Offred is the narrator of the story. Her story is told in a stream of consciousness style, with memories and thoughts cutting into the relating of events. Her voice is educated and sometimes amusing, but she is a fallible narrator, as her story is so isolated. The historical notes at the end accentuate this fallibility as the authenticity of her story is questioned.
Offred is a thirty-three-year-old woman who is assigned to the Commander as his Handmaid. She is expected to produce children for him. Offred never says what her name was in the “time before.” In that time she was married to Luke and they had a young daughter. She worked in a library. But when the Republic of Gilead was formed, all that changed. She lost her job and as a woman was not allowed to own money or property. She, Luke and their daughter tried to escape but were caught near the Canadian border, after which Offred was sent to the Red Centre to be trained as a Handmaid. When she was assigned to the Commander she acquired the name Offred, signifying that she had no independent existence, but belonged to Fred, which was the Commander’s first name.
Offred tells her story in the present tense, which is impossible because she could not have recorded it at the time that she is describing. Her memories seem almost hyper real in their descriptiveness and observations. Her mental state is described through the fractured form of the narrative. Offred is a thoughtful, reflective, sometimes passive woman, not given to rash acts of courage, but hardly reconciled to her new life. She does not accept the propaganda of the new regime and stubbornly retains her right to think for herself. She uses her mental clarity to retain her sanity and help her to cope with her extremely restricted and tormented life. Sometimes, however, she is desperate, keenly feeling how much she has lost and wondering how she can go on living in such a situation. On one occasion she feels like she has been buried alive.
Offred sometimes reproaches herself because she does not have the same courage as her close friend, Moira. Too often, she thinks, she just goes along with what is expected of her because naturally enough she wants to survive. She does not want to end up hanging at the Wall, where the corpses of those who have been executed are left on public display. However, Offred does become reckless when she gets involved with Nick. She knows it is dangerous for her to keep seeing him in his room, but she has been starved of a warm human relationship for so long that it is impossible for her to hold back. Her actions and inactions in the days leading up to the revolution make the reader further question her personality and character, as she seems to have been unwilling to fight for herself. Offred holds Moira up to be a symbol of female empowerment and hope; this is broken when they meet again at Jezebel’s. Her potential saviour is not Moira, but Nick. This suggests that men hold her future in their hands, despite her desire for this not to be the case.
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