The handmaid’s tale summary chapters PDF

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The handmaid’s tale summary chapters Chapter 1

Night ● The narrator and several other women are sleeping in a high school's gymnasium. Speaking for all of them, the narrator says they are thinking about the events that used to take place there and the romances that transpired. They think about what's to come and what has passed, while they sleep on army cots. ● Two women, called Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth, act as guards to keep them from talking or rising up. They use cattle prods, while the other guards have guns. ● The women have to stay inside except for their twice-daily walks. Outside, the school's football field has been turned into a fort guarded by barbed wire and people called Angels. The women think about trying to seduce the Angels, but the Angels never even see them. ● Since the women aren't allowed to talk, they use lip-reading to tell each other their names.

Chapter 2

Shopping ● The narrator describes a room, minimally furnished and white. It's decorated in an old-fashioned feminine style and has one chair. ● The room has a picture of flowers, but there's nothing in it that could be used as a weapon. A woman called Aunt Lydia said it was like being in the army. The narrator thinks that despite her situation, she wants to stay alive. ● A bell rings and the narrator gets dressed in a red outfit that covers her whole body, including her hands, and shades her face. She takes her shopping basket and goes downstairs. ● The house is big enough for a family, but there are no children. The narrator passes a mirror and umbrella stand and thinks of the Commander's Wife. ● She goes to the kitchen and sees Rita, the cook, who's a "Martha." She wears an outfit that's similar to the narrator's, but it's green. When the narrator goes outside no one's supposed to see her face. Rita gives her some tokens. ● The narrator thinks about how she eavesdropped on Rita and Cora, the cleaner, once. They were talking about the narrator and how they'd never do what she was doing— they would rather be Unwomen. ● The narrator thinks she'd like to stay and talk with them, have coffee—which is now a luxury—and chat. She knows the Marthas chat to each other about dreadful things— children that don't make it, poison, death. But Rita won't talk to her; the Marthas aren't supposed to talk to the narrator and her kind. ● She thinks about what this would be called, and about a man named Luke, who loved words. ● She accepts the tokens, which have pictures of food on them, and on Rita's orders goes to the market.

Chapter 3

Shopping ● The narrator passes through the nice garden, which belongs to the Commander's Wife. She thinks about the garden she used to have and about the Commander's Wife, who spends a lot of time knitting. ● She met the Commander's Wife five weeks earlier, when she arrived from a prior, similar situation. Someone called a Guardian dropped her off. ● She came in the front door but now she uses the back. The Commander's Wife, not a Martha, let her in grudgingly. ● The narrator doesn't speak to the Commander's Wife, but watches her smoke. Smoking is illegal and the narrator isn't supposed to have alcohol or coffee either. ● The Commander's Wife and the narrator talk. We learn that this is the narrator's third assignment; the first two didn't work out. The Commander's Wife lays down the ground rules: stay out of the way, treat this as just business, and leave her husband alone. ● The narrator thinks they wouldn't have liked each other in the life before. She recognizes the Commander's Wife as a woman called Serena Joy, who was on a Gospel TV show the narrator watched when she was little.

Chapter 4

Shopping

○ The narrator leaves the house, passing the driveway, where a Guardian named Nick is washing the Commander's fancy car. Nick has a cigarette. He lives there and works for them but has a little bit of an attitude. The narrator is suspicious of him. ○ Their eyes meet and he winks at her. She's not sure what this means. He could be an Eye (a spy). ○ She gets to the street corner and waits, thinking of Aunt Lydia. ○ Another woman arrives, dressed the same as the narrator. They greet each other and go into town. They have to travel in twos to keep tabs on each other. ○ This woman, Ofglen, has been meeting the narrator for two weeks. Before that, she met another woman, and she doesn't know what happened to her. ○ Their chat reveals they are Handmaids and their country is at war. As they walk, they pass some men called Guardians of the Faith, who are like policemen-spies. They are overzealous and killed a woman the previous week. ○ Rita and Cora talked about this, criticizing it. ○ The women show the guards their passes to get through a barrier, and one

tries to look at the narrator. This is forbidden but she enjoys it. She thinks of forbidden actions. ○ As they walk away, she sways her hips to taunt the men, who have no outlets for their sexual urges.

