Handmaid #2: Who was it worse for?

Ross Schonberg

Ms. Gubanich

English

April 22, 2016

Who was it worse for

In the book, The Handmaid’s Tale, the story revolves around one character, named Offred. As the we get more into the story we learn that she has been forced to live as a Handmaid, in a new society. The is one part in the book, chapter sixteen, on page 95, that illustrates what her purpose in this world is. While reading this part there is a quote said by Offred, which is “who was it worse for, her or me?”. this is meant to delve deeper into some of the characters perspectives, and we will solve who the “her” is and which of them it was worse for.

First, In the new society Offred is basically a procreating servant, who sole purpose is to make children. Than as we are getting to the part when Offred says her quote, it appears that she is with the commander and his wife, and they are reading the bible. The commander was reading from the book of Genesis, more specifically, the part about Rachel and Leah, and how Rachel was infertile, so her husband had to have sex with their maid in order for them to have a child. This is setting up for a parallel between what’s happening in the bible and what is going to happen in the story. After the commander has read from the book the commander’s wife, Serena Joy, is said to be infertile, therefore can’t have children. The commander decides to have sex with Offred, in the hopes of getting her pregnant. So they have sex and afterwards Offred is with Serena, who is grabbing Offred very tightly, to the point where it kind of hurts. Serena let's go and then Offred says “who was it worse for, her or me?”.

In my opinion, I would say that it was worse for Offred. It was worse for Offred because she is being forced to submit her body to sex. Also, the sex is solely for procreation, not for love and passion, and Offred doesn’t even get to keep the child, since the commander and his wife will take the child. On the other side of the spectrum, In Serena Joy’s case, it really wasn’t that bad for her, this, in a way, was kind of what she was hoping for. Even though she wishes that it was her having sex with the commander, which is probably why she grabbed Offred so hard after the sex had happened, she is unable to have children, so she wanted Offred to have sex with him, which would allow her to have a child. Serena joy is selfish and was using Offred and she only seems to care about having child. So it seems very clear that this was much worse for offred. When you really think about it both women have it bad. Offred is forced to have and bare a child, and Serena truly wants to have child, but will never get to experience of having her own (biological) child.

In Conclusion, this part of the book, definitely shows how all women have to struggle with this new society and that even people as high as being a commander's wife, or as low as a Handmaid, can still have troubles. In these chapters we also get a better feel for the characters and how they act in situations, and what people's true goals and purposes are. So even though I believe that Offred did get the worse of it, both Offred and Serena didn’t walk away clean and happy.