The Commander's Wife, Serena worked in pre-Gilead days as a gospel singer, then as an anti-feminist activist and crusader for "traditional values."

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Christopher Beeton        Serena Joy is as much a victim of Gileadean         28/04/2007

        Society as Offred        

The Commander's Wife, Serena worked in pre-Gilead days as a gospel singer, then as an anti-feminist activist and crusader for “traditional values.” In Gilead, she sits at the top of the female social ladder, yet she is desperately unhappy. Serena's unhappiness shows that her restrictive, male-dominated society cannot bring happiness even to its most pampered and powerful women. Serena jealously guards her claims to status and behaves cruelly toward the Handmaids in her household.  Though Serena was an advocate for traditional values and the establishment of the Gileadean state, her bitterness at the outcome - being confined to the home and having to see her husband copulating with a Handmaid - suggests that spokeswomen for anti-feminist causes might not enjoy getting their way as much as they believe they would. Serena's obvious unhappiness means that she teeters on the edge of inspiring our sympathy, but she forfeits that sympathy by taking out her frustration on Offred.

Serena Joy seems to possess no compassion for Offred. She can see the difficulty of her own life, but not that of another woman.  The climactic moment in Serena's interaction with Offred comes when she arranges for Offred to sleep with Nick. It seems that Serena makes these plans out of a desire to help Offred get pregnant, but Serena gets an equal reward from Offred's pregnancy: she gets to raise the baby. Furthermore, Serena's offer to show Offred a picture of her lost daughter if she sleeps with Nick reveals that Serena has always known of Offred's daughter's whereabouts. Not only has she cruelly concealed this knowledge, she is willing to exploit Offred's loss of a child in order to get an infant of her own. Serena's lack of sympathy makes her the perfect tool for Gilead's social order, which relies on the willingness of women to oppress other women. She is a cruel, selfish woman, and Atwood implies that such women are the glue that binds Gilead together.

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        The character of Serena Joy is one of the people arguably most affected by the changes to society, robbed of her notoriety and wealth.  However, curiously she was also, originally, one of Gilead’s greatest supporters.  Gileadean Society has slowly corrupted Serena Joy, she has become cold, twisted and unloving as a result of the oppressive nature of the regime, which she lives under.  As a result Serena Joy is used throughout the book as a 'modern' version of Offred's mother, as their sections are often linked to one another, via free-association.  For Example when Offred picks something that Serena Joy ...

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