How does Atwood explore the theme of love in the novel 'The Handmaid's Tale'?

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Mandip Dhillon

12N

How does Atwood explore the theme of love in the novel?

        The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood describes the story of Offred, a Handmaid, a woman ascribed a breeding function by the society in which she lives in, and who is placed with a husband and wife higher up the social ladder that "need" a child. Through Offred's eyes we explore the rigidity of the theocracy in which she lives, the contradictions in the society they have created, and her attempts to find solace through otherwise trivial things.

        In this essay I will talk and explore the issue of how “love” is portrayed throughout the ‘Handmaid’s Tale.’ The people and the situations, where love is required and abused, such as in the ‘ceremony!’  

        The immediate form of love in the novel is the love between ‘Offred’ and her best friend ‘Moira.’ This love is portrayed to the readers through the eyes of ‘friendship’ shared between two people through times of childhood, right through to the times of hardship, such as in the society of Gilead.  Moira has been Offred’s friend right from high school, when she would come around her house, ‘dropping her denim jacket onto the floor…’ Right through to the times where Offred was having an affair, with Luke, her present husband. Moira’s love for Offred seems to come across as her guide and advisor, she is the one individual described by Offred as being a ‘fantasy’ and also by the other handmaid’s. When Moira and Offred meet one another after a time of separation in the new regime Offred describes being ‘ridiculously happy.’ This immediately indicates to the reader, the fact that the friendship shared between these two women is so intense that even after a long separation they are ‘still’ excited and happy to see one another. Most readers can relate to this, from their personal experiences, when they have been separated from their childhood friends and then have come into touch, these feelings are both felt and explored by the handmaid’s and the readers, who relate to the feelings and emotions of separation. The one factor against their friendship in the society is that they are unable to explain what they feel for one another, they derived of talking and making any form of communication towards one another, ‘Friendships were suspicious…we avoided each other.’ This also immediately informs the reader of the fact that these two women care for one another to such an extent that they are unable to cause any harm to one another, if it means to not talk to each other than so be it, they will not talk to one another. They care for one another to the extent that they will not allow a ridiculous law from the Gileadian society to come between their most intense and long friendship. The readers can relate to this from their own experiences, because if they too have intense friendships with their friends then they too will try their utmost hardest to not allow any one or any law to come between them. The ‘love’ of friendship between Moira and Offred, outlines the fact that there are still people living in this society that value friendship, even though it is forbidden.

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        Like Moira, from Offred’s past she had memories of her husband Luke and her young daughter, whom she loved very much and also the two closest family members she lost the night they were running away from the society of Gilead. Memories of her daughter seem to always be sad, as the flash backs she gets of her daughter are of a distressing nature. This is a clear example of when Offred has a nightmare of the night she was ‘running with her’ (her daughter). Offred remembers ‘holding her daughters hand’ and then also seeing ‘her go away from ...

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