The Handmaid's Tale - Plot - Part 1/4

Chapter 1 'There was old sex in the room and loneliness'.  The Handmaid's Tale opens in a gymnasium, that has been appropriated by the new regime of Gilead. The gym is now part of a training academy for the handmaids. Handmaids are closely monitored both by the Aunts - women in charge of subjugating other women;  and the Angels - the foot soldiers and police of the new order. The handmaid's uniform is scarlet red.  Handmaid's communicate covertly with each other in this dystopia, learning to lip read each other in quiet information exchange. Offred fantasizes about seducing an Angel to make an escape - using sex as the only possible weapon in her arsenal.

Chapter 2 'Thinking can hurt your chances, and I intend to last.' Offred has finished her indoctrination into the handmaids. She has been transferred to the house of a commander, Fred, from which she takes her own name. The handmaid's role is to provide a healthy child for Fred and his wife, Serena Joy, by means of surrogacy.  The household lies within a picturesque community which functions as a prison for the women within. Gilead is a sectarian patriarchy. Handmaids have lost ball rights except the right to reproduce. They are watched by all other members of the household and are resented by the 'Marthas' - women who perform other domestic functions. Handmaid's are allowed to shop for the groceries.

Chapter 3 'I want to see as little of you as possible, she said. I expect you feel the same way about me.' Offred recalls her first meeting with Serena Joy, the Wife of the household. There is no kindness. Only resentment. Offred is a sex-object in a repressed society that deems sex an unsavory and unholy act.  Through Serena's interview, we learn that Offred is on now on her third posting. This would be her last chance to produce a child for the regime.  Offred remembers Serena from her youth as a televangelist -  a religious extremist who may now regret getting what she has always wished for.

Chapter 4 'I hope they get hard at the sight of us' Offred is tasked with going to get groceries. Handmaids are not permitted to travel alone. For these journeys, she must walk with a neighboring handmaid - Ofglen. The handmaids, like all pious citizens of Gilead, are supposed to watch each other. If anything is awry, they must inform The Eyes - Gilead's secret police. They talk, saying nothing. They act as the state has instructed them to act. Passing some guards, Offred discreetly moves her body in a suggestive way. Freedom can only be realized internally in Gilead. The handmaid's power is limited, but potent.

Chapter 5 “Yes, we are very happy,” Gilead is in a war, but that does not intrude here, in the heart of the capital. The neighborhood has been made safe through fear. Offred thinks back to before, when women were often sexually harassed in public, or worse. This is the world which was promised - safe from crime, but a repressive police state.  The handmaids shop, though are not permitted to carry money. Between shops, they encounter a party of Japanese dignitaries: cameras at hand, and deeply curious about the chaste nature of American society. Asked by a tourist if she is happy, Offred replies in the affirmative - knowing she is being watched for her response. 

Chapter 6 'What I feel towards them is blankness. What I feel is that I must not feel.' On the way back, Offred and Ofglen pass by the wall - the place where dissenters are hanged for public display. Three men hang there. The men wear the white coats of doctors. Offred theorizes that they were guilty of performing abortions. This is a law that is pursued retroactively - offences from the time before found in hospital records. Ofglen seems to shiver. Offred retains control. She remembers what Aunt Lydia told her in her indoctrination - 'This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will.'

Chapter 7 'If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending.' Offred often muses on words and how their meanings can change. In a way, this makes words unreliable, as her narration will later prove to be.  She remembers snatches of the time before. Rallies her mother took her to. People burning books, because they did not agree with the content inside. Censorship. For her mother, this was a liberal act - an effort to emancipate women from pornography. For Gilead, who began with similar bonfires, pornography was repugnant in itself and all the sinners who enjoyed it or profited from it.  Another memory. The abduction of her child by the new state. Offred thinks she was drugged. It was the only way they could have controlled the transition. 

Chapter 8 'Serena Joy was never her real name, not even then.' More bodies on the wall: a priest and two homosexuals.  Ofglen remarks that is a beautiful May Day. Offred answers, but wonders if that word is coded. They pass a funeral procession for an infant.  Nick, the driver, speaks to Offred. That is not allowed.  Offred ponders on the unhappy Serena Joy - once prominent on television and now the architect of a society that barely values any women - 'How furious she must be, now that she’s been taken at her word.' The Marthas prepare her bath. It will soon be time to copulate.

Chapter 9 'How were we to know we were happy?' Offred describes the room which she cannot even call 'hers.' The room is spartan, like a prison cell. Women are now not allowed to read or write. There are no books. No distractions. A cushion with the word 'Faith' embroidered on it, seems to have been saved from the cull of female literacy. The room has been suicide proofed. There is no mirror. No hangers. No way out. The windows are reinforced, as is her existence. In the cupboard, there is a message carved into the wood - Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. What does it mean, she wonders. 

Chapter 10 'in a gradually heating bathtub you’d be boiled to death before you knew it.' Music has been censored as everything else. Only psalms remain. Clothing is equally constrained. Though the summer is here, the citizens still dress as puritans.  Offred remembers before and her friend Moira, a brash lesbian. Present and past blend in her mind as she watches the commander exit his car through her window. With Moira, they would have thrown waterbombs at the boys, as they once did from their dormitory window. Offred wonders that she does not feel hate for her present condition. She cannot name the emotion. it is not love. 

Chapter 11 “Any pain, honey?” In Gilead, it is obligatory for handmaids to visit a doctor once a month. Offred recounts  yesterday's visit. It is for a gynecological examination.  While there, the unnamed doctor makes a risky proposition. He knows that Offred must produce a child or face a worse fate. He offers to inseminate her himself, in case the commander in infertile. Under Gilead belief, only a woman can be unable to produce children.  Offred must be careful. The doctor is a man and therefore would be believed if she offended him. The real terror comes from the appeal of his offer - 'It’s the choice that terrifies me. A way out, a salvation.'

Chapter 12 'The bath is a requirement,' Cora, the Martha, runs Offred's bath. Her nakedness is strange, even to herself. It is hard to believe that once she might have worn a bikini.  The bath sparks a memory of before. She thinks of bathing her daughter. The memory is a happy one, but tinged with sadness because she does not know her fate.  Offred remembers an incident from before. A woman tries to abduct her daughter in a supermarket. When caught, the woman claimed 'The Lord' had told her to do it. An omen of what was to come.  After the bath, Offred is further prepared for the evening ahead with a chicken dinner. Offred conceals a pat of butter within a napkin, which she hides for later.