SPECIMEN NOTES ON ‘THE HANDMAID’S TALE’ CHAPTER 4

• ECONOMIC STATUS/ DISCRIMINATION: This moment in the novel “I walk along the
gravel path that divides the back lawn, neatly, like a hair parting. It has rained
during the night; the grass to either side is damp, the air humid. Here and there are
worms, evidence of the fertility of the soil, caught by the sun, half dead; flexible
and pink, like lips.” is a leading image to the understanding of the central issues in
the novel.
• It is interesting to know how at the beginning of the chapter the writer uses Nature
imagery as in the previous chapters there was a focus on the red and Crimson
flowers, here the writer talks about the “fertility of the soil” and the imagery,
“flexible and pink like lips” could be looked upon as physical or rather sexual
connotations.
• “The car is a very expensive one, a Whirlwind; better than the Chariot, much better
than the chunky, practical Behemoth. It’s black, of course, the color of prestige or
a hearse, and long and sleek. The driver is going over it with a chamois, lovingly.
This at least hasn’t changed, the way men caress good cars.”
• There is seen an implicitness in the words spoken by Offred; her observation of the
black expensive car which to her appeared as the color of “prestige or a hearse” ;
the noun phrase foreshadows the idea and the image of death. An ‘expensive car’
also suggests the idea of wealth and black money which seems to have been at the
command of the commander. This paragraph gives the idea about the superior
economic position which the commander enjoyed.
• This contrasts with the austere and lackluster life which was meant to be the lot of
the handmaids. It is juxtaposed with the hard conditions of life and all the
restrictions which were imposed upon the handmaids; this highlights the idea of
discrimination in the novel as it suggests discrimination within the totalitarian
governance at Gilead.
• NICK: (INTOLERANCE/ OPPRESSION/ SUPPRESSION/ REPRESSION/ SEXUAL
ENSLAVEMENT/ PARADOX)
• “He’s wearing the uniform of the Guardians, but his cap is tilted at a jaunty angle
and his sleeves are rolled to the elbow, showing his forearms, tanned but with a
stipple of dark hairs.” He has a cigarette stuck in the corner of his mouth, which
shows that he too has something he can trade on the black market.
• Offred’s attention is caught by Nick, the young man wearing the uniform of the
Guardians; his cap “tilted at a jaunty angle” attracts Offred’s attention; This
moment in the novel laid the foundation of the theme of sexuality and its
corresponding repression in the Gilead.