How is Moira presented in The Handmaids Tale and what is her significance in the novel
How is Moira presented and what is her significance in the novel? The creation of all the characters in the novel is intentional. ... ’ It is the characters that make the story so disturbing, because without being able to relate and understand them, the novel would just be too unbelievable. ... Atwood chooses an average women, Offred, appreciative of past times, who lacks imagination and fervour, to contrast the typical feminist, represented in this novel by her best friend, Moira. Moira is seen to be the outcast, the rebel. ... Offred is a ‘handmaid’, Cora and Rita are ‘Martha’s’ etc, but Moira refuses to fit into a niche. ... Moira was the original one-eyed chicken in the kingdom of the blind; at least she admitted the world made her sick. ... Moira gave the other handmaid’s courage. This is made obvious in chapter 22 when Offred says ‘ in the light of Moira, the Aunts were less fearsome and more absurd.’ Moira is Offred’s rebellious, bisexual friend who she has known since college, before Gilead. In the novel, Moira is sent to the Red Center along with Offred. ... It would seem that the main purpose of Moira in the novel is to provide a comparison between her and the other handmaid’s. ... Atwood wrote The Handmaids Tale in an attempt to illustrate the logical extension of anti-feminists statements such as "it is every mans right to rule supreme at home" and "a womans place is in the home." The Handmaids Tale is often described as a feminist dystopia (negative utopia) because it is set within an imperfect society of the future, and addresses the misogyny of patriarchal culture.