The Handmaid’s Tale
(Margaret Atwood)

Part I - Night (Chapter 1)

The first section begins with a description of the Red Center, which had been a high school gymnasium in the time before. Although no longer used for that function, the room still contains some hints of its former life—it smells of sweat, perfume, and chewing gum, and retains the lingering forms of sex, loneliness, and expectation. The narrator, who is later known to us by the name Offred, remembers the feeling of yearning in high school.

She and the women who sleep in the gymnasium yearn for the future as well. They sleep with army-issued blankets that still have the old name—U.S.—on them. Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrol at night with electric cattle prods, but no guns. Even the Aunts cannot be trusted with guns. Those are only for guards, who patrol the building but are not allowed inside. These guards—called Angels—stand outside with their backs to the building. The women learn to whisper at night without sound and to read lips. It is in this way that they are able to exchange their names: Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June.

Part II - Shopping (Chapters 2-6) 

Part II begins with Offred’s careful examination of her new room. She notes that they have removed anything to which you could tie a rope, and that the picture frame on the wall contains no glass. Apart from these telling details, the room could be mistaken for a college guest room. She thinks of how Aunt Lydia told her that her situation is not a prison but a privilege. The bell rings, and Offred leaves her room. She wears red gloves and a long red dress. Her face is framed by a red veil and white wings of cloth. This outfit is a government issue, and everyone like her must wear it.

Offred wanders down the hall and stops in the kitchen. Rita is there, wearing a dull green dress, which is the uniform for Marthas. Frowning, she gives Offred some tokens for shopping. Offred knows that Rita disapproves of the dress and what it stands for; she’s heard Rita talking to Cora when they thought she wasn’t around. Rita said she wouldn’t debase herself like that, but Cora said that Handmaids had no other choice—it was either that or going to the Colonies with the Unwomen. In the kitchen, Offred thinks how she wishes Rita would talk with her or exchange gossip. At least it would be an interaction. Instead, all Rita does is give instructions for shopping.

Offred goes out the back door into the garden, which is the Commander’s Wife’s domain. She is often out there sitting or clipping flowers with her shears, but she isn’t there now. Offred doesn’t like to come across the Commander’s Wife, nor does she think the Commander’s Wife likes her. They first met five weeks earlier, when Offred arrived at this posting. A Guardian accompanied Offred to the door, but the Wife quickly dismissed him, making Offred carry her bag in by herself.

The Wife had a cigarette, which she must have gotten off the black market. She explained to Offred that she wanted to see her as little as possible, and that as far as she was concerned, their situation was a business transaction. Offred realized as they were talking that she recognized the Commander’s Wife from a television show she used to see when she was a child. In the show, the Commander’s Wife, whose name is Serena Joy, used to sing hymns and tell Bible stories to children.

Offred continues outside, where a Guardian is washing the Commander’s car, which is quite expensive. The Guardian’s name is Nick, and he lives above the garage. He sees Offred looking and winks. She drops her head and turns away, because the interaction was forbidden. She wonders whether Nick was just being friendly or whether perhaps he is an Eye and was testing her response. She goes out the front gate and meets another Handmaid at the corner, also all in red. They are only allowed to travel in pairs. This woman, Ofglen, has been Offred’s partner for two weeks. They cross a Guardian checkpoint. Checkpoints can be dangerous because jumpy Guardians have killed innocent people before, but the pair gets through okay.

The city square is the heart of Gilead, and Offred and Luke used to walk there, in the time before, back when there were doctors and lawyers and professors. She and Ofglen walk around and see other pairs of women in red.

There are also Marthas in green and Econowives in skimpy, striped dresses. Econowives are the wives of poorer men, who can’t afford Marthas and Handmaids. Ofglen and Offred pick up food at several stores, which used to be movie theaters or salons before. Now the stores only have pictures on the front, since reading is forbidden.

They run into another handmaid, who is very pregnant. They are jealous and think her a showoff. The handmaid’s name is Ofwarren but Offred recognizes her as a woman who was at the Red Center with her. Back then, her name was still Janine, and Offred never liked her much.

On the way back, the women take a roundabout route. They stop by a church, but what they have really come to see is the Wall. The Wall surrounds what once was a university, but what has now become a prison of sorts. Three men are hanging from the Wall. They wear white coats and must have been doctors in the time before. They performed abortions and have now been executed, even though at the time their actions were legal. Offred feels some relief, because none of the men hanging are Luke.

