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

Chapter 37 I thought this sort of thing was strictly forbidden,” I say. “Well, officially,” he says. “But everyone’s human, after all.” Offred is shocked at what she finds in Jezebels. It is a brothel, where alcohol and drugs are freely taken. The club is used as a meeting place for senior men within the establishment and for entertaining visiting dignitaries from abroad.  Some of the women, she learns, are former lawyers and executives, now reduced to the sex trade. Among them she sees a familiar face. It is Moira. It appears she never really escaped. They give  a clandestine signal. They will meet in the toilets, just as they used to. 

Chapter 38 In the Ladies room, Offred learns what has happened to Moira. After her escape from the Gymnasium, Moira made it all the way to the city. She is taken in by a couple who, for religious reasons, will attempt to help her escape to the Underground Femaleroad - a secret organization to smuggle women out of Gilead. She knows they are Quakers. Ironically, Moira's former liberal publication segmented their reader lists in the same way that Gilead segments their citizens.  In the city, Moira learns that the indoctrination is not as fervent outside of the community where Offred and the others reside, but the power of Gilead is being consolidated. Moira is caught near the border and given the choice of the colonies or the brothel. Offred would like to believe that Moira escaped or blew up the brothel, but she has no idea, because she never saw her again. 

Chapter 39 'Fake it,… It’s the least you can do.' The commander procures a room key and takes Offred upstairs. During this time, she thinks back to more details from her talk with Moira. Her mother, she learns, Moira has seen in a newsreel about the colonies. Offred is happy to learn she is alive, but sad that she will have to mourn again for a woman that she already believed dead.  In the bedroom, Offred is expected to be the mistress. She finds that she would prefer the usual relationship. She wishes Serena was there. She wishes they were playing Scrabble instead.

Chapter 40 Back at the house, Offred waits for her next clandestine meeting. Serena  has arranged for Nick to sleep with Offred, so that ultimately she can claim a child for herself. Offred makes her way to Nick's room and offers a lusty account of what follows. She then proves herself to be an unreliable narrator, as she admits it did not happen in that way.  She offers another account. This time she and Nick flirt by quoting old movie lines before they make love. Once again, she knows and admits it did not happen that way. Offred muses on Serena, having orchestrated the event, for the price of a cigarette. Cheap, thinks Offred. 

Chapter 41 Offred begins to recount the rest of the story, which she is sorry for - in how she tells it and the events within.  She and Nick begin to see each other more frequently. Each time Offred risks death or worse, rejection, but he continues to open his door. She feels safe with him. She tells Nick her real name (but not us). She tells him of Moira and Ofglen, but not Luke, which would feel like a betrayal. Offred falls pregnant. Ofglen continues to try and recruit her to spy on Fred. Offred is losing interest. In everything. She does not even want to run away any more. She has resigned herself to the lifestyle of the handmaid, as long as she has Nick as a comfort. 

Chapter 42 'There is a dandelion' There has been a salvaging called in the district. A salvaging is a rare punishment event. This one is particularly rare as one of the three 'criminals' is a wife. Their crimes are a mystery. The Aunt in charge refuses to name their charges in case it triggers any further indecency. The audience is left to guess.  The 'criminals' have been judged guilty without trial. They are to be hanged. They go sedately to their fate because they have been drugged. The audience have been brought there without breakfast in case they vomit at the sight.  The audience are encouraged to put their hand on their hearts - to indicate their own complicity in the deaths.

Chapter 43 The women are hanged. Their bodies are arranged so that they dangle in formation  -the blue of the wife flanked by the reds of the handmaids.  Following the hanging, a male criminal is produced. He is a Guardian. A security guard. He has clearly been beaten senseless already. This is to be a particicution.  The handmaid's are told that he is a rapist and a baby murderer. Their anger is made to swell before they are invited to provide their own 'justice'. Ofglen hurtles in and knocks him out with one blow. The other women then literally tear him to shreds.  When Offred register her surprise, Ofglen claims that he is a political prisoner - one of ours - who she struck to put him unconscious.  Janine appears to have had another break with reality, brought on by the trauma of the event. She holds a piece of his scalp. 

Chapter 44 "She saw the van coming for her. It was better.” Things are returning to normal, to routine, for Offred. One day, she waits for Ofglen for their daily walk. As the other handmaid approaches, she notices there is something wrong. Ofglen has been replaced by another woman. Panicked, Offred tries the resistance code word 'Mayday' to see if the new Ofglen is one of them. Her answer indicates that she knows the password, but is working for the state.  Offred is terrorized inside. Her mind races as she tries to figure out what Ofglen may have told the Eyes. About her. About Nick. Curiously, before they part, new Ofglen tells Offred that her predecessor hung herself before she could be caught. 

Chapter 45 'She has died that I may live.' Offred thinks about what the new Ofglen has told her. Maybe she is lying. Maybe Ofglen is being interrogated still. Offred prays. She prays to God to spare her from them. In desperation, she now feels their true power.   On the way back into the house, she encounters Serena, who is furious. 'I trusted you...I tried to help you', she angrily accuses. Offred wonder what infraction as made her so angry. Then Serena produces her blue cloak, the one the commander made her wear to Jezebels. 

Chapter 46 Terrified. Offred waits in her room and thinks about her options. She could throw herself at the commander's mercy. She could bury her head in Nick's comfort, avoiding reality further. She could kill herself.  She thinks about hanging herself with a bed sheet. Like the handmaid before her.  Too late. A black van approaches. It's the Eyes. Led in by Nick, they march to her room. Before Serena and the commander appear, Nick tells her its ok. They are here to help her escape. These men, he says, are part of the resistance. Offred gets in the van. Has she been lied to? She cannot know whether she is headed for freedom or torture? 

Epilogue The epilogue is taken from an academic conference, set far in the future, in which historians question the veracity of The Handmaid's Tale.  The notes to this symposium provides the reader with a number of answers, while raising further questions. Offred, it appears, was rescued and documented her experience of Gilead on a number of tapes. Commander Fred was apparently disgraced for harboring a traitor, possibly Nick.  Gilead becomes more totalitarian before it eventually ceased to exist. A factor that may have helped in its downfall were the 'Save the Women' societies run from England, an echo of the Suffragette movements.  We never learn Offred's name or what eventually became of her.