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Essay On The Commanders In The Handmaid's Tale

711 Words3 Pages

The differences between both novels, bring character to each one in it’s own right. Pleasure is described differently in each novel. Offred describes the sex that her and the Commander have each month. Time and time again she describes how she lies down in between Serena Joy’s legs with her legs up and her skirt hiked up without any underwear on. Using this description the Gilead creates this ceremony as, “...beauty sadomasochism, which arose to put the guilt, shame, and pain back into women’s experience of sex” (Wolf, 132). From her description of the sexual intercourse, implies that it is not pleasurable for her. While from Precious standpoint, the sex with her father is pleasurable. She is aware that the behavior between her and her father …show more content…

The difference is in the ways in which they are discussed. The Commander’s description is a person who is strict, hardcore, strong willed, authoritative man. Once Offred develops a relationship with him, she sees the manipulative side to him. The Commanders in the story are all in this secret underworld society who helped create Gilead. Majority of them are sexist pigs, who want the women to themselves. The role of men in Precious’s life are non existent. Her father is there and the way he is described is a deadbeat child molester. Mary, describes him as, “a high-natured man” (Sapphire, …show more content…

After reading the historical notes, I was able to connect the dots to a lot of the scenes in the book. The ceremonies were disturbing and mind blowing. The description Offred gave on what happen horrified me. I just could not imagine having to endure that type of pain, humiliation, shame during something that should a desirable experience for most. Her descriptions of her experiences was outrageous. The book allowed me to think about the future regarding the feminist theory. How will our society be in 60 years? I do not think this kind of society could survive in this realm, because there are too many precautions to stop

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