Part III - Night (Chapter 7) 

The night is a time for Offred alone. She can do whatever she wants, as long as she lies still. It is her time out, to retreat into her own thoughts. Offred decides to go somewhere good—she thinks of her friend Moira, sitting on her bed in college. Moira smokes a cigarette and tries to convince Offred to go out, even though she has a paper to write.

Next Offred thinks of being in a park with her mother. Once her mother took her to the park to feed ducks, but they were really there to meet up with her mother’s friends. They dumped magazines into a big bonfire, and Offred realized they were porn magazines.

Offred tries to think what happens next, but she isn’t sure. She thinks maybe she has lost some time, and that there were drugs and pills involved. She can remember screaming Where is she? What have you done with her? They showed her a picture of the girl, and explained that Offred was unfit to keep her, but she was in good hands.

Offred would like to believe the story she is telling, but she is not even sure it is a story. If it is a story, then she can control the ending. She is also telling the story rather than writing it, since writing is forbidden. She reasons she must be telling a story to someone, since you don’t tell a story to yourself alone. There’s always someone else, even when there’s not. She likens her story to a letter and pretends there is a you she is telling it to.

Part IV - Waiting Room (Chapters 8-12) 

The next time they go shopping, Offred and Ofglen stop by the wall again. This time two Guardians are hanging; they have been charged with Gender Treachery and must have been caught together. Ofglen says they should go back, and mentions that it is a beautiful May day. Offred recalls that Mayday used to be a distress signal a long time ago, and she and Luke once discussed the word while reading the newspaper and drinking coffee on a Sunday morning. Offred and Ofglen also pass a funeral for a baby that was not carried to term.

When she reaches the house, Offred sees Nick, who whistles as she passes. He asks her about the walk, but she doesn’t answer. Serena Joy is out in the garden, and Offred remembers that in the time before she used to give speeches about how women should stay home. She looks tired and Offred wonders how she feels, now that her speeches have become reality.

At the Red Center, Aunt Lydia told the Handmaids that it was not the Commanders but their Wives that they had to watch out for. She said that the Handmaids must try to pity them, that women are defeated because they have been unable to have children. Inside, Offred stops in the kitchen then continues to her room. The Commander is right outside. He acknowledges her with a nod, violating custom.

Someone has lived in her room before Offred. She knows this because she explored the room when she first arrived and found, carved into the cupboard, the words Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. Offred does not know what the words mean, but it pleases her to ponder the woman who lived in the room before. In her head, Offred turns the woman into Moira. She asks Rita about the woman before, and is able to deduce that she was lively and had freckles, just like Moira. But when she asks what happened she is met with silence.

It’s warm for the time of year, but not yet warm enough for the Handmaids to be allowed their summer dresses, which are cotton rather than synthetic. Aunt Lydia talked of how disgraceful it used to be in the time before, when women displayed their legs and bodies publically. She then thinks of Moira, who once threw an “underwhore” party, which was similar to a Tupperware party except with lingerie. Offred is shocked that they lived so freely then, but at the time it was just the usual. Whatever is happening is always considered the usual at the time.

Offred is taken to a doctor. She goes every month to ensure she is healthy and able to reproduce. In the examination room, a sheet hangs from the ceiling so that the doctor cannot see her face. The doctor does the pelvic examination, and then offers, discretely, to help her. He says many of the Commanders are sterile, which is a forbidden word. In Gilead, the official stance is that there is no such thing as sterile men, only barren women. Offred considers the offer—she wants to have a child. But the risk is too high—if they were caught, it would mean the death penalty. The doctor tells her to think about it for next month.

The next day, Offred takes a bath, which is a requirement but also a luxury. While in the tub, she thinks of her daughter as a baby. Her daughter comes back to her at different ages, and this is how she knows she is not really a ghost. If she were a ghost, she would always be the same age. The image of her daughter fades—she never stays for long. Eventually Cora tells her to hurry up in the bath. Later, she brings Offred healthy foods for dinner on a tray. Offred is supposed to eat everything, but she hides away some butter inside her shoe for use later.