Chapter 5

Shopping ● They are now in the city of Gilead. This used to be a normal city, but now it looks eerily quiet and clean. There aren't any kids. ● The narrator thinks about how she used to talk with Luke about buying a house and having a family, a freedom that's now a thing of the past. ● They pass other women, Marthas and Econowives. She remembers how women used to be free to do things like go to laundromats. Now they are safeguarded and imprisoned. ● They pass a store called Lilies, where they get their dresses, or habits. There aren't any words on the signs anymore because the society doesn't think women should read. ● They wait in line to make purchases at Milk and Honey. The store has oranges, but the narrator can't buy them because she doesn't have the right tokens. Shopping is one of the only times when she might be able to see someone from her past life. She thinks of her friend Moira. ● Two handmaids enter, one of whom is pregnant. Everyone in the store is focused on her. She's lucky but in danger; children are rare commodities. ● Ofglen and the narrator pay for their food with tokens. As they leave, the narrator recognizes the pregnant woman. People called her Ofwarren, but her name was Janine. ● The narrator and Ofglen go to All Flesh, where they get chicken and steak. They don't get shopping bags, which the narrator used to save. This memory makes her think of Luke and a small girl who was seemingly their daughter. The memory hurts her and she forces herself to stop thinking about it. ● Outside some Japanese tourists pass by and gawk at them. The women are wearing short skirts and high heels, which are forbidden in the narrator's society. ● The narrator and Ofglen refuse to let their picture be taken, and the narrator tells them they are happy.

Chapter 6

Shopping ● On the way home they walk past the church because it will take longer. ● Their headdresses keep them from seeing very much, but they get peeks of the natural world. They pass by buildings that have been repurposed, a subway they can't use, and the church, which is now a museum. They stop at the Wall, where you can't go in or out. ● On the Wall there are six dead bodies—men who have been hanged. The narrator calls this a Men's Salvaging. The men have bags over their heads, but their faces are somewhat visible. They're wearing white coats, which means they were doctors who practiced abortions before the war. Although abortion used to be legal, they've been tracked down and punished as a warning. ● The narrator is relieved because Luke wasn't a doctor, so he might be safe. ● The narrator focuses on one face, which has blood on it. She and Ofglen don't look at each other.

chapter 7

Night ● At night, the narrator gets to be by herself. She has to be very still but at least she can think. ● She remembers hanging out with her friend Moira when they were in college, wearing makeup, getting to go out, and drinking. ● Then she thinks of going to a park with her mother to watch people burn magazines. The narrator gets to help, even though she's little. The magazines are porn. ● Then she has a memory blank. What happened? She was restrained, screaming. Someone told her she was not suitable. She saw a young girl with a strange woman in strange clothes taken away. ● The narrator says she wishes this were a story so she could change the outcome. She has to tell it, not write it, because that's too dangerous. She has no audience, so she'll invent one.

chapter 8

Waiting Room ● More bodies appear on the Wall: a priest and two Gender Treachery practitioners. The narrator tells Ofglen they should leave. ● Ofglen says, "It's a beautiful May day" (8.7). The narrator responds abstractly while remembering talking with Luke about the origin of the word Mayday. It's something ships called for, for help. He said it was from the French m'aidez, or "help me." ● Ofglen and the narrator pass a funeral march of three women, all Econowives. They are conducting a funeral for a fetus that died at just a few months. ● They keep walking and part ways. It seems like Ofglen's about to say something when they part, but she doesn't. ● The narrator pauses by Nick on her way inside. He asks her a question, but she just nods. ● She goes inside and thinks about Serena Joy. She doesn't like the name and knows it's fake. She also knows there was an assassination attempt on Serena Joy, who used to be famous years ago. She preached about women staying in the home. Luke found her amusing but the narrator thought she was frightening. ● Serena Joy is becoming less and less beautiful and doesn't greet the narrator at all when she passes. ● The narrator recalls how Aunt Lydia said the Wives were more dangerous than the husbands, and that Handmaids should feel for them. Aunt Lydia said the future was "in [their] hands." ● The narrator takes her basket into the kitchen, where Rita is chopping carrots. Its smells remind her of her own kitchen and motherhood. She tells Rita about the oranges. ● Rita takes her to the kitchen and says it's bath day. Cora comes in. They talk about the chicken and the chores, including giving the narrator her bath. ● The narrator leaves, passing through the hallway on her way to her room. ● She sees the Commander. He's out of context and shouldn't be there; she doesn't know how to respond or what to do. ● She thinks he was in her room, unused to thinking of it as hers.

