What's Love?

While reading “The Handmaid’s Tale” Written by Margaret Atwood, I was specifically intrigued by a certain passage in the book. This specific section runs from page 225-227 and it is a scene where Offred, the main character, speaks on love and how she experienced it. This particular section sparked my interest because of the lack of love throughout Gilead. Yeah the wives “love” their Commanders, but for the most part, it seems as though the Commanders don’t necessarily love their wives according to Offred’s perspective on love, and my personal perspective on the concept of love. Offred’s commander, also known as Serena Joy’s husband has been secretly having Offred come and visit him, and he’d ask Offred for kisses, and indirectly ask for sexual relations with Offred. The commander stole Serena Joy’s costumes and makeup, and used them for Offred, to show her off at a nightclub earlier on in the book. In the specific section I chose to examine, the commander originally suggests that they speak about love, something that is somewhat “forbidden” in the world of Gilead. When reading, I thought it was strange. Why is the Commander speaking on a forbidden subject? Offred goes on to explain that she in fact enjoys speaking about love, because of her “experience” with love. On 225 she states “That’s better. That’s something I know about. We can talk about that.” This quote is suggesting that she loved before she became a handmaid. Throughout the novel Offred speaks a lot about a man named Luke. They were a couple, and they had a child together. She enjoys reminiscing about Luke and their good memories, but when it becomes bad memories, she seems to not enjoy that. Just like she analyzes her past memories and experiences with Luke, she analyzes the idea of love. Also on 225 Atwood writes, “Falling in love. I said. Falling into it, we all did then, one way or another…It was the central thing.; it was the way you understood yourself; If it never happened to you, not ever, you would be like a mutant, a creature from outer space. Everyone knew that.” When analyzing this quote it made me realize that in the world of Gilead, before the government shut down and everything changed, love was normalized. Everyone was either in love, or had loved before, and if you weren’t in love, you were inhumane. She then goes on to note that falling for “him” was so “dire, extreme and unlikely.” Those three important words suggest that maybe REAL love was hard to find, but fake love just to “fit in” or “look the part” was the love that everyone was experiencing. When reading The Handmaid’s Tale, it’s hard to miss the religious aspects of the story. Offred states that “God is Love.” This represents the power that love holds on people. Offred was a hard lover in her past life because of the things she did to protect herself and her family. Pre- Gilead times, Offred, Luke and their daughter were trying to escape and Offred gave her daughter sleeping medication, so they’d have a better chance at saving themselves when crossing the border. On page 84, in chapter 14 Atwood wrote “ And I don’t want her to feel frightened, to feel the fear that’s now tightening my muscles, tensing my spine, pulling me so taut that I’m certain I would break if touched.” This is a scene where we can tell Offred is trying to protect her loved ones, and that her love for Luke, and her daughter was so strong. On page 226 through 227, Offred describes the three different scenarios of love. The type that comes and goes and is hard to remember, the act of falling in love, and abusive love. Offred states “you’d wake up in the middle of the night, when the moonlight was coming through the window onto his sleeping face… Likely you would think at those times: What if he doesn’t love me.”(226). Offred categorizes love because these are the ways she’s experienced love. Through this quote you can see that she has a lot of thoughts at night, just like throughout the novel, Offred would have her worst inner thoughts at nighttime. She tells herself not to believe the negative thoughts. He is in fact in love with you, she forced herself to believe. But maybe this isn’t true. On page 144, Aunt Lydia said “Men are sex machines. They only want one thing. You must learn to manipulate them, for your own good.” Is “your own good” love? The feeling of love? From reading this passage I can infer that women love to feel love, and love to be in love, even if that means sacrificing things like your emotional health? On 226 Offred says, “But all of that[the inner thoughts] was pertinent only in the night, and had nothing to do with the man you loved, at least in daylight. With that man you want it to work, to work out.” Offred was saying that the thoughts go away during the day because people want this idea of love to work out. Even if your thoughts are right. Even if the love isn’t there. Overall when reading this section, it made me see that in the world of Gilead, love is depicted differently, and from reading I could see just how complicated love is, and there is no real answer to the famous question of “What’s love?”