Part V - Nap (Chapter 13) 

There is time to spare, so Offred takes a nap. These periods of spare time are not something Offred prepared for. She is not allowed embroidery or anything to occupy the time, and is instead left only to her own thoughts and boredom. She thinks of art galleries with pictures of harems in the nineteenth century—naked women lying around with a eunuch standing guard in the background. The pictures were supposed to be erotic, but now Offred realizes that what they were really about was boredom and waiting.

Washed and fed, Offred feels like a prized pig as she waits. In the eighties, pigs were given colored balls to roll with their snouts. The marketers said this improved their muscle tone, and pigs liked to have something to think about. Offred lies on the braided rug and remembers that Aunt Lydia said she could always practice in her spare time. She lifts her pelvic bone and practices breathing for giving birth. At the Red Center, the women would have a nap period every day. At the time, Offred thought the aunts just wanted a break from teaching, but now she realizes they were preparing the women for these periods of boredom.

Offred had been at the Red Center three weeks when Moira came. Offred recognized her at once, but they didn’t hold eye contact for long because it was unsafe to have known friendships. After several days, they finally were able to arrange a chance to talk by taking bathroom breaks at the same time and speaking through a hole in the stalls. Offred took her break during testifying, when women were supposed to testify their sins as women in the time before. Janine was Aunt Lydia’s favorite because she was the most enthusiastic at testifying.

In her room at the Commander’s house, Offred considers her body’s failings. She used to think of her body as an instrument for pleasure, or a tool for accomplishing her will. Now it feels empty. Every month, her period is a reminder that she has failed in the expectations of others and herself. She remembers finding clothes in her first apartment and wondering if they belonged to Luke’s wife before the divorce. And then she is stuck in another memory. She is running through the woods with her daughter, who is only half awake. Offred gave her a pill so she wouldn’t cry or give anything away. But now they are running, and her daughter is crying and slowing them down. Shots come behind them and Offred pulls her daughter to the ground to protect her. She tries to get her daughter to be quiet, but she’s too young and it’s too late. Offred wakes to the bell, and then Cora’s knocking. The dream about the woods is the worst of all her dreams.

Part VI - Household (Chapters 14-17) 

Offred goes to the sitting room and waits for the household to assemble for the Ceremony. Cora and Rita join her, followed by Nick. He stands behind where Offred is kneeling, so close that his boot touches her foot. Serena Joy comes next in one of her nicest blue dresses—the Wives always wear blue. The Commander is late as usual, so Serena Joy turns on the TV and watches the news. Offred knows the new may be old or faked, but it is better than nothing. There are reports about the war—the Angels have taken out a group of Baptist Guerillas and the Eyes have arrested a group of Quakers smuggling resources into Canada.

As she waits for the commander, Offred thinks about her name—her other name, the one she had in the time before. Sometimes she says this name to herself, a hidden treasure. She thinks of the morning she was caught, and of her little girl. Offred told her they were going on a picnic, because she didn’t want her to be scared or accidentally give anything away. She and Luke brought almost nothing with them—only what they would need for a daytrip across the border. They had fake passports and Luke told her not to be nervous and to cheer up. But they were warned not to look too happy either.

The Commander enters the sitting room and takes out a Bible from a locked box. Women cannot read so it is up to the Commander to read to them. He reads the same parts he usually does, about God saying be fruitful and multiply. He also reads about Rachel and Leah, and how Rachel’s handmaid Bilhah was offered to Jacob to have children in Rachel’s stead. This is the same passage that was repeated often at the Red Center. They were played tape recordings of prayers and sections of the Bible during meals. Moira whispered that she was planning to escape by faking sick and getting taken to the hospital.

The Commander stops reading and allows a moment for private prayer. Offred prays the words she read in the cupboard: Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. She doesn’t know what these words mean, but they seem right. At the Red Center, Moira managed to go through with her plan, faking sick enough for the hospital. But the Aunts dragged her back in that evening and took her to a room where her feet were tortured as punishment. The Aunts didn’t care what happened to hands and feet, so long as the Handmaids’ reproductive organs stayed viable. The Commander clears his throat, signifying that the time for silent prayer has passed.

During the Ceremony, Offred lies on the Commander’s bed, fully clothed except for her cotton underdrawers. She lies on top of Serena Joy, with her head on Serena Joy’s stomach. The Commander has sex with Offred in this manner, with her leaning against his wife. He is fully clothed except where necessary. There is nothing sexual or arousing about the ceremony for any of the parties involved. It is simply a task that must be performed.

