Offred Character Analysis in The Handmaid’s Tale

The novel’s protagonist and first-person narrator, Handmaid of the Commander and Serena Joy, former wife of Luke, and lover of Nick. We never learn her real name (Offred means “Of Fred,” her Commander), and we know little about her physical appearance. She has brown hair, stands about five foot seven, and is 33 years old. Before Gilead, she had a daughter with Luke at about age 25. Moira was her best friend from college, and she had a rocky relationship with her radical, outrageous mother. Though Offred is rebellious, even violent, in her thoughts, and full of passionate memories, she seems stolid and devout to outsiders, doing her best to obey Gilead’s laws. Readers may be quick to judge Offred for her passivity, but her keen observations and honest emotions, even after the terror and brainwashing that she’s encountered, demonstrate the limitations of Gilead’s power over its subjects.

Offred Quotes in The Handmaid’s Tale

The The Handmaid’s Tale quotes below are all either spoken by Offred or refer to Offred. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

We yearned for the future. How did we learn it, that talent for insatiability?

Related Characters: (speaker)

Related Symbols:

Page Number and Citation: 3

Explanation and Analysis:

Waste not want not. I am not being wasted. Why do I want?

Related Characters: (speaker)

Related Symbols:

Page Number and Citation: 7

Explanation and Analysis:

I try not to think too much. Like other things now, thought must be rationed.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 8

Explanation and Analysis:

I enjoy the power; power of a dog bone, passive but there.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 22

Explanation and Analysis:

There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.

Related Characters: (speaker), (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 24

Explanation and Analysis:

I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 39

Explanation and Analysis:

We thought we had such problems. How were we to know we were happy?

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 51

Explanation and Analysis:

Nothing changes instantaneously: in a gradually heating bathtub you’d be boiled to death before you knew it.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 56

Explanation and Analysis:

I’ve crossed no boundaries, I’ve given no trust, taken no risk, all is safe. It’s the choice that terrifies me. A way out, a salvation.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 61

Explanation and Analysis:

I avoid looking down at my body, not so much because it’s shameful or immodest but because I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to look at something that determines me so completely.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 63

Explanation and Analysis:

But maybe boredom is erotic, when women do it, for men.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 69

Explanation and Analysis:

But this is wrong, nobody dies from lack of sex. It’s lack of love we die from.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 103

Explanation and Analysis:

You wanted a women’s culture. Well, now there is one. It isn’t what you meant, but it exists. Be thankful for small mercies.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 127

Explanation and Analysis:

But remember that forgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest. Maybe none of this is about control…maybe it’s about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 135

Explanation and Analysis:

You can think clearly only with your clothes on.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 143

Explanation and Analysis:

He doesn’t mind this, I thought. He doesn’t mind it at all. Maybe he even likes it. We are not each other’s, anymore. Instead, I am his.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 182

Explanation and Analysis:

But people will do anything rather than admit that their lives have no meaning. No use, that is. No plot.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 215

Explanation and Analysis:

All I can hope for is a reconstruction: the way love feels is always only approximate.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 263

Explanation and Analysis:

And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Related Symbols:

Page Number and Citation: 295

Explanation and Analysis:

Offred Character Timeline in The Handmaid’s Tale

The timeline below shows where the character Offred appears in The Handmaid’s Tale. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

The novel begins with the first-person narrator, Offred, describing the old gymnasium where she has been sleeping, and the sense of longing and... (full context)

Offred, like the other women, wishes that she could speak to the guards, longing for some... (full context)

Though Offred and the other women aren’t allowed to speak to each other, they manage to draw... (full context)

Offred describes a different bedroom, with traditional, safe décor. Its distinguishing characteristic is a plastered-over hole... (full context)

The bell rings to mark time, like in a nunnery, and Offred puts on her red uniform, including shoes, gloves, and a long modest dress. She wears... (full context)

Offred walks through the house, a stately, traditional home with many restrictions. She’s not allowed to... (full context)

Offred recalls a conversation she heard between Rita and Cora, when Rita said that she would... (full context)

Despite Rita’s unfriendliness, Offred wishes that she could stay, talk and gossip like in the old times. Sometimes the... (full context)

Rita gives Offred the tokens for food, with images of food on them. Rita tells Offred to tell... (full context)

Offred walks through the garden on the way to the shops. The red tulips have bloomed... (full context)

Offred recalls five weeks ago, when she arrived at the house. In her flashback, Serena Joy... (full context)

