Women have always held power as a result of fertility. Often, society's patriarchal rules and structure struggle to take this power away from women. In A Handmaid's Tale, the elite in society recognize the power that fertile women hold and completely govern them in order to take this power away. Offred, the main character in the novel, is victimized as a result of her ability to have children, and her potential sensuality. She is forced into a role in which all power is taken from her. She has no rights, and lives in a metaphorical padded cage, but still remains determined to survive.
             The handmaids' rules in the novel are based loosely around the survival of the society, but at the same time, is structured the way it is for the elite to be able to control the handmaids. One of the themes of this novel is oppression. The oppression of the handmaids can be viewed as an indication of the government's fear of the power they represent, and the amount of danger they pose to the systemized government and society. The handmaids, as an example, are so stripped of their rights and former lives that they lose even their names, and take on the names of those they serve. "I must forget about my secret name and all ways back. My name is Offred now, and here is where I live." (135)
             The narrator, Offred, is conflicted throughout the novel. She often criticizes and doubts herself, and her beliefs. For example, even though the handmaids are supposed to be pure and not think of men in sexual ways, Offred finds herself wondering the following: "What if I were to come at night, when he's on duty alone-though he would never be allowed such solitude-and permit him beyond my white wings? What if I were to peel off my red shroud and show myself to him, to them, by the uncertain light of the lanterns?" (21) At this point in the novel, Offred does not realize that there are handmaids revolting, and that the
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