The Handmaid's Tale Chapter 12 - Historical Notes
During their shopping trip, Ofglen informs Offred that “Mayday,” is the password for the secret organization that is brewing resistance. Upon reaching the house, Offred is accosted by Serena who is knitting something swollen despite the sweltering heat. Serena outrightly conjectures that the Commander might be sterile given the fact that she is still not pregnant. They conspire to have someone else impregnate her, and Serena promises to fetch her a picture of her daughter in return for the risk. She proposes that they use Nick, who is loyal and unlikely to report them. Meanwhile, Offred has built a stronger relationship with the Commander. He drinks in her company, and they often laugh together about the words they play during their game of Scrabble. He attempts to explain to her the structure and necessity of Gilead. He claims that men had stopped feeling good before the revolution, and sex was no longer enough of a motivator since it could be availed so easily. He feels that things are better right now because women don’t have to go through the indignity of dating. He tempers his statement noting Offred’s reaction to the notion that things were better. He explains that better conditions do not exist for everyone and that some sacrifices need to be made. Offred talks about love, but the Commander believes arranged marriages are much better.
Offred attends a woman’s Prayvaganza along with all of the women in the district, during the ceremony, the white-veiled daughters are married to Angels that have returned from fighting on the front line. Ofglen claims to know that Offred is seeing her Commander alone, and she encourages her to continue and to discover something of his work to share it with the Mayday group. At home, Offred thinks about how she doesn’t owe anything to anyone. Serena comes into her room and hands her a picture of her much older daughter. She takes back the picture almost immediately, and Offred is left with a feeling of deep hatred for Serena. In the night, the commander hands her a skimpy dress and asks her to put it on. He also has some lipstick for her, and he claims that he wants to take her out. She is reluctant at first, but she secretly wants to try on the clothes and wear something besides her red dress. The Commander smuggles her through the first few checkpoints as his wife by having her wear Serena’s blue overcoat. She has to hide through the other checkpoints until they finally arrive at an old hotel.
As they are entering the hotel, Jezebel’s, Offred notes a hint of disapproval in Nick’s gaze. She is shocked to discover scantily dressed women in the large lobby of the hotel and Gilead commanders milling among them. The commander explains that the women in the room are professional prostitutes although some of them come from more traditional backgrounds. He justifies the establishment as a little bit of fun, and Offred catches a glimpse of Moira. They meet secretly in the washroom, and Moira explains how she ended up at the hotel after being caught just as she was about to escape the country. Offred is truly disappointed when Moira tells Offred that she should find a way to make it Jezebel’s as a prostitute, because of all the freedoms that are accorded to them. Offred wants her friend to be unlike her, and to foment rebellion. She also informs Offred that she had seen her mother in a video about the colonies. Offred secretly hopes that her mother will make it back, but she realizes that she is almost certainly dead cleaning up the toxins. The Commander takes her to a private room, he explains that he wishes to get a head start on the ceremony. He hopes for her to want him, but she can’t bring herself to be a willing participant, so she tries to at least breathe audibly.
She returns home, changes into her usual clothes, and waits for Serena to come to her. Serena arrives in the middle of the night and guides her to Nick’s room. Offred offers multiple accounts of how the events after transpired after she entered his room. She is worried that she betrayed Luke, through her response to Nick. They made love that night, and Offred couldn’t keep her body from producing the sounds that it did.
Offred talks to the reader and confesses that she is embarrassed about her behavior in the following account. She continued to risk herself by returning to Nick on most nights, without Serena’s aid or knowledge. She did this for herself. She would close her eyes when they made love, and she could not help but feel love blossom for him. Nick never refused her entry, he made love to her passionately but he never spoke to her openly as she spoke to him. Ofglen attempted to get Offred to spy on the Commander, but she refused her outright. Ofglen offered her a means of escape if she was facing immediate danger, but Offred realized that she no longer wished to escape. She wanted to continue being with Nick for as long as she could, and eventually, Ofglen realized that Offred was no longer interested in the revolution. The women of the district are called to a Salvaging, where criminals are punished for betraying the social order. The ceremony is hosted by Aunt Lydia, who sentences two Handmaids and a Wife to be hanged, but she does not reveal the reasons for their death. After the hanging, the Handmaids are invited to participate in a ceremony of Particicution.
A badly beaten man is brought before the circle of Handmaids and they are told that he is a convicted rapist who has caused the death of a pregnant woman and her baby. The women are given free rein to attack, and Offred feels blood lust, but she is shocked by Ofglen’s reaction. The other handmaid brutally knocks the man unconscious before any of the other handmaids can attack him. She informs Offred that the man hadn’t been a rapist at all but a member of the Mayday Resistance, which is why she had spared him the punishment. The following day, Ofglen has been replaced by another Handmaid who has now taken her name. Offred learns that Ofglen killed herself the following evening because she had recognized that the Eyes were coming to get her. Offred feels relief because Ofglen had died before she could implicate Offred. She vows not to take a step out of the social order, to give up her trips to Nick’s room, and to let people use her body any which way as long as they let her live. She returns home and finds out that Serena has discovered the skimpy dress she had worn to the hotel with the Commander. She accuses Offred of being a slut just like the old Handmaid, and promises her the same fate. Offred quietly makes her way to her room.
She waits in her room and considers the only means of escape that she has available, suicide. A black van with the crest of the Eyes comes towards the house, and Nick enters her room. He tells her that the van is the Mayday organization and that she should go with them. She is worried that Nick might be working against her but she accompanies him because she has no other alternative. Serena and the captain are informed that Offred is being brought in because she has betrayed national secrecy, and this makes them both very afraid. She goes into the Van, not knowing what awaits her.
The epilogue titled “Historical Notes,” is an excerpt of a speech given to a symposium near the close of the 22nd century. The professor explains that The Handmaid’s Tale was transcribed from a set of cassettes that dated back to the time of Gilead, a nation that has already fallen. They discuss the means they had employed to deduce its authenticity, by identifying the Commander. The Commander had been killed in a purge that took place early in the nation’s history, and it is unclear what happened to Offred after her time at the commander’s house although the presence of the tapes seems to suggest that she had managed to escape alive.
Analysis
Manipulation through language is another major theme of the novel that is developed throughout the length of the book. In the early chapters, readers learn about the psychological conditioning that the Handmaid’s are exposed to before they are posted. They learn to see themselves as objects with little agency and their only value is attributed to their reproductive capacity. The women are stripped of their identities by possessive names that indicate their status as a piece of property for the Commanders. The women are tortured and beaten by women whom they are forced to call as Aunts. The soldiers of the nation are called Guardians but their actual role is that of jailers. These oppressive conditions lead to Offred’s complacent and her complicit actions in her suppression. However, love is represented as a powerful force that allows Offred to act without fear of punishment. She defies all of the regulations to be with Nick, because of the emotion that he incites in her. Additionally, throughout the narrative, Offred is only capable of withstanding the horrors of her life because of the memories of her loved ones.