Still in the flashback to five weeks ago, Offred remembers why Serena Joy looks familiar: from a religious television program called the Growing Souls... (full context)

Out of the flashback, Offred continues on her shopping trip. The path through the garden looks like a part in... (full context)

Nick winks at Offred, which alarms her. She doesn’t understand the gesture, which is a risky move that she... (full context)

Offred waits at the corner, recalling Aunt Lydia’s advice to be patient and to imagine herself... (full context)

...Guardians show respect to the Handmaids by saluting them. One of the Guardians looks around Offred’s wings at her face, a rebellious act that makes Offred imagine coming back to him... (full context)

Still, after passing the barricade Offred walks away in a seductive manner, enjoying her slight sense of power, and hoping that... (full context)

Offred and Ofglen continue on their shopping walk, passing beautifully maintained but childless neighborhoods in the... (full context)

Offred remembers the time before women were protected, both the constant precautions she had to take... (full context)

Offred and Ofglen pass the clothing store called Lilies of the Field, which has an image... (full context)

Offred and Ofglen go to the meat store, called All Flesh. Offred gets a chicken wrapped... (full context)

A group of possibly Japanese tourists approaches on the street. Offred stares at the women’s knee-length skirts and high heels, thinking that the shoes look like... (full context)

The interpreter, with a winged eye pin, asks if the tourists can take pictures of Offred and Ofglen. Offred denies the request, remembering that Aunt Lydia told the Handmaids to be... (full context)

As Offred and Ofglen return from their shopping trip, Ofglen asks to go by the church. Offred... (full context)

Offred and Ofglen look at the small old church and graveyard. Ofglen seems to pray, and... (full context)

Offred and Ofglen go to look at the real source of their interest, the red-brick Wall.... (full context)

...the Republic of Gilead, and some informant must have ratted them out to the government. Offred feels nothing for the men, but she’s glad they aren’t Luke. (full context)

Offred looks at the bloody red smile on the bag again. The red reminds her of... (full context)

Ofglen seems to be crying beside Offred. Offred isn’t sure if this is genuine emotion or just for show, and she doesn’t... (full context)

Offred lies in bed, thinking about the difference between the active word lie and the passive... (full context)

...an earring, one gold fingernail, and smoking. Moira wants to go get a beer, but Offred is working on a paper. Moira just wrote a paper on date rape, which Offred... (full context)

Offred switches to another memory, an older one. She remembers being in a cold park with... (full context)

Offred can’t remember what happens next in her memories. She remembers a different time, when she... (full context)

Offred wishes that she could believe that “this is a story I’m telling,” because then she... (full context)

The weather stays good, reminding Offred of the old days of dresses and ice cream. Back at the Wall there are... (full context)

As they walk away, Ofglen comments on the beautiful May day. Offred remembers how Mayday used to be used in war for pilots to signal distress. Luke... (full context)

At Offred’s house, Nick polishes the Commander’s Whirlwind. The red tulips look like empty chalices, and Offred... (full context)

Offred sees Serena Joy sitting in the garden, and thinks that her name sounds stupid, like... (full context)

Offred looks at Serena Joy’s sunken profile as she passes. Her face reminds Offred of fallen... (full context)

Offred enters the kitchen, where the smell of bread reminds her of the past and mothers,... (full context)

Offred goes upstairs, pausing to enjoy the light through the stained glass. The convex mirror looks... (full context)

As Offred waits in her room, she thinks about the household’s previous Handmaid. When she first arrived,... (full context)

Offred returns to her main memory of examining her bedroom when she arrived at the house.... (full context)

Though Offred doesn’t know the meaning of the phrase, suspecting it might be Latin, she is happy... (full context)

Offred sometimes sings herself “Amazing Grace,” a song now banned for the word “free.” She also... (full context)

It’s hot and soon Offred will wear her cotton summer dresses. She remembers Aunt Lydia disdaining the scantily-clad women of... (full context)

Offred retreats into another memory, of Moira. In the memory, Moira is planning an “underwhore” party... (full context)

Offred sits at the window seat, which has a cushion that says “faith” on it (though... (full context)

Offred went to the doctor yesterday morning for her regular monthly checkup. She remembers the appointment... (full context)

The doctor gets close to the sheet, offering to help Offred. At first she thinks he might help her find Luke. Then he lifts the sheet,... (full context)

The doctor is sympathetic but also enjoying the situation. Offred thinks it’s too dangerous, frightened that it might be a trap. She could get killed... (full context)

