Summary: Chapter 41
Offred tells her imagined listener that her story is almost
too painful to bear, but that she needs to go on telling it because
it wills her listener into being. She may be addressing the reader,
or she may be addressing Luke; she says she wants to hear her listener’s
story too, if her listener escapes. Offred says she continues to
see Nick at night without Serena’s knowledge. She feels thankful
each time he opens the door to her. He never says much, but she
finds herself telling him about Moira and Ofglen. She tells him
her real name. She never mentions Luke. Eventually, she tells him
she thinks she is pregnant, although privately she feels this is
wishful thinking. During their shopping trips, Ofglen pressures
Offred to break into the Commander’s office. She wants Offred to
find out what he really does, what responsibilities he has. But
Offred now tunes out Ofglen and spends her time thinking about Nick.
Summary: Chapter 42
A women’s “Salvaging,” or large-scale execution, is held
in what used to be Harvard Yard. All the women in the district must
attend. On the lawn in front of the former library sits a stage
like the one used for commencement in pre-Gilead days. Aunt Lydia
sits on the stage, supervising the hangings. It is the first time
Offred has seen Aunt Lydia since leaving the Red Center. Aunt Lydia
announces that they have decided to discontinue announcing the crimes
of the convicted because it sparks copycat crimes. The Handmaids
are dismayed; the crimes give them hope by showing them that women
can still resist. Three women are hanged, two Handmaids and one
Wife. Offred speculates that the Handmaid tried to kill her Commander’s Wife.
She says Wives get salvaged for only three things: killing a Handmaid,
adultery, or attempted escape. The Handmaids must place their hands
on a long rope as the women hang, in order to show their consent
to the salvaging.
Summary: Chapter 43
After the hanging, Aunt Lydia instructs the Handmaids
to form a circle. A few of the other women leave, but most Wives
and daughters stay to watch. Then two Guardians drag a third Guardian
to the front. He is disheveled and smells of excrement. He looks
drunk or drugged. Aunt Lydia announces that he and another Guardian
have been convicted of rape. His partner was shot already, but this
man has been saved for the Handmaids, who will take part in what
is called a “Particicution.” Aunt Lydia adds that one of the two
Handmaids involved was pregnant and lost the baby in the attack.
A wave of raw fury courses through the crowd; Offred feels bloodlust
along with the others. Aunt Lydia blows a whistle, and the Handmaids close
in on the man, kicking and beating him to a bloody pulp. Ofglen
dashes in first and kicks his head several times. Afterward, disgusted
with her friend, Offred asks Ofglen why she did it. Ofglen whispers
that the supposed rapist was part of the underground rebellion,
and she wanted to put him out of his misery quickly. Offred sees
Janine carrying a bloody clump of hair. Her eyes look vacant, and
she babbles some cheerful greetings from the time before Gilead.
Offred admits, ashamed, that she feels great hunger.
Summary: Chapter 44
Soon after the Salvaging, Offred goes out for a shopping
trip, comforted by the ordinariness of the routine. To her dismay,
the Handmaid who meets her is not Ofglen. When Offred asks her where Ofglen
went, the woman replies, “I am Ofglen.” Since this new Handmaid
now lives with the Commander named Glen, her name becomes Ofglen.
Offred realizes how women get lost in this ocean of fluctuating
names. Trying to see if the new woman belongs to the resistance,
Offred suggests they go to the Wall. As they walk there, Offred
works the password “Mayday” into the conversation by mentioning
the old holiday of “May Day.” The new Ofglen looks at her coolly
and tells her that she should forget such “echoes” from the old
world. Terrified, Offred realizes that the new Ofglen knows about
the resistance and does not belong to it. She suddenly imagines
herself found out and arrested. She thinks that perhaps they will torture
her daughter until she tells them everything she knows. She and
the new, treacherous Ofglen walk home. As they part, the new Ofglen
suddenly whispers that the old Ofglen hanged herself when she saw
the van coming to arrest her. “’It was better,’” she says, and then
walks quickly away.
Analysis: Chapters 41–44
As soon as she begins her affair with Nick, Offred slips
into complacency, showing how it is that oppressive regimes like
Gilead come to power and survive unchallenged when their subjects
become listless. Offred remembers her mother saying that people
can grow accustomed to almost anything “as long as there are a few
compensations,” and Offred’s relationship with Nick shows the truth
of this insight. Offred’s situation restricts her horribly compared
to the freedom her former life allowed, but her relationship with
Nick allows her to reclaim the tiniest fragment of her former existence. The
physical affection and companionship becomes a compensation that
makes the restrictions almost bearable. Offred seems suddenly so
content that the idea of change, embodied in the demands that Ofglen
makes of her, becomes too difficult to contemplate. The Salvaging
shakes Offred, however, and her complacency shatters when Ofglen
disappears and a sinister, conformist woman takes her place. During
this climactic shopping trip, the horror of living in a totalitarian
state reasserts itself, and events begin to rush toward the novel’s
conclusion.
The “Salvaging” and its aftermath show Gilead at its
most cruel. It is unclear why the execution is called a salvaging,
a word that means “saving.” Perhaps the name refers to the society
at large, which is saved from the potential threat posed by the
offenders when those offenders are hanged. Less ambiguous is the
meaning of the “particicution,” a term derived by combining the
words “participation” and “execution.” As its etymology suggests,
the particicution is an execution carried out by a group. Its design
shows the cleverness of Gileadean totalitarianism, since it provides
both a gruesome death for traitors and discourages other rebels,
who face the possibility of dying at the hands of those they were
trying to help. Its main function, though, is to provide an outlet
for the rage and hatred that the Handmaids harbor toward the men
who oppress them. Even before Aunt Lydia announces the guilty Guardian’s
crime, a “murmur of readiness and anger” builds among the Handmaids.
They burst with frustration and anger at their repressed existence,
and perhaps at their inability to conceive children. Without outlets
for women’s emotions, Gilead faces the danger of a sudden upheaval.
By allowing them to participate in the Guardian’s execution, Gilead
channels the Handmaids’ anger onto a single man, who serves as a
scapegoat for everyone else. The man is presented as a rapist of
Handmaids who caused a miscarriage, meaning that not only does he
suggest the sanctioned rape of the Handmaids by the Commanders,
but he has robbed the women of the one thing that gives them value,
babies.
