The handmaid’s tale: chapter 2 commentary

This passage from ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Attwood uses stream of consciousness as a narrative technique to portray the thoughts of the main character, Offred, is going through. Attwood does this very realistically; in the sense that she writes in the way a human mind works, by describing the setting of the room. Thus the setting of the room is vital as it is through the setting that the themes are explored. The main theme of freedom in the passage is shown through the objects described in her room. The style of writing is structured in a way which reflects the minor details of the human mind with the lack of movement in passage to put emphasize on how Offred refuse to let her mine wonder from the things that are around her, in her room. The tone of the passage changes, first it is more uncertain and unsure but later changes to a more certain tone, this shown through the diction used. Attwood structures her narrative technique in such a way that it creates a uniform setting and creates a sense of everything being controlled or repressed.

The sense of freedom that Atwood restricts from Offred in the passage is shown through the description of the room. The narrator focuses on what she ‘can’ do rather then what she can not do. “I can sit in the chair” This is ironic because although she is focusing on what she is able to do, yet she is reinforcing how limited the things she can do are. “Air can come in and make the curtains move” The sense of freedom is shown through the movement of the curtains and the flow of the air; these objects have a sense of movement whereas her thoughts don’t because she can not escape through the “partly open window”.  Attwood uses the repetition of window to emphasize how Offred can see beyond the window but can not do anything about it. This depicts the vindication shown in the passage as the slightly open window can be seen as Serena joy taking pleasure in watching the handmaid’s suffer, as they are not able to attain freedom but just have the slightest taste of it. Offred can not escape but she can feel the wind slightly touching her.

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Attwood portrays Offred’s thoughts in contrast next to each other to reinforce the lack of freedom. “Where I am is not a prison but a privilege, as Aunt Lydia said...” This depicts that she feels she is in a prison because of her lack of freedom but then Attwood abruptly ends saying that Aunt Lydia says this, and doesn’t allow Offred to think about it much further. Offred is presenting her room to sound like a prison but then quickly says that Aunt Lydia told her to see it as a privilege. This shows how Aunt Lydia feels this not ...

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