57 pages 1 hour read

Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1985

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Character Analysis

Offred

Offred is the novel’s protagonist and first-person narrator. In her life before Gilead, she was married to Luke, a man with whom she had previously had an affair. They had a daughter together. As Gilead overthrew the government, curtailing women’s freedom and autonomy, Offred was largely apathetic. She had long eschewed her mother’s feminist politics and demonstrations, and when marches were organized to protest the increasing restrictions on women’s liberty, she did not attend, accepting Luke’s belief that “it would be futile and I had to think about them, my family” (189).

At some stage, this restrictive life became too much for Offred and Luke, and they attempted to escape into Canada. However, once this fails and Offred is separated from her husband and daughter, she becomes outwardly passive once more, although her thoughts remain critical and insightful. After being “reeducated” by the vicious, authoritative Aunts, Offred is forced to become a Handmaid and is, after several other appointments, assigned to the Commander (from whom she gets her name “of-Fred”) and his Wife, Serena Joy. Despite the horror of her situation and her ability to astutely analyze the machinations and mechanisms at play, she is largely reluctant to rebel against her imprisonment and abuse.

Related Titles

By Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

Alias Grace

Margaret Atwood

Alias Grace

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

Backdrop Addresses Cowboy

Margaret Atwood

Backdrop Addresses Cowboy

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

Cat's Eye

Margaret Atwood

Cat's Eye

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

Death By Landscape

Margaret Atwood

Death By Landscape

Margaret Atwood

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE

logo

Hag-Seed

Margaret Atwood

Hag-Seed: William Shakespeare's The Tempest Retold

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

Happy Endings

Margaret Atwood

Happy Endings

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing

Margaret Atwood

Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing

Margaret Atwood

Plot Summary

logo

Lady Oracle

Margaret Atwood

Lady Oracle

Margaret Atwood

Plot Summary

logo

Life Before Man

Margaret Atwood

Life Before Man

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

MaddAddam

Margaret Atwood

MaddAddam

Margaret Atwood

Plot Summary

logo

Rape Fantasies

Margaret Atwood

Rape Fantasies

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

Stone Mattress

Margaret Atwood

Stone Mattress

Margaret Atwood

Plot Summary

logo

Surfacing

Margaret Atwood

Surfacing

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

The Blind Assassin

Margaret Atwood

The Blind Assassin

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

The Circle Game

Margaret Atwood

The Circle Game

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

The Edible Woman

Margaret Atwood

The Edible Woman

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

The Heart Goes Last

Margaret Atwood

The Heart Goes Last

Margaret Atwood

Study Guide

logo

The Landlady

Margaret Atwood

The Landlady

Margaret Atwood