After the ceremony is over, Offred returns to her room, where she rubs the butter she hid from dinner on her face. Handmaids are not allowed lotion because they are considered vanities, so they use butter on their dry skin instead. Offred lies on her bed and thinks of Luke, wanting to be held and valued. She repeats her old name to herself and has the urge to steal something. In the dark, she wanders back to the sitting room. Nick enters the room also. He too is forbidden from being there, so Offred knows he can’t get her in trouble. Suddenly, he kisses her, but they soon separate—it’s too dangerous. Nick tells Offred that he was coming to look for her, that the Commander sent him. The Commander wants to see Offred in his office the following day.

Part VII - Night (Chapter 18)  

Back in her bed, Offred lays trembling, thinking of how she would lie in bed with Luke when she was pregnant and he would feel her rounded belly. Then, she thinks of lying in bed with Luke and her daughter, who was frightened from a thunderstorm. Offred was not frightened. Offred contemplates that no one ever dies from lack of sex. It is lack of love that kills them. Sometimes she can see the faces of her loved ones hovering over her bed like saints.

There are three things Offred believes about Luke. The first is that he is lying face down in the woods, dead. What is left of him is still there: the bones, the clothes, the work boots. She hopes that at least one of the bullets hit him neatly and quickly through the skull, so that his life ended quickly and without pain.

Offred also believes that Luke is sitting in a prison cell somewhere. He hasn’t shaved for a year, but his hair has been cut short on occasion, to protect form lice. He looks ragged and old and finds it painful to move. He has no shoes and the cold is wet. He is perhaps thinking about her. Does he know she’s alive? Before, Offred never believed in thought transference, but now she does. She believes he can feel her thinking about him.

Offred also believes that Luke was never caught, that he made it across the border to Canada. He found a farmhouse, where Quakers let him in and agreed to smuggle him further inland. He made contact with a resistance movement—Offred is sure there must be a resistance movement, otherwise where would the government of Gilead find the war criminals she see’s on TV? Any day now, she will receive a message from Luke, probably in the most unexpected way from the most unlikely person. He will find a way to help Offred and her daughter escape, and they will be a family again. He will forgive her for everything that is happening to her because he knows it is not her fault.

All three of these versions of Luke cannot be true, and in fact, none of them may be. But though they contradict, Offred believes in all of them.

Part VIII - Birth Day (Chapters 19-23) 

The next morning Offred sits in a chair eating breakfast and hears sirens. Once, sirens meant an injury, but now they mean a birth. A red van comes to the house to pick Offred up, and she sits in the back with all the other Handmaids, who are all excited. A birthday is a day off and time for celebration, even though not all births are successful. Abortions are forbidden, and women are forced to carry disabled or disfigured babies to term. These babies—called Unbabies—are taken away and killed. Offred learns that it is Ofwarren, formerly Janine, who is giving birth.

The van stops, and all the Handmaids get out. The Wives arrive in a separate van—they are required to be at births as well. Only the Wives stay in a separate room where they get drunk and compliment the Wife who is to keep the child. All of the Handmaids in the district—25 to 30—sit cross-legged in the bedroom with Janine during her labor. While they wait, Offred thinks about the movies Aunt Lydia would show them once a week in the Red Center. They would either be old pornos demonstrating how women were mistreated or “Unwomen documentaries.” These were videos women who renounced their fertility in the time before. In one of these videos, Offred saw her mother marching at a Take Back the Night rally.

Offred’s mother had her at the age of 37, and used to tell her that she was an intentional birth. Her father was never in the picture. Her mother was a feminist and would sometimes tease Luke, calling him a chauvinist pig although he wasn’t really. Offred admired her mother in some ways, but they had a complicated relationship. Offred thought her mother expected too much of her; she wanted Offred to vindicate her life choices, but Offred wanted to be her own person. Now, she wants her mother back and wishes things were back how they were.

Janine gives birth to a healthy girl, and Offred flashbacks to Luke holding her hand as she gave birth to their daughter in the hospital. The Commander’s Wife names the baby Angela—it is the Wives, not the Handmaids, who do the naming. Janine will be allowed to breastfeed for a few months, but then she will be transferred to a new posting. But at the very least, she will never be sent to the Colonies and declared an Unwoman.

