Women Against Patriarchy in Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

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Handmaid’s Tale, Women against Patriarchy
In the novel, Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is and endearing story of a totalistarian state that deprives women the basic rights of human beings and continually exploit and oppress them. The first person narrator and main protagonist is Offred who is a victim of the system and a typical example of plight of women in the state. Little is known about her physically, but using flashbacks and digressions, we get to know her past and present being. She is the handmaid of the Commander and Serena Joy. She is also the former wife of Luke and a lover of Nick. Before coming to Gilead, she had a daughter with Luke, but they had divorced. Her relationship with her mother is also strained, and she is portrayed as radical and outrageous. Albeit Offred being rebellious and to an extent violent, in her thoughts, full of vivid, passionate memories, she portrays a character of devoutness to outsiders by doing her level best to obey the laws of Gilead. At first, I was set out to judge her passivity, but her observations and honest emotions after going through horrifying terrors; she portrays a limitation of Gilead’s administrative power over its subjects. As the plot advances, she tears down the emotional barrier instituted by the totalitarian state and stars to fight for her own freedom and right to choose what is best for herself.
Moira, Offred’s best friend in college. She is depicted as a brave, very opinionated feminist lesbian. Offred and Moira met again at the Rachel and Leah Center where she attempts and manages to escape from the center but is unfortunately captured and tortured by the secret spies network; ‘Eyes.' This consequently leads her to choose the life of prostitution at Jezebel’s rather than go to the colonies which are death sentences. While at Jezebel’s, Offred sees Moira and learns that the oppressive authorities have succeeded in breaking Moira’s former enthusiasm and spirit. Moira although she gave up on her fight against totalitarianism, she defies many traditional impositions that hold her hostage and embark on dangerous missions to escape her containment.
Offred character changes over time and she yearns her freedom and choices over her body. She begins to make her own choices in a bid to control her life and find happiness. She refuses to have sex with the doctor and starts a sexual relationship with Nick, it is a decision that shows she is fighting to break free from the oppression imposed on women in Gilead. She did not want to be controlled by the society or her master. She wanted to make choices for her own body and influence the outcome of her life. Moira, on the other hand is aggressively going up against the totalitarian regime and fighting its oppression against her and other women. After sever...