Atwood’s use of irony in The Handmaids Tale explores the use of satirical nature through themes, characters and scenes in the novel.
A pure yet strong emotion such as love is manipulated into something bizarre to the
human mind, stripping those their innocence and a pure sense of love. A love that is so pure
between a Commander and his wife is destroyed when she lacks what the handmaid has, which
is fertility. “It has nothing to do with passion or love or any of those other notions we used to
titillate ourselves with” (Atwood, 94). The Ceremony, as Offred describes cannot be lovemaking,
since the normal qualities of love, arousal and orgasm are not present but replaced with mechanical minds. There is irony to the …show more content…
“He was
once a Guardian. He disgraced his uniform. He has abused his position of trust. (...)The penalty
for rape, as you know is death. Deuteronomy 22:23-29” (278-279). The irony of such a situation
is that a Commander commits the same type of actions with multiple handmaids, once a month
during the Ceremony, he gets away with it since it is morally right according to Gilead laws.
After going through the Ceremony. Offred loses her idea of love where love and what it means to
be falling in love with a woman. “Falling in love, we said; I fell for him. We were falling women.
We believed in it, this downward motion: so lovely like flying and yet at the same times so dire,
so extreme, so unlikely” (225). Offred criticizes the mainstream idea of falling in love, since if
falling is seen as a downward motion, then love itself would be looked down on for and seen
negatively but in reality, the pure feeling of love makes a person happier as without it, a person
would be seen as a robot. Where love becomes perverted is where it loses an innocent mind
having a definition of pure love and being in love, as well as sexual pleasures performed …show more content…
The purpose of Offred being a handmaid is only bearing children, however, the Commander sees her as more than that, taking risks to see her at
night.“My presence here is illegal.(...) We are for breeding purposes: we aren’t concubines,
geisha girls, courtesans.” (136). By law, the two are never to be alone but authority gives the
Commander a passageway to see Offred as night anyways. The friendship that the Commander
and Offred develop through their secret meetings introduces an awkward situation during the
Ceremony. “He reached his hand up as if to touch my face; I moved my head to the side, to warn
him away, hoping Serena Joy hadn’t noticed” (162). There is a high level of risk if the
Commander and Offred were caught being more than what they were supposed to be in the
The ceremony, since the future of Offred, could be tarnished.The Commander is unable to find
the passion with his wife and makes risky approaches to impress Offred by taking her to the club“I
know without being told that what he’s promoting is risky, for him but especially for me; but I
want to go anyway. I want anything that break the monotony, subverts the
A pure yet strong emotion such as love is manipulated into something bizarre to the
human mind, stripping those their innocence and a pure sense of love. A love that is so pure
between a Commander and his wife is destroyed when she lacks what the handmaid has, which
is fertility. “It has nothing to do with passion or love or any of those other notions we used to
titillate ourselves with” (Atwood, 94). The Ceremony, as Offred describes cannot be lovemaking,
since the normal qualities of love, arousal and orgasm are not present but replaced with mechanical minds. There is irony to the …show more content…
“He was
once a Guardian. He disgraced his uniform. He has abused his position of trust. (...)The penalty
for rape, as you know is death. Deuteronomy 22:23-29” (278-279). The irony of such a situation
is that a Commander commits the same type of actions with multiple handmaids, once a month
during the Ceremony, he gets away with it since it is morally right according to Gilead laws.
After going through the Ceremony. Offred loses her idea of love where love and what it means to
be falling in love with a woman. “Falling in love, we said; I fell for him. We were falling women.
We believed in it, this downward motion: so lovely like flying and yet at the same times so dire,
so extreme, so unlikely” (225). Offred criticizes the mainstream idea of falling in love, since if
falling is seen as a downward motion, then love itself would be looked down on for and seen
negatively but in reality, the pure feeling of love makes a person happier as without it, a person
would be seen as a robot. Where love becomes perverted is where it loses an innocent mind
having a definition of pure love and being in love, as well as sexual pleasures performed …show more content…
The purpose of Offred being a handmaid is only bearing children, however, the Commander sees her as more than that, taking risks to see her at
night.“My presence here is illegal.(...) We are for breeding purposes: we aren’t concubines,
geisha girls, courtesans.” (136). By law, the two are never to be alone but authority gives the
Commander a passageway to see Offred as night anyways. The friendship that the Commander
and Offred develop through their secret meetings introduces an awkward situation during the
Ceremony. “He reached his hand up as if to touch my face; I moved my head to the side, to warn
him away, hoping Serena Joy hadn’t noticed” (162). There is a high level of risk if the
Commander and Offred were caught being more than what they were supposed to be in the
The ceremony, since the future of Offred, could be tarnished.The Commander is unable to find
the passion with his wife and makes risky approaches to impress Offred by taking her to the club“I
know without being told that what he’s promoting is risky, for him but especially for me; but I
want to go anyway. I want anything that break the monotony, subverts the