Back at the house, Offred lies in bed; because of the birth, she has been excused from all duties for the day. She thinks of the story of what happened to Moira. Moira escaped the Red Center by disassembling the toilet and removing a sharp object from it. She threatened Aunt Elizabeth with the makeshift weapon and tied her up in the basement. She stole Aunt Elizabeth’s clothes and walked out the Red Center via the front gates. None of the guards noticed because they never paid attention to what the Aunts look like. Moira’s escape made the Aunts seem less scary to the other Handmaids in training, and gave them a taste of freedom that they had forgotten about. Offred doesn’t know what happened next, because Moira never reappeared at the Red Center.

Offred explains that everything she says is a reconstruction—it is impossible to say things exactly as they were, because language and memory are not enough to fully encompass experiences. Still, she continues her story. At nine that night she goes to see the Commander, feeling like a schoolgirl at the principal’s office. The Commander’s office is surprisingly normal—it has a desk and bookcases filled with books. The Commander asks Offred to play Scrabble with him, even though he knows women are not allowed to read. After a few games, he excuses Offred, but asks her to kiss him before she goes. This is the real reason he summoned her—he is lonely. She kisses him, but has to repeat the gesture when the Commander tells her to kiss him like she means it.

Part IX - Night (Chapter 24) 

After her encounter with the Commander, Offred returns to her room. She seeks perspective, but feels like she is stuck in the present and her new life. She knows she is thirty-three, has brown hair, and is 5’7”, but she has trouble remembering what she used to look like. Her viable ovaries are what give her one more chance to survive. Tonight, however, Offred realizes for the first time that the power dynamics have changed somehow. So long as the Commander wants her, she can ask for something. Aunt Lydia used to imply that men were sex machines, and that women had to manipulate them to get what they want. It was nature’s way. But all that the Commander wanted from Offred was a few games of Scrabble and a kiss. This is one of the most bizarre things to have happened to her, she realizes.

Offred remembers a television documentary, from the time before. It was about the mistress of a Nazi officer. The man was cruel and brutal, but when interviewed 40 or 50 years later, the mistress claimed that he was not a monster. He must have acted very differently in his own home. The mistress would have wanted to soothe this man, to make his hardships better. She would have believed things were hard for him too, otherwise how could she have kept living that way, knowing what he was? The documentary mentioned that several days after this last interview, she killed herself. What Offred remembers now, of all things, is the makeup she wore in the interview.

As she begins to undress for bed, Offred hears something, and realizes it is her own laughter. Something has cracked inside her—it’s hysteria maybe. She has to cover her mouth to keep the laughter from coming out, because if the others think something is wrong with her there could be repercussions. She tries to compose herself and eventually the laughing fit passes. She leans into the close and traces the words there—Nolite te bastardes carborundorum­.  She wonders why the previous woman bothered to scratch it in; there’s no escape from the house. Eventually, Offred falls asleep.

Part X - Soul Scrolls  

The next morning Offred wakes up to a scream and a crash. Cora has dropped her breakfast tray. She saw Offred asleep in the closet and thought she had killed herself. Offred claims she was just dizzy the previous night, from the strain of the birth.

It is now further into the summer, and the Commander and Offred have met several times in his study and developed a routine. Nick is the signal—when his hat is crooked, this means that Offred is to meet the commander that night. They must hide this arrangement from the Commander’s Wife, Serena Joy. The first time they met, Offred was unsure of the Commander’s needs. She had been expecting some sort of kinky sex, so the Scrabble was a letdown in a way. Their second evening together, they played Scrabble again, only this time the Commander let Offred read a women’s magazine from the time before after the game. Even though all such magazines were supposed to have been destroyed, he kept some, claiming he had an appreciation of old things. On the third night, Offred worked up the nerve to ask for something—hand lotion. She realized that he knew very little about what her life was actually like; for him, she was nothing but a whim.

The next time there is a Ceremony, Offred realizes that things are different. The Commander looks at her, and at one point seems like he wants to touch her. After, she reprimands his actions. If Serena Joy knew about their secret meetings, it could mean her life. She realizes that despite the non-sexual nature of their meetings, she has become his mistress, in a way. She doesn’t love the Commander, but she appreciates that he sees her as a real person, and as something other than empty.