Back in the present day, Offred takes her bath. The bath has no mirror, razors, lock, or other items that could... (full context)

Offred feels strange to be naked, and wonderingly remembers wearing a swimsuit. She doesn’t look at... (full context)

In a spontaneous flashback, Offred remembers her daughter as a baby. She remembers when a stranger tried to steal her... (full context)

Offred imagines her daughter as a ghost who died at age five. Offred laments the loss... (full context)

Cora tells Offred to hurry up. Offred tries to make herself very clean, since her bath opportunities are... (full context)

Cora brings Offred her dinner, and Offred is pleased that Cora bothers to knock at her door. Rita... (full context)

Offred thinks about how she has too much time, and wishes she could have a hobby... (full context)

Offred lies on a rug, practicing pelvic exercising like Aunt Lydia advised. Offred remembers the naptime... (full context)

Offred remembers Moira’s arrival at the Rachel and Leah Center, three weeks after her own. She... (full context)

Offred remembers the previous week, when Janine began crying during Testifying, and the others hated her... (full context)

Back in the present time, Offred thinks about her body, her blood like red waves, and her failure to become pregnant.... (full context)

Offred goes downstairs, passing the eye-like mirror. She kneels in the sitting room. The room is... (full context)

Cora, Rita and Nick enter. Nick touches his foot to Offred’s. Nick touches again and Offred moves again, unsure of his intentions. Serena Joy arrives in... (full context)

...turns on the TV news, which shows the Angels attacking the Baptists in the Appalachians. Offred isn’t sure if the TV shows reality or if everyone’s an actor. The TV then... (full context)

Offred retreats into a memory, when she still had her old name. She imagines getting into... (full context)

...a black suit. He unlocks the Bible from its box and sits down to read. Offred tries to imagine his point of view, scrutinized like this. She imagines his penis as... (full context)

Offred has a flashback to the Rachel and Leah Center, and remembers listening to a tape... (full context)

Offred remembers meeting up again with Moira in the bathroom. Moira planned to escape by pretending... (full context)

Back in the present time, the Commander finishes reading. Offred imagines the bible pages feeling powder-paper makeup. Serena Joy silently cries. As Offred prays “Nolite... (full context)

Offred lies on her back on Serena Joy’s canopy bed, clothed except for her underpants. The... (full context)

After coming, the Commander leaves quickly and politely, which Offred finds somehow funny. Serena Joy makes Offred leave immediately, although she’s supposed to lie down... (full context)

Offred returns to her bedroom and finds her pat of butter half-melted in her shoe. She... (full context)

Offred lies in bed, imagining the plastered eye in her ceiling staring at her. She looks... (full context)

Offred carefully walks downstairs and resolves to steal a daffodil. She hears Nick’s footsteps. They’re both... (full context)

Offred lies in bed, disturbed and aroused by her encounter with Nick. She remembers spending time... (full context)

Offred believes in several different fates for Luke. First she imagines Luke as a corpse lying... (full context)

Offred dreams first that she has seen and picked up her daughter, and then that her... (full context)

A red van, a Birthmobile, comes to the house to pick up Offred. A Guardian drives her and several other Handmaids to Ofwarren’s (Janine’s) house for her birth.... (full context)

Offred knows that the chance of a healthy, living, normal-bodied baby is just one in four,... (full context)

Offred goes deeper into her flashback from the Rachel and Leah Center. She remembers Aunt Lydia... (full context)

...day, the Birthmobile arrives at Ofwarren’s house, and we learn that Ofwarren is Janine, whom Offred disdains and thinks of as a “whiny bitch.” Women must give birth without painkillers or... (full context)

Offred imagines how the Wives talk about the Handmaids. One might say that a Handmaid is... (full context)

Offred sees the fancy birth day buffet laid out for the Wives, including wine and oranges.... (full context)

Offred has another flashback to the Rachel and Leah Center. She remembers the weekly movie time,... (full context)

...one film of the Unwomen that Aunt Lydia shows at the Rachel and Leah Center, Offred sees her mother at a feminist rally. Offred has a further flashback, to her mother... (full context)

Offred remembers how her lively mother would come over to dinner with her and Luke and... (full context)

Offred feels that her mother put a burden on her to justify her mother’s choices and... (full context)

...juice to each other and manage to whisper to each other as they do so. Offred asks the Handmaid next to her if she knows Moira, but she doesn’t. Offred, too,... (full context)

