1. Characterisation The Commander, Serena Joy and Nick and Luke

2. THE COMMANDER The Commander is a powerful figure throughout the Gilidean government. He has all power over Offred. Although the Commander is powerful figure in the Gilidean society, he breaks the social structure of things by allowing Offred to come into his office alone at night to play Scrabble. The Commander is dissatisfied about the marriage he has with Serena Joy and the role he has in the Gilidean Society but doesnt not want to resign from his role from fear of the consequences. The Commander is an important character as he gives us the only little bit of information that we learn about this society and how it was formed. In his visits with Offred, he explains to her and gives her some information about this. Even though he helped to create this society and is high up in the Gilidean government, he doesn't like living in this life, we see this as he has secret confiscated items such as magazines in his room which he is kept from the old life, which he regularly uses.

3. SERENA JOY Serena Joy is the Commander's Wife and does not like Offred very much so there is jelousy between them but will do things for her to get what she wants. She is one of the more powerful women in the society. In the past life she was a promotional speaker, her speeches were about the sanctity of the home, about how women should stay home. Serena Joy didn't do this herself, she made speeches instead, but she presented this failure of hers as a sacrifice she was making for the good of all. Serena Joy is an interesting character in the novel, she has an interesting relationship with Offred. She despises her in that she is their handmaid, but also tries to "help" Offred get pregnant by having sex with Nick, but Serena Joy does this also to benefit herself in that she gets to raise the baby, and have one of her own. Serena Joy is a selfish and cruel woman, who has the power to control other woman in the Gilidean society. "She is a cruel, selfish woman, and Atwood implies that such women are the glue that binds Gilead." Serena Joy is the kind of woman that helps a society like this to grow.

4. NICK - Nick is a representation of Offred going against Gileads rules and regulations but there is irony because it is the Commanders Wife that tells her to have sex with the driver, Nick to get her pregnant, as she trys to save herself from being shipped to the colonies. - He is presented as the central figure of Offred's romantic fantasy, as he is the mysterious stranger that seems to always have his eye on Offred, who saves her through love. - Nick has also been placed in Offred's real world, as the Commander's driver and the Commander's wifes gardener. - Nick is an important character as he lets us in on some information about the resistance called the Mayday. - Offred seems to feel something for Nick, as they both start to create a kind of normal like relationship, I believe that this helps Offred in order to get through the society of Gilead and helps her to regain her hope in setting free. Nick is Offred's freedom. "I want to see what can be seen, of,him, take him in memorize him, save him upso i can live on the image,later: the lines of his body, the texture of his flesh, the glisten of sweat of pelt, his long sardonic unrevealing face. I ought to have done that with Luke, paid more attention, to details, the moles and scars, the singular creases; I did'nt and he's fading. Day by day, night by night he recedes, and i become more faithless" - l believe that the character Nick becomes a replacement of Luke, with the memories Offred shares with us, the reader.

5. LUKE - Luke was Offred's husband in her former life. Offred constantly had thoughts about Luke and the life she lived with him in her life before these times. In the beggining of the novel, Offred, Luke and their daughter try to leave the country to Canada, but are capturedby the government. - Everytime Offred walks passed the Wall, she expects to see Luke hanging from it, but never sees him on it and never succeds in knowing his fate. - As Luke was Offred's husband, he seems dead to us simply because he is merely only a distant memory, as he fades away as Offred begins a love affair with Nick. - Luke is important, as he shows us her changes of thought and how her thinking develops throughout her time in the society. - Luke was married before he got married to Offred, so there is an ironic parallel between him and the Commander. - Offred remembers the hotel that her and Luke used to run away to, which is the same hotel where the Commander takes her, now called Jezebel's. - Luke is in Offred's recurring nightmare of when they attepmted to escape over the border, as her last image of him is him lying face down in the snow after being shot. In her after life Offred continuously wounder's if he is still alive, where he is, did he escape or did he end up in prison. It is the hope that Offred carrys in order to keep the image of her former husband.