the handmaid's tale: How far do you agree that Margaret Atwood makes resistance central to THT?

« How far do you agree that Margaret Atwood makes resistance central to THT? I - Atwood demonstrates that resistance is a source of hope II - However, Atwood shows that resistance, particularly active resistance, succumbs to the ??? Firstly, Offred is quite passive : Examples Indeed, it is why she lives vicariously through other characters as seen before.

However, even then, they lose their will to resist or it leads them to their downfall. Firstly, Moira is the free-spirited and rebellious character in the novel.

She is what the Gilead regime despises since she is a lesbian, so she does not fit in the heteronormative relationships that this regime values. Moira is also a character that represents hope and rebellion since she escapes twice from the Red Centre. The first time she fails, but it does not discourage her since she succeeds the second time.

It shows that she stands up against the authoritarian regime even if it is by herself.

However, at the end of the novel she seems to have lost hope, she is worn down by Gilead.

Indeed, she sees at Jezebel, a brothel, where she is a prostitute.

She is wearing an absurd outfit, one of a Bunny Girl.

She is “dressed absurdly” in an outfit that distorts her breasts, wearing misshapen rabbit ears, wearing “clownish makeup” which distorts her face making her eyes “too big, “too dark and shimmering, their mouths too red, too wet”.

It is grotesque.

It is a moment of horror and sadness.

Moira, the once rebellious character, is now at the service of men’s pleasure.

Offred saw Moira as a true rebel who would never give up fighting against Gilead.

She realises that women even as tough as Moira can be crushed by the totalitarian State. Ofglen meets a similar fate as Moira.

Indeed, even though hers is much more brutal, she also is silenced. At first, she is seen by Offred almost as an automat like she is hiding something, “as if she’s voice-activated, as if she’s on little oiled wheels.” Her suspicions were right since Ofglen reveals to her that she is a part of a resistance movement called “Mayday”, “It’s a beautiful May day.” She is a rebel and a fighter.

However, this movement needs to be discrete.

Indeed, before the Particicution begins, she identifies the alleged rapist as “one of ours’” and then proceeds to knock him out in order to silence him and so that he does not have to endure the horrible Particicution.

Furthermore, Ofglen commits suicide when she sees a black van presumed to be one the Red eyes’ so that she will not betray her friends under torture.

Even though she dies a fighter, her voice is silenced which is emphasised by her replacement.

She is replaced by the “new treacherous Ofglen”.

It shows that she has already been forgotten. Another example of an active resistance is Offred’s mother.

Indeed, before Gilead, she was an active feminist who took part in the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s.

However, when Gilead took over, she disappeared.

Offred finds out that she has been sent to the colonies and is now an. »