Ofglen and Offred go shopping as usual, but they are more comfortable with one another than they used to be and don’t bother with formal greetings. They stop in front of a store called Soul Scrolls, which is a franchise. There is a similar store in every city center. Inside, machines called Holy Rollers print out prayers, which are ordered by Compuphone. It is mostly Wives who do the ordering. There are five prayers to pick from: for health, wealth, a death, a birth, or a sin. The machines print these prayers and the Wives can hear the prayers aloud on the phone. After, the paper is recycled and used again; no one ever enters the store itself.

Offred and Ofglen stare into each other’s eyes via the store’s window reflection. Ofglen asks if Offred thinks God listens to the machines’ prayers, and even though it is blasphemy, Offred replies no. Offred has crossed some sort of invisible barrier—now both women realize that neither is a true believer. Ofglen tells her that it is safe to talk in front of Soul Scrolls because it just looks like they are praying. Ofglen explains that there is a network of nonbelievers, and that their safe word is Mayday. She used it on Offred once, but Offred didn’t understand its meaning. Several minutes later, they witness a man grabbed off the street by two Eyes and thrown into a black van with a white-winged eye painted on the side. Offred is relieved—she was afraid the van was coming for her.

In the afternoon, Offred is filled with too much adrenaline for a nap so instead she thinks about Moira. Moira would probably disapprove of the Commander; she disapproved of Luke when he started dating Offred even though he was still married. In the time before, Offred worked at a library. Women were allowed jobs then, but paper money had become obsolete. People used compubanks for monetary transactions. This is part of the reason the new regime was able to gain power.

There was a catastrophe in which the president and Congress were all assassinated. The army took control, and more and more restrictions were put in place in the weeks that followed. At the time, people thought the censorship and roadblocks were necessary, for security reasons. However, one day, all women were fired from their jobs. Their compubank accounts were transferred to their husbands. That day, it occurred to Offred that the soldiers she saw were wearing different uniforms—it was a different army.

In one of her sessions with the Commander in his office, Offred asks what the term Nolite te bastardes carborundorum means. He laughs and tells her that it is not really Latin. It is a joke schoolboys used to write in textbooks and means “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.” Offred realizes that the girl before her must have met the Commander here in his office as well. She asks about her, and discovers that the previous Handmaid hanged herself. That is the reason there are no chandeliers in her room, and that Cora reacted so strongly the time she found Offred asleep in the closet. The Commander asks what else Offred would like—he feels guilty about the past Handmaid. She tells him she wants information—to know what’s going on.

Part XI - Night (Chapter 30) 

Night falls, and Offred sits by the window. She sees someone moving outside in the garden. It is Nick. He looks up at her in the window. Nick looks at her with a kind of hunger, and Offred knows he lusts after her. She thinks of Luke, and how Moira once said that you can’t help how you feel, but you can help how you act. But for Offred, context is everything.

The night before she and Luke left their apartment for the last time, Offred walked through all the rooms to memorize what they looked like. Since they couldn’t bring anything with them, all of their belongings were still in place. Luke went into the garage and killed the cat—they couldn’t let her starve, but if they let her outside it could cause suspicion. Offred realized she should have gone with Luke to kill their pet or at least asked him about it after, but she did neither of these things, letting him carry that burden by himself. He did it as a sacrifice, for their survival. But it didn’t make any difference. The police were waiting for them at the border. Someone had tipped them off.

To make herself feel better, Offred tries to picture the people she loves, but their images are fading. She realizes she is forgetting too much. She decides to say prayers. At the Red Center, Aunt Lydia would hit the backs or arms of the kneeling Handmaids with her cattle prong in order to make them keep their posture.

They used to pray for emptiness, so that they would be worthy of being filled with a baby. At the window, Offred prays to God that he will tell her his real name, and that he will help her get through her circumstances. She asks that He keep her loved ones safe, and if they have to die, that it be painless. Next comes Temptation, and she thinks of the chandelier and the Handmaid who came before. Offred wonders how she herself can keep living such a life.

