Summary: Chapter 16
After the prayers and Bible reading, the Ceremony continues
as usual. In the bedroom, Offred lies on her back between Serena’s legs,
her head resting on Serena’s pubic bone. Serena is fully clothed, while
Offred’s skirt is hiked up and her underwear is off. The two women
hold hands, and Serena’s rings dig into Offred’s fingers. The Commander
has sex with Offred in a brisk, impersonal fashion, then zips himself
up and leaves the room promptly. Serena orders Offred to leave,
even though Offred is supposed to rest for ten minutes to improve
her chances of getting pregnant.
Summary: Chapter 17
Once Offred is safely alone in her bedroom, she removes
the butter from her shoe and uses it as lotion for her skin because
lotion and beauty products are forbidden to the Handmaids. Offred
cannot sleep, so she decides to steal something. She sneaks downstairs
and decides to take a daffodil from a flower arrangement. She wants
to press it under her mattress and leave it for the next Handmaid
to find. As she stands in the sitting room, she senses the presence
of someone behind her in the room. It is Nick. Neither of them are
supposed to be downstairs. Wordlessly, they kiss, and she longs
to have sex with him right there. She thinks of Luke, telling him
he would understand, then thinking he wouldn’t. Sex is too dangerous,
and Nick and Offred separate. Nick whispers that the Commander sent him
to find her. The Commander wants to see her in his office tomorrow.
Summary: Chapter 18
After returning to her room, Offred lies in her bed, remembering making
love to Luke while her baby kicked inside her womb. She imagines
Luke dead, his body lying in the thickets where they were caught
trying to escape. She imagines that he is in prison. She also imagines
that he made it safely across the border and that one day a message
from him will come to her in some unexpected way. She believes in
these three scenarios simultaneously, so that nothing will surprise
her.
Summary: Chapter 19
Offred dreams of catching her daughter in a hug, but a
wave of sorrow overtakes her because she knows that she is dreaming.
She dreams of waking up to her mother carrying in a tray a food
and taking care of her. At breakfast, Offred contemplates the beauty
of a boiled egg in sunlight. The sound of sirens interrupt her breakfast;
it is a Birthmobile, coming to collect Offred and take her to a
birth. Janine, now known as Ofwarren, is about to have her baby.
During the ride to Commander Warren’s house, Offred wonders if
Janine will give birth to a deformed child, an Unbaby. One in four women
have been poisoned by toxins and other environmental pollution,
which leads to birth deformities in their children. She recalls Aunt
Lydia saying that women who did not want to have babies poisoned
their own bodies or got their tubes tied. She calls these women Jezebels,
scorners of God’s gifts. In an old classroom, Aunt Lydia showed
them a graph of how the birthrate had fallen over the course of
history, eventually falling below the “line of replacement.” Aunt Lydia
said that women who did not want to breed were lazy sluts. She explains
how much better childbirth is in Gilead in contrast to the old days,
because birth is entirely natural. Women are not even allowed drugs
to soothe their pain, because it is better for the baby, and because
God wants women to suffer during childbirth.
The Birthmobile arrives at the home of Ofwarren’s Commander, and
the Handmaids file in. Then another Birthmobile pulls up, the one
that carries the Wives. Offred imagines the Wives sitting around and
talking about their Handmaids, calling them sluts, complaining about
how unclean they are.
