The Handmaid’S Tale … Information For Anyone Who’S Interested

[naomi24]

If anyone is, like me, itching to read the book but reluctant to do so because they don’t want to spoil the television series for themselves ….. good news. I am reliably informed that the book covers only the first series …. so we won’t know the real ending until we’ve watched the complete production. Buying the book as we speak!!

[AuntLydia]

This episode was so much more than giving birth. I was literally shaking when Serena and Fred were in the house. Did anyone notice the child that was in the photo that Offred found at the house? I'm sure this is part of the plot somewhere. It inferred that Serena Joy had had a child and perhaps lost it? I don't think so, I think that child may have been a younger brother or even a nephew, and I think that child may be Nick. Fred said 'Nick would never betray us' a huge statement to say about a servant. Offred now has the upper hand with the Waterfords. What Fred did ( arranging a meeting between a handmaiden and her child) is against Gilead Law and Offred only has to tell an Aunty and he will be in big trouble. Maybe she will return to the Waterfords with the baby but we don't know if the baby has actually survived yet.

[naomi24]

I thought the child in that picture looked like Offred's little girl. No?

[AuntLydia]

Ah! I'm going back to have a look on playback. Do your really think so? Wow that would add another angle to the plot. But why would serena have a photo and drawings by Hannah?

[naomi24]

Don't know. I'm probably wrong.... but I did think the child looked like Offred's little girl. I wonder if Serena has been playing happy families with her? Who's house is that?

If the authorities have turned up to rescue Offred, someone will be held responsible for her being there. I can't see Fred coming clean so will he blame Nick?

[naomi24]

*Whose*

[AuntLydia]

Naomi I've just gone into playback and I think you are correct. The child is certainly a female and mixed race. I was under the impression the house belonged to the Waterfords, a country residence? I think the whole scenario, apart from Offred giving birth alone, was orchestrated by Fred with Nicks knowledge to what ends who knows. However I'm probably getting carried away now with the plot so will just say 'roll on Sunday' and try my best not to succumb to the spoilers on Wiki lol!

[Rockrose]

I have made the mistake of reading ahead and will only say - Oh my!

[naomi24]

I've just had a quick google and apparently the house belongs to Hannah's new family. In the last series, if memory serves, Serena taunted Offred by allowing her to see Hannah from a distance, so I'm guessing Serena has contact with that family.

[AuntLydia]

Ah! I wondered about that, I suppose all the Commanders wives know of each other, there can't be that many in Gilead. Gorgeous house!

[naomi24]

Would children adopted as a result of the change of regime go to Commanders' wives - or to other people? I think Commanders' wives want their 'own' children - if you know what I mean.

[AuntLydia]

Quoted from a google site on Gilead:

" Healthy children are taken from their mothers, whether they were born in the time before or after, and given to Commanders and their wives to raise."

The only other women allowed to raise children would be married 'econowives'. If they conceive with their husbands naturally they can keep their child. However, surely the econowives and their husbands would not be so privileged as to have such a large expensive home

[naomi24]

AL, I can’t get my head around that. Did ordinary families have their children taken from them and handed to Commander’s wives? That doesn’t make sense to me because in any society the number of ordinary people far outstrips the number of elite, so why haven’t all the Commanders’ wives got adopted children? Perhaps I’m over-thinking it.

[AuntLydia]

I dare not do any more research as I keep coming across spoilers. I think one has to look at it as if Gilead and the situation did not happen overnight. We are never told how long the decline in childbirth was before Gilead was formed. Perhaps this process took generations of low birthrate because of sterility in males, so by the time Gilead was formed there were very few children about. Many people probably escaped but those children whose parents were deemed unfit, were taken away and given to Commanders. Those children born in suitable circumstances ie both parent married & never divorced, were perhaps left with parents ( as Nicks wife was) then married off at puberty and became econowives. Having said that, the flashbacks Offred has about her life before Gilead does not indicate that babies were few and far between and her memories cannot be more than around 4 years old. Confusing...

[naomi24]

From reading the book I get the impression that the transition in government was fairly swift. This link says // The overthrow of the government and its subsequent repercussions takes place like rapid fire//. No spoilers there.

https://www.bustle.com/p/what-happened-to-america-in-the-handmaids-tale-how-the-dystopian-society-formed-is-a-pretty-terrifying-story-53107

I think, in writing the book, the speed with which the new government took over was crucial to the story in that the author was influenced by her observations of the rapid transition that had taken place in East Berlin.

[Rockrose]

Looking at flash backs in the program it really does appear to have changed in a space of 2 or 3 years - quite frightening really.

I wonder how Serena and the rest of the wives live with the fact that the handmaids are raped to provide them with children. Do they live with it be cause they are overwhelmed with the need for a child, or do they considere the handmaids 'less human' and therefore it doesn't matter how they are treated?

[naomi24]

This is how they justify it:

//The Handmaid's Tale sex ceremony uses a real Bible passage from The Old Testament as justification for the act.

Before the ritual takes place, the Commander reads from a translation of Genesis 30:1 found in the Kings James Bible:

And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her. And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her. And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son.//

https://www.bustle.com/p/the-bible-passage-in-the-handmaids-tale-sex-ceremony-has-ironic-meaning-53645

[Rockrose]

Oh JHC

[ladybirder]

Mouth hanging open here.

[naomi24]

LB, did you not realise that? It’s one of the reasons I referred to the bible earlier in the thread. It’s the whole basis of the book’s title.

[AuntLydia]

The reference to 'marthas' is also from The New Testament

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_at_the_home_of_Martha_and_Mary