He's at the top, and I mean the very top.".
But Offred doesn't want to jeopardise her new and illegal relationship with Nick, so she refuses.
"I can't, I say to Ofglen, I"m too afraid. Anyway, I"d be no good at that, I"d get caught.
The fact is I no longer want to leave, escape, cross the border to freedom. I want to be here, with Nick, where I can get at him.".
This is extremely greedy and mean of Offred - she has a real chance to help the resistance change Gilead but she won't because she's afraid of loosing what she has. This shows great selfishness but also fright of what could happen to her if she got caught - not traits of a heroine.
Offred is also extremely passive to her situation most of her time. As the audience, we are reading her thoughts and she often thinks of doing something rebellious to allow herself to feel powerful, but she rarely carries them out.
"I repeat my former name, remind myself of what I once could do, how others saw me. I want to steal something.".
" Put my arms around him and slip the lever out from the sleeve and drive the sharp end into him suddenly, between his ribs. I think about the blood coming out of him, hot as soup, sexual, over my hands.".
By reading thoughts such as these we learn that Offred yearns to do something illegal and wrong to gain power over her oppressors. But because she hardly ever obeys her thoughts, we can see just how afraid of the consequences she is. Even though this suggests a "wimp", we can understand. Throughout the book Offred tells us about various crimes and their punishment. They are both shocking and revolting and we can understand why Offred might not want to do anything daring.
Moira is Offred's best friend but she is completely different. Where Offred is passive and compliant, Moria is feisty and almost argumentative - she doesn't just accept things first time like Offred does. .
""Shove over" She says to the two women on the sofa, her usual pre-emptory rough-cut slapdash manner, and as usual she gets away with it.