Part XII - Jezebel’s 

One day Serena Joy calls Offred into her sitting room. She says that Offred’s time to conceive is running out, and that maybe her husband cannot reproduce. To say such a thing is blasphemy, but Offred agrees. Serena Joy says she should try with another man, and that she will arrange for Offred and Nick to get together. She must really want that baby, Offred realizes. Offred knows her life is on the line, but she has little to lose so she consents. Serena Joy offers her a cigarette as a reward and tells Offred to ask Rita for a match. She also says she can bring a picture of Offred’s daughter, and Offred realizes that Serena Joy has known the whole time where she was. In the kitchen, Offred asks for a match, but decides not to use it on the cigarette. She decides to hide it in her mattress. A match is power—she could burn the house down if she wanted.

That afternoon Offred walks with Ofglen. This time, they are not going shopping. Instead, they are going to a district-wide Prayvaganza, where all the women come together to worship. The Prayvaganza is also a time for arranged marriages: young daughters are given to Angels as Wives in group weddings. The Handmaids are able to talk here because there is enough noise to cover them. Ofglen explains that she knows about Offred’s secret meetings with her Commander—somehow the information has gotten back to the network. Offred’s Commander is very high up in the power chain, so Ofglen wants her to spy on him. Janine is also at the Prayvaganza, but she looks pale and worn out. Her baby ended up being an Unbaby after all.

The day Offred and Luke tried to cross the border, the man took their passports. Luke sped their car away when he saw the man placing a call. In the present, Offred realizes this is not a story she wants to be telling. Instead, she thinks about how she discussed the notion of falling in love with the Commander. In the time before, Love was what drove relationships in society. There is a knock on the door. It is Serena Joy, with the picture of Offred’s daughter. She looks tall and healthy, and is smiling in her white Daughter dress. Offred is happy that her daughter still exists and lives, but it is unbearable to her that her daughter has probably nearly forgotten about her by now. She almost wishes she hadn’t seen the picture.   

That night, the Commander is already drunk when Offred knocks on the door. He gives Offred a skimpy outfit that must once have been a costume and tells her that he is taking her out. After Offred changes, the Commander lets her put on lipstick and then gives her a blue Wife cloak to wear as a disguise. Nick drives the car for them, and Offred wonders what he must think of her. The Commander brings Offred to a building that was once a hotel but has now been converted into a club and prostitution ring called Jezebel’s.

At Jezebel’s, Offred sees Moira, and they manage to escape into the bathroom to talk like they used to at the Red Center. Moira explains what happened to her after she escaped in Aunt Elizabeth’s clothing. She went to a Quaker family for help and was smuggled North toward Canada. However, she was caught right as she was about to cross the Canadian border, and they sent her to Jezebel’s. She also explains that she was shown a documentary of the Unwomen in the Colonies. She saw Offred’s mother in one of them—she is cleaning up toxic waste, and likely won’t survive more than a few years. Offred goes back to the Commander, who brings her to the hotel room. They sleep together, but Offred lies awkwardly and forces herself to fake it. She never sees Moira again.

Part XIII - Night (Chapter 40) 

After Offred returns home from Jezebel’s, she doesn’t go to bed. This is the night that Serena Joy has arranged her coupling with Nick. At midnight, Serena Joy takes her to the kitchen and instructs her to go up to Nick’s room over the garage. It is hot and humid, and the search lights have been turned off, either because of a power failure or because of Serena Joy’s planning. Nick opens the door to his apartment. It has a fold-out bed and minimal decorations and furniture. There are no preliminaries and without saying anything, Nick turns out the lamp and begins to undo Offred’s dress. A storm begins outside, and they make love through the thunder.

Only that’s not how it happens. What really happens is that Nick gives Offred a drag of his cigarette and tells her that he gets paid for this, and that it’s nothing personal. They quote some old movies, and Offred begins to cry. Nick comforts her and tells her “No romance.” They make love, but there is no thunder. Offred only added that to cover up the sounds she made, which she is ashamed of.

In actuality, it didn’t happen like that either. Offred isn’t sure exactly how it happened. She is reconstructing again, trying to approximate how love feels. After, she thinks what she has done is a betrayal to Luke. Not the act itself, but her body’s response to it. She wishes she were a shameless person so she would not have to feel this way.

