in today’s society especially concerning her ideas on men ‘ A man is just a woman's strategy for making other women. Not that your father wasn't a nice guy and all, but he wasn't up to fatherhood. Not that I expected it of him. Just do the job, then you can bugger off, 1 said, I make a decent salary, I can afford day-care. So he went to the coast and sent Christmas cards. He had beautiful blue eyes though.’ Atwood presents the character as an embarrassing but heroic figure. She is used by Atwood to display how easily ideas can be turned and changed 'Mother, I think. Wherever you may be. Can you hear me? You wanted a women's culture. Well, now there is one. It isn't what you meant, but it exists. Be thankful for small mercies'. Offred and the reader learn to admire Offreds mother's courage and to value her memory as a vital link with Offreds own lost identity.
Atwood uses both the characters of Moira and the Handmaid’s mother to highlight the actions of two individual women’s whose very different private assertions become almost symbolic in the novel. Both characters show the importance of female roles such as mother, daughter and friend and how these roles effect the outcome of the narrator’s life.