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The Role Of Power In The Handmaid's Tale

959 Words4 Pages
The more power people get, the more freedom they feel they have. In the novel from The Handmaid 's Tale by, Margaret Atwood is a society that was created by a group of people who strengthen and maintain their power by any necessary means including persecution and death. However, characters that play the role in the The Handmaid’s Tale have certain roles that leads them to do things they are not allowed to do. Atwood reveals how overpowering governments leads citizens to breaking laws as emphasized through the tone of the Commander and Offred, the plot twist of Serena Joy, and the metaphor of Moira.
In the novel, the Commander never follows the rules while Offred goes from being a character that obey’s Gilead’s laws to breaking them due to the Commander having power to do anything he desires and Offred having the power to ask whatever she wants by the infringement of the law. As an example, “I share secrets with the Commander it gives me the power to ask favors from him to slowly separate him from his wife”(Atwood 161). This shows that Offred is taking advantage of taking things from the Commander and what she is doing is breaking the law which can lead to consequences to both characters in the novel and Offred 's tone goes from bias to insensitive because at first Offred is just using the Commander for things and is unfair to him and also goes to insensitive because she has no feelings for him and does not care if she separates him from Serena Joy. Therefore, both
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