...walks around distractedly, and poops in a portable toilet in the middle of the room. Offred knows this is her second baby. Their juice had alcohol in it, which the Wives... (full context)

...baby, a girl, seems to be healthy and normal, and the Handmaids smile as one. Offred remembers her and Luke’s joy when she gave birth to her daughter. (full context)

The Birthmobile brings the Handmaids back home. Offred feels fake milk in her breasts. Offred ponders her own lack of success. She thinks... (full context)

After the Birth, Offred goes to her room, exhausted. Today the plaster wreath around the plaster eye in her... (full context)

Offred flashbacks to Moira’s great escape from the Rachel and Leah Center. (This escape was Moira’s... (full context)

Offred imagines that Aunt Lydia told Janine to find out if Moira had an accomplice. Janine... (full context)

Back in the present time, Offred muses about how all of her memories are “reconstructions.” If she ever manages to escape... (full context)

Offred backs up into an explanatory flashback. Still on the day that Janine gave birth, Offred... (full context)

At nine pm, Offred goes to meet the Commander in his office, as Nick previously instructed her. Offred is... (full context)

...Commander has posed himself impressively in front of the fireplace. When he says hello to Offred, she feels she might cry. The Commander is friendly and sits across from her, showing... (full context)

Offred finds this hysterical, but she keeps herself expressionless. She understands that this once innocent game... (full context)

At the end, the Commander thanks Offred and asks her to kiss him. Offred considers following Moira’s lead and making a weapon... (full context)

Offred goes back to bed, trying to get some perspective. We learn for the first time... (full context)

Offred remembers a documentary about World War II that she saw as a child. Her mother... (full context)

All of a sudden, Offred starts laughing uncontrollably. She desperately tries to be quiet, hiding herself in the closet, her... (full context)

Offred wakes suddenly when Cora drops the breakfast tray. She’d fallen asleep in the closet, which... (full context)

...May, and now it’s summertime, and the tulips are gone. Returning from a grocery trip, Offred sees Serena Joy cutting off the tulips’ seed pods, destroying the fruit to make next... (full context)

Offred thinks more about the garden, the irises and bleeding hearts that seem so feminine and... (full context)

Offred and the Commander continue to meet in secret, when Nick signals, either by polishing the... (full context)

At first Offred found the Commander’s requests funny and anticlimactic, compared to the sexual perversions she’d expected. At... (full context)

At first, Offred turned down the Vogue, but the Commander said that she was allowed to read it.... (full context)

Offred asked why the Commander had saved a magazine that should have been burned, and the... (full context)

At their third meeting, Offred requested lotion. The Commander laughed at the fact that she’d been using butter, and she... (full context)

Offred found the next Ceremony awkward in a new way. Before, she and probably the Commander... (full context)

Offred remembers Aunt Lydia talking about future generations, when the population will rebound and there will... (full context)

Offred feels that she’s become a traditional-type mistress to the Commander. She thinks that maybe Serena... (full context)

Offred and Ofglen go shopping on a hot summer day. They pass the fish store, and... (full context)

Offred and Ofglen have become more familiar, and Ofglen is slightly more outgoing. The Wall is... (full context)

...paper, in an entirely automated process. In the window glass, Ofglen makes eye contact with Offred. Ofglen wonders in a whisper to Offred if God cares about the prayers, a dangerous... (full context)

Offred and Ofglen continue to talk. Ofglen seems knowledgeable about where and how it’s safe to... (full context)

Offred and Ofglen fearfully watch the approach of a black van with the winged eye symbol... (full context)

Offred sits at the window of her room, still excited about her encounter with Ofglen. She’s... (full context)

Offred delves into a specific memory of talking to Moira in Offred’s kitchen. Offred worked at... (full context)

Later, Offred moved to a better apartment for two years until Luke got his divorce. She worked... (full context)

Offred thinks that the lack of paper money made it easier for the Gilead authorities to... (full context)

...on Wheels vans.” Generally people accepted these measures, feeling safe. But one September day, when Offred and Luke had been married for years and their daughter was three or four, Offred... (full context)

Later that day, Offred’s boss at the library, seeming unbalanced and distracted, fired her and all the other female... (full context)

Offred returned home, restless and nervous. She managed to reach Moira, who had been working for... (full context)

Offred picked up her daughter, and Luke came home. He tried to comfort Offred by saying... (full context)

