Wow – Off the top of my head I can not think of any similarities between Handmaid’s Tale and A Clockwork Orange. Offred is this laid back, sentimental woman whereas Alex is this horribly cruel person. The Commander and Alex can somewhat be compared.
Alex is a young man who commits crime and loves his sex. He doesn’t care basically about anybody except for himself. This all changes after he is put in jail and offers to do a new technological project which was supposed to stop criminals from doing crime. Alex was forced to watch extremely violent films along with his favourite music – Beethoven. Alex finishes the program and when he is faced with a situation at all, even if it involves self defense, Alex finds it impossible to hurt anybody physically. Today being day two of watching the film, I developed pathos towards Alex. When the Police officers started dunking his head under water after watching him be beat by a group of old men, I felt unbelievably horrible that Alex could not defend himself. I could not help but feel sorry for the same man who brutally beat and raped people at the beginning of the film.
The Commander is seen as this evil person just like Alex is. Technically, he rapes Offred to try to get her pregnant. Pathos is also developed for the Commander when he starts to get Offred to sneak off to his room to play Scrabble. The Commander even feels alone in a society that he controls. I think this is how Alex feels in A Clockwork Orange as well. He holds so much power, and he knows it yet he still feels so alone.
A Clockwork Orange seems so unbelievably realistic in my eyes but maybe if I read the book it would be different. I find that the rape and abuse that goes on in this film is mocking rape and violence in real life. Everything is just too – happy – for a dystopic piece (for me anyways!).
