1. Chapter 25 - Her Garden
1.1. 'Flowers' - symbolic of fertility whcih is ironic as she' infertile and can't have kids.
1.1.1. Flowers are red - symbolises violence and certinity
2. Chapter 31 +40 - Conspiring
2.1. Uses Offed for her own gain for a child whilst Ofrred gets a picture of her own daughter.
2.1.1. Exploits her.
2.1.2. Arranges for Offred and Nick to have sex.
2.2. Speaks in imperitives to Offred.
2.3. When she is is trusting for the first time, she seems mavery, and bring Offred to have a flosbee of her cun mcher
2.4. Realises Commander may be infertile so she convinces Offred to have sex with Nick.
2.4.1. Offred could be punished for this if anyone found out.
3. Chapter 3 - First Meet
3.1. Name
3.1.1. Commander's Wife
3.1.1.1. Property of the Commander
3.1.2. Serena Joy
3.1.2.1. Her Past
3.2. Body Language
3.2.1. Unmoving as she doesn't know is to trust Offred with the Commander due to the events of the previous handmaid.
3.3. Physical Description
3.3.1. Her chin - difficult to decifer/read.
3.3.2. Her chin - ''like a fist.''
3.3.2.1. Simile
3.3.2.2. She had very strong feelings against Offred.
3.4. Dialogue
3.4.1. Assymetry, power and hiercarchy.
3.4.1.1. Serena can talk in Offred in a certain way but Offred can't repeat her actions as it would be seen as disobeying.
4. Chapter 15 + 16 - The Ceremony
4.1. ''Serena begun to cry (...) she's trying not to make noise - she's trying to preserve her dignity in front of us.''
4.1.1. By describing her emotion, reader can gain a deeper perspective about how hard is must be to watch your husband have sex with someone else in your bed.
4.1.2. Even though Serena Joy had a part in creating this Gilead policy, she routinely comes undone before the ritual designed to ensure their society could continue. She keenly feels her personal sacrifice each time. Although Handmaids pay a higher price in living as captives, she and the other wives endure oppression in their own ways.
4.2. ''There is loathing in her voice, as if the touch of my flesh sickens and contaminates her. I untangle myself from her body, stand up… Before I turn away I see her straighten her blue skirt, clench her legs together; she continues lying on the bed, gazing up at the canopy above her, stiff and straight as an effigy. Which of us is it worse for, her or me?''
4.2.1. Serena Joy takes out her hatred and frustration on Offred, who has had no say in the matter. Serena Joy’s attitude shows her self-centeredness as well as her mastery of blaming other women for her own problems.
4.3. Body Language
4.3.1. Proxemics - extremely close together, but the position is mechanical and SJ's hand's are digging into Ofrred's, showing her anger at this and the whole uncomfortable ordeal.
4.4. The sitting room is Serena's teritory - meaning even with the commander's power, he still has to ask for permission to enter.
4.4.1. However, during this chapter, he doesn't, showing how even she as a high-ranking woman, doesn't outrank a man in Gilead.
5. Chapter 8 - Naming + Past
5.1. She is a hypocrite.
5.1.1. In pre Gilead days, she'd advoacte for traditional values, the keeping of women as home and she'd give speeches.
5.1.1.1. Viewed it as a sacrifice.
5.2. ''Taken at her word''
5.2.1. People in power are held in similar standards when following rules.
5.2.2. Even as she supports Gilead's rules, she often breaks them.
5.2.3. Forced to stay at home which she doesn't enjoy.
5.3. ''She wasn’t singing anymore by then, she was making speeches. She was good at it. 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.''
5.3.1. Like the Aunts’ encouragement of women to shame one another, Serena Joy shamed women even before Gilead. Once in Gilead, she was brought down by her own ideas.
5.4. ''She doesn’t make speeches anymore. She has become speechless. She stays in her home, but it doesn’t seem to agree with her. How furious she must be, now that she’s been taken at her word.''
5.4.1. Irony of Serena Joy’s clear bitternessfrom living in a world that she helped create. Women are not allowed to read or write, or have any power, so Serena Joy can do nothing but stay at home as she once preached that all women should do. Without the means to express her thoughts or emotions as easily as she used to, she is imprisoned within Gilead as well.
6. Chapter 45+46
6.1. Serena view Offred as a temptress who damns morals.
6.2. ''Slithering down over me the step like snake skin.''
6.2.1. Simile
6.2.2. Reference to the biblical story from Genesis (snake tempting Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.
6.3. She views Offred's actions as more treacherous than her husband's.
6.4. “Look,” she says. She brings her free hand from behind her back. It’s her cloak she’s holding, the winter one. “There was lipstick on it,” she says. “How could you be so vulgar? I told him …” She drops the cloak, she’s holding something else, her hand all bone. She throws that down as well. The purple sequins fall, slithering down over the step like snakeskin, glittering in the sunlight. “Behind my back,” she says. “You could have left me something.” Does she love him, after all? She raises her cane. I think she is going to hit me, but she doesn’t. “Pick up that disgusting thing and get to your room. Just like the other one. A slut. You’ll end up the same.”
6.4.1. Serena Joy’s sense of betrayal suggests she feels something for the Commander. However, rather than confronting the Commander, who she knows initiated the trip, Serena reprimands Offred, who had no say in the matter. In Gilead, even women play a role in perpetuating a world where men are never held accountable.
7. Betrayals and complicated relationships between women.
7.1. 'Bitch' used in chapter 31 and at the end to show the untrusting relationship between women in Gilead.
8. Motif
8.1. Cigarette
8.1.1. Symbolises a rebellion for Offred
8.1.2. Working across patriarchal boundaries.
8.1.3. Symbolises power, affluence and everything SJ had that Offred doesn't.
8.1.4. Shows craving for familiarity and common ground that Offred is trying to find
8.2. How she's presented
8.2.1. Unhappy with her and The Commander's relationship de to her apprehension of him with Offred
8.2.1.1. Foreshadowing towards Offred's relationship with The Commander in later chapters.