...There were also some bombings, but maybe the army set them off too. Luke encouraged Offred not to go protest, and she didn’t, and became a stay-at-home housewife. Offred and others... (full context)

Offred goes into a further-back memory, from when she was a teenager. She remembered her mother... (full context)

Back in the present time, Offred watches Nick go out into the garden, and admires his body. She sees his hat... (full context)

Offred remembers back to the day she lost her job, when Luke wanted to have sex... (full context)

Offred plays Scrabble in the Commander’s office, at ease in her chair, perfecting the scene by... (full context)

The Commander says it’s only joke Latin, from his schoolboy days. He shows Offred an old textbook with different Latin jokes, and explains that the phrase means “Don’t let... (full context)

Offred simply asks what became of “her,” and the Commander knows what she’s asking. He says... (full context)

Offred realizes that the Commander has been spending time with her to raise her spirits, so... (full context)

It’s a very hot July, and Offred feels listless and stiff, like an old woman. She wishes she could have a petty... (full context)

Offred and Ofglen go shopping. There are two dead bodies on the Wall, killed for belonging... (full context)

Ofglen says the Eyes now eat at the hall. She tells Offred about the Resistance movement’s password, “Mayday,” which Ofglen had once tried saying to Offred. The... (full context)

Serena Joy sits knitting in the garden, and calls to Offred as she walks by. Serena Joy asks Offred to hold her wool, explaining that Offred... (full context)

Serena Joy tells Offred that she’s running out of time for a baby, and then daringly suggests that perhaps... (full context)

Offred asks about the Commander, and Serena Joy says it’ll be a secret. Offred says it’s... (full context)

Offred gives Rita the groceries and asks for a match. Rita is annoyed, but won’t disobey... (full context)

Offred flashes back to the previous night. The Commander drinks in front of her and then... (full context)

The Commander asks for Offred’s opinion on what the Gilead has done. Offred says she has no opinion, but lets... (full context)

Offred and Ofglen walk to the Women’s Prayvaganza, and Offred is aware of how pleasantly identical... (full context)

...a new Wife, because the baby girl turned out to be “a shredder.” Ofglen tells Offred that Janine had sex with a doctor for the baby, and now she thinks that... (full context)

Offred goes into a flashback from the Rachel and Leah Center. Janine sat on the bed... (full context)

Back in the present day, the Commander in charge of the Prayvaganza enters, and Offred imagines him having sex with his Handmaid. The Commander gives a speech, and then twenty... (full context)

Offred flashes back to an evening with the Commander, when he explained that Gilead actually made... (full context)

Back at the Prayvaganza, Offred thinks about the women usually celebrate weddings, and the men celebrate military victories. But some... (full context)

...Angels lift off their new brides’ veils, to see their faces for the first time. Offred imagines advice to the young brides in dealing with the boring sex to come. (full context)

Offred goes into a Rachel and Leah Center flashback. She remembers Aunt Lydia explaining that the... (full context)

After the Prayvaganza, Ofglen whispers to Offred that she knows about Offred’s secret meetings with the Commander. Ofglen is curious if they’re... (full context)

Back in her room, Offred goes back into the flashback of her family’s failed attempt to cross the Canadian border.... (full context)

Offred breaks off there, and addresses her audience directly, saying that she doesn’t want to tell... (full context)

Offred thinks about her conversation with the Commander about love, then muses more generally about falling... (full context)

Finally someone knocks at Offred’s door, but it’s Serena Joy with a photo, not Cora with dinner. Offred examines the... (full context)

At night, Offred goes to see the Commander, who seems already drunk. He says he has a surprise... (full context)

Nick drives Offred and the Commander. Offred can’t tell what Nick thinks of all this, and imagines the... (full context)

Offred and the Commander enter the courtyard of what used to be a hotel. There are... (full context)

The Commander and Offred sit down, and he asks her opinion on “our little club.” Offred says she thought... (full context)

The Commander tells Offred that the men are high-ranking officials and foreign businessmen, and the women are some former... (full context)

As Offred waits for her drink, she sees Moira across the room, wearing a slutty and disheveled... (full context)

An Aunt with a cattle prod tells Offred she has fifteen minutes. Offred enters a ladies’ lounge, with has a mirror, unlike at... (full context)

Moira tells Offred her story over two bathroom trips, and Offred tries to tell it to her audience... (full context)

