Analiza ponašanja Serene Džoj Voterford iz perspektive glagolskog vida

Abstract

This paper analyzes the behavior of Serena Joy Waterford focusing on the verb aspect. Serena Joy Waterford is an antagonist of the dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale by the Canadian author Margaret Atwood, which represents the main source of the language data analyzed in this paper. The examples were analyzed by means of qualitative analysis and methods of description and classification, relying on the approach to the English tense and aspect by Geoffrey Leech (2004). Leech's work includes the views and attitudes on the topic from relevant sources and modern grammar books of the English language. The novel represents a first-person narrative told by the handmaid Offred, so the insight into the wife's feelings is quite limited. For this reason, three groups of examples dominated by Serena Joy’s character and behavior have been singled out. The analysis showed that Serena’s behavior is mostly characterized by the non-progressive habitual present which revealed that her life was static, predictable, depressive and that it was organized according to clearly defined rules.