A meaningful life is the thing that a wide swath of people are seeking after all through their entire lives, amid which time and opportunity are imperative while confronting with issues including family. It is the critical events in a person’s life that enable them to think back and consider what they have done up to this point, thusly taking into consideration the chance to change the way that one perspectives their life with the goal that they may control their own particular destiny. In the story, ” The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, readers should discover that the association amongst time and opportunity is of particular significance, displaying just when individuals grab the fleeting opportunity in a timely way, the time which is somewhat fair-minded for us which will result in a valuable and meaningful life. Before the republic changed to a breeding factory, Offered lived a basic life as a wife and mother, taking for granted the freedom she was given. Now she has had every last bit of her freedom taken away and gradually loses hope that she will see her family, that she has been isolated from, ever again.
Nevertheless, Offred has clear recollections of what her life used to resemble. In flashbacks she reviews scenes of the circumstances that have passed by. Offred’s life in the Republic afflicts her, however regardless she feels hope surviving, the expectation of getting away one day and finding Luke and her little girl. She feels motivated by characters like Moira, her defiant best friend from the times before who never gave up attempting to get escape- and finally did. Ofglen is also an example of existing resistance and every Salvaging or Birth Day offers Offered another possibility to find something out about Luke’s fate, or her daughter’s. It’s these little bits of achievement in Offred that gives her hope and influences her life to appear to be more valuable. Now and again, Offred appears to leave and acknowledge the Republic’s standards. It is as Aunt Lydia anticipated: “ It will become ordinary” (page 43).
Although the freedom to chose another life is what would have given Offered the possibility to avoid her situation, she now admits that, “ It’s the choice that terrifies her. A way out, a Salvation” (page 71). Offred’s recollections are a path for her to get away from a society loaded with hopelessness. The authoritarian society of Gilead keeps her from being free, so Offred frequently accounts the time spent with her family and friends, and the independence she had prior to the regime. These memories frequently appear during the night when she is separated from everyone else in her room, “ But the night is my time out. Where should I go”? (page 475). Her memories provide her with momentary relief from her hopeless situation. She sees her mental escapes as a form of rebellion, in a society where everything has been detracted from her, yet no one can take away her memories.
Atwood uses memory flashbacks to enable readers to pick up a more profound understanding of how awful Offred’s circumstance really are. Night is also a time where she craves for human contact, the need to feel the affection and warmth of someone else, she remarks, “ If I thought this would never happen again I think I would die.” (page 113) highlighting her need for emotional and sexual contact. The possibility of freedom also exists in an everyday household staple, squares of butter. The narrator and different Handmaids use it as an odd alternative for lotion to keep their skin soft, trusting that one day they will escape Gilead and feel the touch and warmth of another person, “ In love or desire” (page 107). One of the things that Offred is told to do by Serena is to have sex with a guardian, Nick.
“ Nick seeks illegitimate paternity through acts of intercourse with Offred” (Cooper 56). This is something they are not supposed to do but when Serena encourages it they feel like it is only right to listen to her. As a wife they probably do this to the handmaids to make sure they do not fall in love with one’s husband. Taking her advice they form a hidden relationship. Offred desires to have a child with Nick but as this thought goes through her head she is thinking about starting a family. The last thing that she wants is to give her child up to Serena.
Eventually, this relationship destroys Offred because she still wants Luke, her previous husband. One night Offred thinks to herself, “ I want Luke her so badly. I want to be held and told my name. I want to be valued, in ways that I am not; I want to be more than valuable” (page 97).
If life were to go back to normal and she saw Luke again, would he even take her back after everything she has gone through? He isn’t the only man she’s been with now. Perhaps she would still be thinking about Nick and how it was with him. That would mess up the emotions in the relationship because it wouldn’t be the way that they remembered it. However, If society were to continue on the path that it shows that it’s already on, there would be no relationships.
Everybody would be left single and just sleeping around in order to get children to make the community grow. With everybody separating and giving up their children to be raised by someone else, the town would fall apart. One needs a relationship to make a more meaningful life, distracting them from the harsh reality that they are living in. If individuals search the suitable opportunity to exchange ideas in proper time, the mutual understanding can lay the solid foundation to meaningful life. On the contrary, once individuals fail to take risks for an evanescent opportunity, the time will be flavorless and the possibility of possessing meaningful life will be reduced. The Handmaid’s Tale, a book by Margaret Atwood, show us that the passage of time can give individuals the resources they need in order to live a meaningful life. Nick gave her Offred the comfort and the security that she needed, and at the end nothing done to her by the commander or his wife mattered to her. Living in the Republic of Gilead will always be a memory that she will probably try to forget, but by taking the risk of having a real relationship, she was distracted from the society and had a way to cope to live a more meaningful life.