Part XIV - Salvaging (Chapters 41-45) 

Offred wishes her story was different, and that it was happier. But she is committed to telling the truth, so she continues. She continues going back to Nick, on her own terms, without Serena Joy’s permission. This is risky and reckless but she felt her life so terrible that she had little to lose even if discovered.  Nick doesn’t speak much, but Offred tells him things about her former life, including her true name. Ofglen continues to pester her to spy on the Commander, but Offred is not interested. She is too preoccupied with her romance with Nick.

One day, Offred and Ofglen attend a women’s salvaging. Salvagings are public executions, and they are always divided by gender. Female executions are rare—Offred supposes the women have learned to be more obedient than the men. There are two Handmaids to be executed, and one Wife. In the past, the women used to be told their crimes prior to the execution, but Aunt Lydia tells the crowd that the new policy is not to reveal the crimes. Offred is left to guess what these women have done wrong—the Handmaids probably tried to escape, and the Wife either tried to kill her Handmaid or committed adultery.

After the hangings, there is one more execution, called a particicution. The Handmaids are asked to form a circle, and a drunk and bruised Guardian is brought in the center. Aunt Lydia explains that this man was convicted of a brutal rape. The Handmaids are allowed to attack him to death. When Aunt Lydia blows the whistle, Ofglen runs forward and gives the man several sharp blows to the head. Offred is appalled by her brutality, but Ofglen later explains that the man was not a rapist, but a political dissident and part of the Mayday network. Ofglen was merely trying to knock him out to put him out of his misery.

In the afternoon, Offred goes out for shopping, but Ofglen is not at the corner. She has been replaced by a new Handmaid. Offred tries to use the Mayday signal on the new Handmaid, but the new woman warns her not to use such words. She knows the signal, but she isn’t part of the network. She tells Offred that Ofglen was discovered and hanged herself before the government could take her away. Offred realizes that the government could discover her as well, although she’s technically done nothing wrong other than listen.

Back at the house, Serena Joy meets Offred at the door. She has discovered lipstick on her cloak from Offred’s night at Jezebel’s and is furious about the betrayal. She sends Offred to her room.

Part XV - Night (Chapter 46) 

Offred waits in her room and contemplates the different ways she could attempt to kill herself.  She feels the presence of the Handmaid before her, the one who hanged herself, in the room. She hears the black van approaching the house, and knows the Eyes have come to take her away. Nick opens the door, and Offred wonders if Nick was an Eye all along. Instead he embraces her and calls her by her real name. He tells Offred that the men are Mayday and that they will bring her to safety. Offred is still suspicious and thinks he could be lying, but she has no other choice but to go with them.

Serena Joy and the Commander stand in the hallway as Offred leaves. Serena Joy asks what Offred has done—this arrest is clearly unrelated to Offred’s affair with the Commander. The Eye says she is guilty of violation of state secrets. This puts the Commander at risk as well, since he was the one who could have told her any secrets. Offred enters the van, not knowing whether it is going toward darkness or light.

Historical Notes

The historical notes section is a fictionalized transcript of a university symposium on Gileadean Studies in 2195. It has now been nearly 200 years since the time of Offred’s experience. Professor Pieixoto explains that the manuscript of The Handmaid’s Tale was found recorded in a series of tapes in a town at the border with Canada. Although there can be no certainty how the tapes got there, Pieixoto believes that the house was part of an Underground Femaleroad that took escaped women to Canada.

The professor speculates whether the story is genuine, and who its author might be. In the early Gileadean age, Handmaids were given the names of their Commanders, thus Offred would have lived in the household of a man named Fred. There are two potential high-ranking men who fit the Commander’s description. One is Frederick R. Waterford, and the other B. Frederick Judd. Waterford had a background in marketing and a wife who formerly worked on a TV show, although there is no record of a Serena Joy. Still, the professor speculates that Waterford is most likely the Commander in the narrative. Waterford was later killed in a Purging. He was accused of harboring a subversive, which may have been Offred but was most likely Nick, who would have been a double agent—both an Eye for the government and a member of Mayday.

Both Judd and Waterford were responsible for thinking of and implementing such practices as Handmaids, particicutions, and salvagings. Pieixoto also explains more about the societal factors in Gilead. Many Caucasians had been made sterile either as a result of harmful chemicals and nuclear spills, or else because of a silent strand of syphilis. The fate of the narrator herself is unknown—there is no way to track whether she survived or made it to safety. Much has been lost to history, and her fate remains ambiguous.