chapter 9

Waiting Room

● So the narrator accepts the room as her own, although it's obviously not where she would choose to be. ● She thinks of how another woman lived there before her. When she arrived, she explored the room as slowly as she could. She thinks of hotel rooms, how she used to meet Luke at them before they got married, when he was with his first wife. They loved each other. ● She can't think about him too much, so she thinks about the rooms, where they were free to do as they liked. ● The narrator divides the room into sections, and each day she looks at a new one. One day she finds sex stains on the mattress. This proof of love (or at least sex) made her think of Luke. The room is supposed to be suicide-proof. ● When she explores the cupboard, she notices hooks you could hang yourself on and some writing scratched on the floor, maybe in Latin: Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. She savors this piece of text from the past and imagines the woman who wrote it to be like her friend Moira from before the war. ● After the narrator discovers the message, she asks Rita what happened to the woman before her. Rita doesn't reveal much, just that there'd been a few women there before her, and not all of them had stayed for the two years they were supposed to. Rita won't say what happened to the last woman... just that "she didn't work out" (9.26).

chapter 10

Waiting Room ● The narrator sings little songs to herself in her head—"Amazing Grace" and so on— although they're forbidden now. Very little music exists in the current world. ● It's really hot. Soon she'll be able to wear the summer version of her outfit but still be covered up. She thinks of Aunt Lydia's lectures and about how she should behave. ● The narrator flashes back to Moira, who wanted to have an "underwhore" party when they were young, where they'd trade cheap lingerie. They laughed and smoked and were free. ● The narrator recalls how they acted like things were normal then, just as everybody acts like things are normal now. They ignored crimes that didn't happen to them. ● She hears a car outside. She sits on a pillow embroidered with the word "FAITH." This is all she has to read.

● She looks out and sees Nick followed by the Commander. She's close enough that she could throw something at him. She remembers throwing water bombs at boys with Moira back in college. She watches the Commander's car drive away and tries to define her feelings about him.

chapter 11

Waiting Room ● The narrator thinks about how she went to the doctor the previous day. It's the only activity she gets to do by herself, and even then she's not alone. A Guardian drives her there. ● She has to visit the doctor each month to have her fertility and health checked. In the waiting room, all the other women are dressed in red too. ● When it's the narrator's turn, she goes into a white room and gives a urine sample. Then she undresses and gets under a sheet. A second sheet covers her face so the doctor won't see it. ● The doctor comes in to examine her. He speaks to her, even though he shouldn't. While he performs his invasive examination, he offers to help her. He lifts up the sheet and looks at her face. ● At first she thinks he means help her with news of Luke. But he's offering to have sex with her so maybe she'll get pregnant. He insinuates that the man she works for is sterile and that he could help her—he's done it for other people. ● It's dangerous to say that men are sterile, because the society blames infertility exclusively on women. ● The narrator thinks vaguely that if she can't have children, she might die. ● The doctor seems genuine, but it's hard to tell. He could be a spy, and if they got caught, it would mean death. The narrator has to be cautious, though, because he could report her if she doesn't give him what he wants. ● He leaves and she feels anxious but isn't sure why. The memory ends.

chapter 12

Waiting Room ● Back at the Commander's the narrator describes the bathroom. It's all blue and has

