The Hypocrisy of Serena Joy

“You can get up now,” she says. “Get up and get out.” She’s supposed to have me rest, for ten minutes, with my feet on a pillow to improve the chances … I untangled myself from her body, stand up; the juice of the commander runs down my legs. (pg 95)
“Pick up that disgusting thing and get to your room.Just like the other one. A slut. You’ll end up the same.” (pg 287)



Throughout the book, Offred talks about Serena Joy and the fact that she wants a baby. If Serena Joy wanted a baby so badly and was willing to do whatever it took. She asked Offred to sleep with Nick to give her a better chance at conceiving, even saying herself that her husband, the Commander, could be sterile.

If Serena Joy wanted a baby that badly, to break the laws and ask her to sleep with someone that wasn’t the commander, why would she make it almost impossible for her to get pregnant? During the ceremony with the Commander, after the ceremony had ended, instead of having Offred sit and rest like she was supposed to, she had Offred immediately get up and leave, getting rid of the chances of Offred getting pregnant as the “juice of the commander” ran down her leg.
Serena Joy then later called Offred a slut for meeting with the Commander even though she only slept with the Commander once, and she didn’t even want to do it. If Serena was angry enough to yell at Offred for breaking the rules to see the Commander, you’d think she wouldn’t want to break the rules to let Offred sleep with Nick. Maybe the intimacy that grew between Offred and the Commander could have psychologically helped Offred get ready t have a baby with the Commander.

I just find it very confusing that Serena Joy would say she was willing to do anything to have Offred get pregnant so that she could have the baby, but do things like making Offred leave immediately after the ceremony and do almost anything she could to make it impossible for Offred to get pregnant by him.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 27, 2017 at 9:38 AM

    The way Serena Joy treats Offred throughout the story drove me nuts too! She was definitely my least favorites character in the book. However, I think it is also important to realize she is being oppressed to. Before Gilead, Serena Joy had an ideal life. She was a famous singer and high up in society. It is probably tough for her to conceptualize that she no longer has the same chances of leading this happy life. Instead she has to surrender her husband to someone else, and give this other person the role of bearing what would be her children.

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