...four years before her “snatch wears out,” and she can have alcohol and drugs. Here Offred interjects, shocked at Moira’s listlessness. She’s lost her essential spark and bravery, and Offred feels... (full context)

Offred wishes she could tell her audience a story about Moira managing to escape or blowing... (full context)

The Commander brings Offred up to a hotel room at Jezebel’s. Offred uses the bathroom and flashes back to... (full context)

Offred spoke to the superintendent of her mother’s apartment, and then Luke drove her over to... (full context)

Offred remembers how, during college, Moira said she thought Offred’s mother was “neat” and even “cute.”... (full context)

Back at the hotel, Offred looks in the mirror at her messy, garish outfit. Tomorrow’s the Ceremony, so she must... (full context)

Offred lies in her hot bedroom, dressed again in her red robe. The searchlights are off,... (full context)

Nick’s room is unadorned and military-seeming. He smokes a cigarette and Offred wants to get naked to enjoy the smoke. He turns out the light and takes... (full context)

Offred backs up, saying “I made that up.” She gives us the real version of events.... (full context)

Offred says it wasn’t like that either, that she can only hope to make a reconstruction... (full context)

Offred wishes her story made her seem better, “more active, less hesitant,” and wishes it had... (full context)

Offred describes how she started to spend a lot of time with Nick, without Serena Joy’s... (full context)

On shopping trips, Ofglen encourages Offred to find out whatever she can and look through the Commander’s papers. But Offred barely... (full context)

...main library, where graduations used to take place. Now there’s a stage with three nooses. Offred only attended a Women’s Salvaging once before, two years ago. Two Handmaids and one Wife... (full context)

Aunt Lydia comes onto the stage and Offred hates her. She gives a speech about duty, and then announces that she will not... (full context)

The Salvagers prepare to hang Ofcharles, and someone behind Offred, maybe Janine, according to Ofglen, seems to vomit. As the women is hanged, the Handmaids... (full context)

Offred notices how the three hanged women look like dancers in the air. Aunt Lydia tells... (full context)

...She says he raped two Handmaids, one of whom was pregnant and whose baby died. Offred feels overwhelmed with anger. Aunt Lydia blows the whistle, but the Handmaids wait, watching his... (full context)

Offred yells at Ofglen for her actions, and Ofglen whispers to Offred that the man wasn’t... (full context)

Offred goes shopping. The Ofglen who accompanies her isn’t the same one as before. Offred asks... (full context)

The new Ofglen does not respond well and warns Offred off of saying such things. Offred becomes frightened and paranoid. But right when they part... (full context)

Offred is relieved that the old Ofglen killed herself before torture, which means that Offred’s secrets... (full context)

Serena Joy comes angrily out of the house, and Offred knows she’s in trouble for something, though she doesn’t know what. Serena Joy shows her... (full context)

Offred waits in her room, uncertain what her punishment will be. She imagines how she could... (full context)

Offred stands, maybe planning to do something, and sees that a black van with the winged... (full context)

...Joy and the Commander look surprised. They didn’t call the Eyes. Serena Joy asks what Offred did, and they don’t say. The Commander asks for a warrant, and they say they... (full context)

The two Eyes help Offred get into the van. She knows she can’t do anything else, and so she enters... (full context)

...ways that they tried to find more evidence relating to the story. He describes how Offred became a Handmaid because she’d had a relationship with a married man. He talks about... (full context)

...Waterford seems to be more likely to be the Commander. The authorities killed him after Offred’s departure, for owning banned magazines and books and for hosting a rebel, probably Nick. Nick... (full context)

Professor Pieixoto wonders what happened to Offred. Maybe she made it to Canada and then England, which was safest. Maybe she was... (full context)

Professor Pieixoto closes with some poetic musings on the past, calling Offred’s narrative “in its own way eloquent,” and talking about the difficulties of understanding messages from... (full context)

Offred sits by the window at night. She sees Nick in the garden, and he sees... (full context)

Offred remembers the night before her escape attempt with Luke and their daughter. They couldn’t pack... (full context)

Offred remembers saying bedtime prayers at the Rachel and Leah Center, when Aunt Lydia would adjust... (full context)

In the current time, Offred prays out the window. She acknowledges that God probably didn’t want all this, and hopes... (full context)

Everything you needfor every book you read.

Everything you need for every book you read.

Everything you need for every book you read.

Offred Character Analysis

Offred Quotes in The Handmaid’s Tale

Offred Character Timeline in The Handmaid’s Tale

Everything you need
for every book you read.