They are worthless, resentful, and egotistic. Wives like Serena Joy have everything that they desire except fertility. Commanders Wives are treated like royalty in Gilead, yet they contribute nothing to society. Serena lives a fruitless life. Whether she bosses around the Marthas or Offred, she shows the power she has over them. She is the Commander’s wife. Having a high social status is what brings her freedom, keeps her from the Colonies, and allows her to treat hard working women horribly. Serena treats Handmaids, specifically Offred, with no sympathy because they have fertility that she will never have.
Being Serena Joy in class was quite interesting. I was able to put myself in her shoes and understand that her unsympathetic treatment towards all Handmaids is out of jealousy. Offred “flaunts” her wondrous abilities in front of her every day by resembling a red tulip. Tulips are mentioned throughout the novel because they embody female reproductive organs. As I said in class, Serena tends to her garden constantly because it gives her a sense of power.
Stated in the novel, “The tulips are red, a darker crimson towards the stem, as if they have been cut and are beginning to heal there” (12).
Serena takes out her frustration towards nature, mutilating her red tulips which resembles Offred. Serena’s actions of cutting the tulips and then tying them back together with string (pg 12) shows how unstable she is. She sadly waits each day for a child that Offred has to produce; she is useless. Female groups in the novel crave an aspect of life that was taken from them. Either it’s freedom, power, or fertility; no woman in Atwood’s novel is “whole.”
