What is the role of the commander in the novel? What does his character have to offer the reader?

The Commander provides an ethical problem for the reader and Offred to consider. The reader sees the Commander through Offred's eyes, and Offred herself struggles to reconcile the different aspects of his personality that she sees. The Commander continues inviting Offred into his study at night, providing her an escape from her miserable world. He reveals his loneliness, both in his marriage and Gilead, during their late-night sessions, and readers begin feeling sympathetic toward him. The Commander is kind to Offred in a way many other people are not and shows that he has the capacity to be a good person.
However, Offred and the reader also recognize that the Commander built his own prison, and it is nothing compared to the one Offred and other women have been forced into. The Commander's large moral blind spots are revealed throughout the novel: for example, when they visit Jezebel's and he openly condones an establishment that exists for high-powered men to have extramarital affairs. It also becomes apparent that the visits between Offred and the Commander are completely selfish and only help satisfy the Commander's loneliness. The visits in the study put Offred in extreme danger—a fact that the Commander is fully aware of, especially after the suicide of their last handmaid.
Through Offred's interactions, the reader sees that the Commander has some sympathetic traits, but his role in the creation of Gilead and continued support of the regime cannot be ignored.