Table of Contents
Who does Offred play Scrabble with?
Several of the words Offred forms while playing Scrabble with the Commander provide subtle commentary on her life. In her first game, Offred spells out larynx, valance, and zygote, among others. The larynx is the voice box, and like all women in Gilead, Offred is not allowed to speak out or have a say in society.
Why did he play Scrabble with Offred?
Before life changed, Scrabble used to be popular with old people and teenagers. Offred can’t imagine why the Commander would want to play this game with her. However, she notes that the game has now become forbidden. The Commander can’t play Scrabble with his wife; to do so would compromise his authority and influence.
Why does Offred cry after Scrabble?
When playing Scrabble with the Commander, Offred feels a sense of transgression since women are forbidden to read in Gilead society. She chooses to spell strange words that sound almost foreign, but they all relate to her plight as a woman in a misogynist world.
What chapter did the commander play Scrabble?
Summary: Chapter 29 The Commander and Offred have become more informal with one another. After a game of Scrabble, he offers her a magazine as usual, but she wants to talk instead. She tries to get information about him, but he gives her vague answers. Then she asks him what the Latin phrase in her room means.
Why do the handmaids wear those boots?
It is also a kind of mind control — making them feel like little girls in bonnets to take away their power.” So, using those boots was a conscious decision made by the costume designer for the series, to represent the mind control, or mental oppression, ever-present, of the maids.
Does commander like Offred?
In person, he is far more sympathetic and friendly toward Offred than most other people, and Offred’s evenings with the Commander in his study offer her a small respite from the wasteland of her life.
What happens when Offred visits the commander’s office?
That night, Offred sneaks out of her room and meets the Commander in his office. She braces herself for a forced physical advance. They play two games, and the game feels luxurious to Offred. As she is about to leave, the Commander asks her for a kiss.
Why was Ofglen replaced?
Most “Gender Traitors” are sent to the Colonies, but Ofglen is spared because she has two working ovaries and can still bear children. Not long after she reveals her true identity to Offred, Ofglen is replaced by another Handmaid, as she was caught having an affair with another woman, and put on trial.
Why does June spit out the cookie?
Why did Offred spit out cookies? In privacy, June spits out the ornamental cookie. By purging out the pink mashed-up vile, June has refused to swallow the Wives’ counterfeited piety. In the domain of Gilead, these cookies are a status symbol laid out before the Handmaid’s eyes.
What happens when a Handmaid has a baby?
Once a Handmaid gives birth, provided the baby is healthy, then it will immediately be given to the Wife of the Commander they are assigned to, who receives all the credit for the Handmaid’s hard work.
Does Offred get pregnant in The Handmaid’s Tale?
It is here that they are able to find a heartbeat, confirming that Offred/June is still pregnant. Offred/June later goes on give birth to an adorable daughter, whom she names Holly after her mother.
What city is Gilead supposed to be?
In both the book and the TV series, the fictional Republic of Gilead is centred around Offred’s former neighbourhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Gilead appears in the Bible in the book of Genesis 31:21, and is believed to mean “hill of testimony”.
In what way is Moira a loose woman?
Moira is a “loose woman” because she was a lesbian in her old life, a sexual orientation that the Gilead regime finds unacceptable. She was also once a feminist. Moira represents everything the patriarchal government of Gilead hates and wants to suppress in a woman.
Why does the commander want Offred to kiss him?
The Commander wants to see her in his office at once, but just as she gets up to walk away, Nick grabs her and kisses her. She kisses him and begins to touch him, but his intention is to embarrass her and remind her who holds the power.
What does Nolite TE Bastardes Carborundorum?
Below his feet read the words, “Nolite te bastardes carborundorum,” in bloodred. In the context of the story, the idiom roughly translates to, “Don’t let the bastards grind you down,” but it’s composed of made-up words.
What are they digging in the colonies on the Handmaid’s Tale?
Emily and her fellow “unwomen” are supposedly removing the Colonies’ radioactive soil so that Gilead can plant crops in the area — the idea is that removing pollution will help solve the fertility crisis — but their labor is just as much a solution as it is a political tool.
Why do the handmaids wear those hats?
They’re meant to act essentially like blinders would on a horse, it’s supposed to shield the handmaids from view and prevent them from seeing what’s around them as well. But the bonnets themselves have apparently been a bit of an annoyance to the production.
What are the hats in The Handmaid’s Tale called?
And the “Handmaids” at the center of her story, whose job is to bear children for the Wives, in a deep red-colored dress, like a nun’s habit, and white bonnets, called “wings,” around their heads.
