Her or Me

Kyle Petras

4/26/16

Gubanich

Western Lit.

Her or Me

      In this week’s reading, our main character has an unfortunate procedure called the Ceremony done. Offred’s job as a handmaid is to have sex with the commander and try to bear a child. The quote that is focused on for this blog says, “Which of us is it worse for, her or me?”.

      During the ceremony, Serena Joy is in the room. Not only is Offred lying on Serena’s stomach and holding her hands, but she has to endure her husband in other words raping Offred. Both Offred’s and Serena’s situations are difficult to endure. For Serena, It is not necessarily a physical trial she needs to go through, but a mental one. She has to watch her husband do this to another woman while she is holding her hands. For Offred, she is physically having something done to her.

      In my opinion, I believe Offred has it worse. Another factor of this is the amount of comfort both are feeling during this moment. Neither are comfortable, but Offred is being raped while having her hands held by the wife of the man who is doing it to her. For Offred, she has a way of coping. This involves her trying to stray her mind from what is happening. An example of this would be how she remembered “ Queen Victoria’s advice to her daughter: close your eyes and think of England”(94). For Serena, I feel she just fights on through it and doesn’t really have a coping mechanism.

      In the end, Offred states the quote, “Which of us is it worse for, her or me?”. This has a little hidden secret. Why would she even be saying this? I have an idea as to why. Offred has some sympathy for her, otherwise, she would have never said anything like that. What does this mean? I don’t think that Serena has the same affection towards Offred because she treats her very poorly. When they finish the ceremony, Serena says to Offred to “get up and get out” with disgust(95). I do think both have it pretty bad, honestly. I surely wouldn’t want to be raped while being held by a woman from behind, and I definitely wouldn’t want to see my spouse having sex with someone else while holding that person.
      

      So the wire does come down to Offred. I think because she is being physically damaged, she has it worse.