WOMEN AS THE VICTIMS PORTRAYED IN "THE HANDMAID'S TALE" BY MARGARET ATWOOD (Pages 263-272) by Ms. Shobiyaa. V* and Dr. K. Srinivasan** in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

Atwood who is famous for depicting themes of betrayal and treachery through the creation of strong victimized women characters, produces a vivid set of possibilities with the women of The Handmaid's Tale. Clustered about Janine and the other breeders is the pecking order of Gilead womanhood: Wives, Daughters, Aunts, Marthas, Econowives, and Unwomen. Serena Joy is a composite drawn from Mirabel Morgan, Tammy Faye Baker, and Phyllis Schlafly; she is the true turncoat against women and must live with her futile hope for a return to traditional womanhood. Her own television career curtailed, Serena now suffers the pain of arthritis as her joints, like her compassion, freeze up. Her hands, endlessly turning out geometrically cloned hominids on knitted wool scarves, reach for the effusive flowers that mock her sterility. Like Desdemona in Shakespeare's Othello, Serena associates herself with the willow, a gentle symbol of endless grief. Like Niobe, the weeping non-mother of Greek mythology, Serena has no choice but to support Offred in concubinage to the Commander and surreptitious couplings with Nick if the family is ever to produce a child. Keywords: victimized women characters, Gilead womanhood, Wives, Daughters, Aunts, Marthas, Econowives, Commander and surreptitious couplings