been safety-proofed, just like the bedroom. Cora waits outside like a guard while the narrator bathes. ● The narrator feels weird in what's a "luxury" (12.2) and strange being naked. She feels stranger still that the way she used to dress would be immodest now. ● She relaxes in the bath and imagines her daughter is there. She refuses to believe her daughter could be dead and thinks back to how someone tried to adopt her when she was a baby. They were in a supermarket when a crazy woman grabbed the girl and tried to run away, saying it was her baby. The narrator called for help and they got the baby back. At the time, she says, it seemed out of the ordinary. ● The memory of the little girl vanishes, and the narrator thinks back to the mother she used to be. All their possessions are gone, too. ● Aunt Lydia had told her to treasure being poor and having nothing. The narrator worries that her daughter will think she is dead. She thinks her daughter would be about eight now, which means it's been three years since she was taken. ● Cora asks the narrator to hurry up. She cleans herself and notices that her ankle has been marked with a tattoo. She gets dressed again and goes back to her room. ● Cora brings the narrator dinner in her room. The food is nutritious but bland. The narrator knows she's lucky to have this food, but it makes her feel nauseous. She might get in trouble if she doesn't eat, so she forces herself to. ● She thinks about the polite meal going on downstairs, where the Commander's Wife doesn't have to eat her whole meal if she doesn't want to. ● The narrator steals a bit of butter off the plate and hides it in one of her shoes.

chapter 13Nap ● The narrator is bored. She sits in her room, waiting, and thinks about 19th-century paintings of harem women, about how women waiting is or isn't sexy. She compares herself to a pig getting fattened or a caged rat. ● Lying on the rug, she does pelvic exercises and thinks of the training she got from Aunt Lydia. ● When she was being held in the gymnasium, they had naps for an hour every afternoon. Lots of the women slept. The narrator thinks they might have been drugged. ● After she'd been there a couple weeks, her friend Moira arrived. She'd been captured, beaten, and brought to the Center with the other women. She and the narrator

couldn't speak to one another, but they managed to make plans to meet in the bathroom one afternoon. ● The narrator experiences the next memory in the present tense. They wait. Their meeting time is during Testifying in front of Aunt Helena and Aunt Lydia that afternoon. ● Janine testifies about being raped and having an abortion. The narrator's not sure if it's true or not. Aunt Helena encourages them to all blame Janine and say it was her fault. ● Janine had testified the same story the previous week and cried. The other women made fun of her, and the narrator was ashamed. ● After Janine is done talking, the narrator asks to go to the bathroom. This has to be timed just right. Dolores was forbidden when she asked once, then she wet the bed and was punished. The Aunts hurt her but the other captives don't know what happened. ● The narrator makes it to meet Moira in the bathroom that used to be for men. She is "ridiculously happy" (13.43). ● The memory ends and the narrator is back in her body. She worries about getting her period, because that means she's failed. Previously, she'd been able to think of her body in different ways and to own it. Now it's just a uterus encased in flesh. Each month she feels awful. ● The narrator sees herself in the apartment she used to share with Luke. It's completely empty except for the closet, which is full of clothes that don't belong to her. She sees Luke but he can't hear her. She worries that he's dead. ● Then the narrator flashes to another memory, where she and her daughter are running away. The daughter is tired and sad, and she doesn't understand what they're doing. Someone shoots at them and they hide. The narrator tries to protect her daughter but can't. ● People are upon them. They grab the narrator and she watches as her daughter is carried away. ● A bell rings and the narrator wakes up, hearing Cora at the door.

chapter 14

Household ● The bell keeps ringing and the narrator goes into the sitting room, which she

describes as weirdly, domestically furnished and reflecting a great deal of wealth. ● The room's smells remind her of young girls, and she wishes she could take something secretly to hide in her own room. ● She sits in her assigned position and waits for other people to come in. ● Rita and Cora come in grudgingly. The narrator thinks it's her fault. Nick enters too. The narrator thinks his foot touches hers but isn't sure. Then Serena Joy comes in. ● While they're waiting, Serena Joy turns on the TV. The narrator is excited by the rare opportunity to watch the news. She reveals that it's the only positive aspect of nights like this, which have Ceremonies. ● The news program reveals the war is still going, but only shows wins for the side in charge. In the Appalachians, Baptists are being persecuted and a prisoner has been caught. ● The narrator tries not to believe the news anchor, who looks like a nice old man. He says a spy ring has been cracked and Quakers have been captured. This is followed by an image of Detroit, where over 3,000 people are being resettled—the narrator doesn't know why. ● Serena Joy turns off the TV, and the narrator has a flashback. ● In the flashback the narrator has a real name. She doesn't reveal what it is, but it's not the same as her name in this household, which is Offred. She treasures her o...