On October twenty third, two thousand and two, 50 Chechen gunman and suicide
bombers overtook a popular Moscow theatre, effectively removing seven hundred and
fifty hostages from their lives in a manner which they could not control, much like the
Offred from Margaret Atwood's novel, The Handmaid's Tale, and Morag from Margaret
Laurence's novel, The Diviners. Morag was removed from a life she might have had
when both her parents fell victim to Polio, and Offred was taken from her life by a radical
change in the ruling government. They are both affected to different degrees, positively
and negatively by the common theme of isolation, which in itself has underlying factors
which include intentional, situational and coincidental isolation.
Firstly, because of events beyond their control, both Morag and Offred are flung
into new lives that separate them from those they had previously had. Offred was only
spared a new life in the colonies as an unwoman because she had been married to a
divorced man. In her previous life, breaking up Luke's marriage might have been
frowned upon, but because of it she was qualified and selected to be the new societies
most valuable resource, effectively separating her from the life she would never have
again. Because of this lucky or unlucky coincidence, Offred had to resort to fantasies of
Luke to stay alive, she thinks to herself:
The message will say that I must be patient: sooner or later he will get me out, we will find her [her daughter], wherever they've put her. She'll remember us and we will be all three of us together. Meanwhile I must endure, keep myself safe for later. What has happened to me, what's happening to me now won't make a difference to him, he loves me anyway, he knows it isn't my fault. The message will say that also. It's this message, which may never arrive, that keeps ...