Moira Character Analysis in The Handmaid’s Tale

Offred’s best friend in college, a brave, opinionated feminist lesbian whom Offred encounters again at the Rachel and Leah Center. After one failed attempt, she manages to escape the Center and move along the Underground Femaleroad, but the Eyes capture and torture her. She decides to work as a prostitute rather than go to the Colonies (the Colonies are essentially a death sentence). When Offred sees her at Jezebel’s, it seems that the authorities have managed to break Moira’s spirit.

Moira Character Timeline in The Handmaid’s Tale

The timeline below shows where the character Moira appears in The Handmaid’s Tale. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...night, when the Aunts aren’t looking. They tell each other their names, including Janine and Moira. (full context)

She remembers Moira in the time before Gilead, wearing overalls, an earring, one gold fingernail, and smoking. Moira... (full context)

...Handmaid who sent her the message, and happy to have received it. She thinks of Moira’s energy and freckles, and imagines that the previous Handmaid must have had freckles too. Offred... (full context)

Offred retreats into another memory, of Moira. In the memory, Moira is planning an “underwhore” party to sell sexy lingerie. Moira makes... (full context)

...something out the window at the Commander, then remembers dropping water-filled bags on boys with Moira in college. The Commander leaves, and Offred can’t quite figure out her feeling towards him,... (full context)

...Offred enjoys taking off her habit and wings and feeling her own hair. Offred remembers Moira’s disdain for pantyhose. (full context)

Offred remembers Moira’s arrival at the Rachel and Leah Center, three weeks after her own. She and Moira... (full context)

...peephole through the wall to the women’s bathroom, and she manages to make contact with Moira. (full context)

Offred remembers meeting up again with Moira in the bathroom. Moira planned to escape by pretending to be sick, and perhaps trying... (full context)

...makeup. Serena Joy silently cries. As Offred prays “Nolite te bastardes carborundorum,” she remembers seeing Moira carried to an ambulance for appendicitis at the Rachel and Leah Center. Right afterwards, Moira... (full context)

...other as they do so. Offred asks the Handmaid next to her if she knows Moira, but she doesn’t. Offred, too, feels pain like she’s about to give birth, as Aunt... (full context)

Offred flashbacks to Moira’s great escape from the Rachel and Leah Center. (This escape was Moira’s second attempt, after... (full context)

Moira had managed to block a toilet, and called Aunt Elizabeth to see what was the... (full context)

Offred imagines that Aunt Lydia told Janine to find out if Moira had an accomplice. Janine told one other Handmaid and the story spread. The Handmaids found... (full context)

...the end, the Commander thanks Offred and asks her to kiss him. Offred considers following Moira’s lead and making a weapon out of the toilet mechanism and killing the Commander next... (full context)

...about her encounter with Ofglen. She’s been given an electric fan, and she imagines that Moira would know how to make it into a weapon. Moira would probably dislike Offred’s deal... (full context)

Offred delves into a specific memory of talking to Moira in Offred’s kitchen. Offred worked at an insurance company and lived in a run-down house.... (full context)

...stop using the Constitution. Offred was shocked at the sudden collapse of the government, but Moira understood that there were deeper goals than chaos. (full context)

Offred returned home, restless and nervous. She managed to reach Moira, who had been working for a women’s publishing company. Moira came over, and explained that... (full context)

...two Handmaids walk past Harvard’s Memorial Hall, which was once a student dining hall where, Moira once told Offred, women weren’t allowed to eat. (full context)

...Leah Center. Janine sat on the bed in a trance, whispering greetings like a waitress. Moira slapped her to try to bring her back to the present, telling her that she’d... (full context)

...Center flashback. She remembers Aunt Lydia explaining that the women must work together, and then Moira making fun of her words in the bathroom, imagining that Aunt Lydia has made Janine... (full context)

As Offred waits for her drink, she sees Moira across the room, wearing a slutty and disheveled animal costume. She looks bored, scanning the... (full context)

...fifteen minutes. Offred enters a ladies’ lounge, with has a mirror, unlike at her house. Moira comes out of the bathroom and hugs Offred, with her familiar no-nonsense attitude. Moira has... (full context)

Moira tells Offred her story over two bathroom trips, and Offred tries to tell it to... (full context)

The Quaker couple let Moira in, and gave her clothes, although they were nervous keeping her since they had two... (full context)

Moira felt guilty that people were risking their lives for her, but her hosts explained that... (full context)

They brought Moira to some other place that she doesn’t want to talk about. After torture, they showed... (full context)

Moira picked Jezebel’s over the Colonies. She’ll manage to stay there three or four years before... (full context)

Offred wishes she could tell her audience a story about Moira managing to escape or blowing up Jezebel’s. But Offred doesn’t know what became of Moira,... (full context)

...hotel room at Jezebel’s. Offred uses the bathroom and flashes back to her conversation with Moira. Moira saw Offred’s mother in one of the videos about the Colonies, which Moira thinks... (full context)

Offred remembers how, during college, Moira said she thought Offred’s mother was “neat” and even “cute.” Now Offred imagines her mother... (full context)

...as a weapon). He relates the difficulty of finding anything more about Offred, Luke, Nick, Moira or Janine, as those may have been fake names. He suspects that Offred might have... (full context)

...consummate. Offred knows that Nick and Luke can’t be substituted for one another, and remembers Moira’s claim that people can’t control their feelings but can control their behavior. (full context)