The Handmaid's Tale: Plot Summary (Edexcel A-Level English Literature): Revision Notes

The Handmaid's Tale: Plot Summary

1. The United States was overthrown by a theocratic regime called Gilead, founded on rigid Christian principles and the disempowerment of women.
2. Offred, the first-person narrator, recalls her restricted life at the Rachel and Leah Centre, a training camp for Handmaids in an old high school.
3. She now lives with a Commander and his wife, Serena Joy, wearing a red uniform and going on a shopping trip with fellow Handmaid, Ofglen.
4. They stop by the Wall to see the bodies of recently executed men.
5. In bed, Offred remembers her friend Moira, her activist mother, and the loss of her daughter and husband, Luke.

6. She recalls a Latin message left by a previous Handmaid and her visit to the doctor, who suggested the Commander might be sterile and offered to help her conceive.
7. Offred refused the doctor's offer despite needing to get pregnant.
8. She takes a bath, thinking about her daughter and the hysterical Handmaid Janine.

9. The household gathers to hear the Commander read the Bible before performing the Ceremony, where the Commander has impersonal sex with Offred while she lies between Serena Joy's legs.
10. Offred sneaks downstairs and encounters Nick, who relays a message from the Commander to meet the following night.
11. The next day, Offred attends Janine's birth and remembers Moira's escape from the Rachel and Leah Centre disguised as an Aunt.

12. That evening, Offred meets the Commander, who surprisingly only wants to play Scrabble and receive a chaste kiss.
13. Months pass, and Offred and the Commander meet often, making the Ceremony more fraught for her.
14. Offred and Ofglen go shopping regularly, and Ofglen reveals she's part of a secret resistance.
15. Offred recalls the events that led from the US government to Gilead: the massacre of leaders, restrictive measures, and the removal of women's rights.
16. The Commander explains the previous Handmaid's Latin message, revealing she hanged herself.
17. Serena Joy tells Offred to have sex with Nick to get pregnant, and Offred agrees.
18. Offred and Ofglen attend a Prayvaganza celebrating arranged marriages; afterwards, Serena Joy shows Offred a photo of her daughter.
19. The Commander takes Offred to a nightclub/hotel filled with prostitutes, where she meets Moira.
20. Moira reveals her months on the Underground Femaleroad before being captured.
21. Offred and the Commander have sex in a hotel room, and she fakes arousal.
22. Back home, Serena Joy leads Offred to Nick, and she genuinely enjoys the encounter.
23. Offred becomes obsessed with Nick, neglecting Resistance efforts.
24. Offred and Ofglen attend a Women's Salvaging, where three women are hanged and a frenzied group murder of a supposed rapist takes place.
25. A new Handmaid tells Offred that Ofglen committed suicide when the Eyes came for her.
26. Serena Joy confronts Offred with the skimpy outfit, threatening punishment.
27. The Eyes arrive, and Nick tells Offred they are part of the Resistance; she leaves with them, uncertain of her fate.
28. The novel ends with "Historical Notes" from a future academic conference about Gilead.
29. Professor Pieixoto describes discovering Offred's narrative on cassette tapes and suggests that the Eyes were part of the Resistance, but Offred's ultimate fate remains unknown.