The Handmaids tale

[DumbledoresArmy]

Anyone else planning on watching this at 9pm on channel 4?

How does one become a commander's wife. Were they married before the new regime?
Will there only be handmaids for one generation? Then the children of the commanders and handmaids will all be fertile and marry each other and life will return to 'normal'?
Don't want any spoilers just musing.

Ah - I see someone had just asked the same question!

corporal..they were not just unmarried fertile women...they were fertile women with proven fertility who were deemed by the state to not be worthy of wife status ( in Offred's case the reason why she and Luke do not get status becomes clear further on )

Oh I know red I didn't want to give anything away but the wives were married to the commanders before the new regime came in.

I've never read the book. Watched episode two last night. Don't think I will follow the thread anymore as it's being ruined by spoilers and people saying it's all in the wrong order and X happens first etc. Some of us are experiencing this for the first time!

The show was extremely mumbly. I'm having to rewind and watch with subtitles for too much of it.

The music at the end I thought was to express that great feeling she was having after the whole scrabble thing. She was clearly feeling really good and powerful (which I don't understand at this point but do recognise) and the music was perfect for that I thought. It was perfectly uncomfortable if that makes sense.

The scrabble, and her reaction I did not get. Why was she so ecstatic? Was it because she was expecting to be sent to the colonies? Why did she feel so smug walking out of the house the next day?

Other than that I just had the constant overwhelming sense of fear. Every interaction, every look- fear of the consequence.

Both Reds!

Sorry, my above comment is relating to the book but it contain spoilers really so I've asked for it to be removed.

Do we get to learn why they are given those names/what the point of the "off" part is? If it isn't a spoiler to say.

They are named after the man they are assigned to - of - Fred, of - Glen, of - Warren.

Bandeau the Handmaids' names are patronymics, to signify that they belong to their Commanders. So June's Commander is Fred Waterford - she is 'of Fred'. Thus Offred. The others are 'of Glen', 'of Steven', 'of Warren'. The 'of' signifies possession - as in the car of Fred, the house of Fred, the wife of Fred, the Handmaid of Fred.

The 'of' denotes (temporary) ownership. Offred is the handmaid of Fred, Ofglen is the handmaid of Glen, etc.

Oops cross-post Nanny

Do you think we are going to see babies named Offred as a result of the series? If you ignore the meaning it's a very pretty name and there are after all lots of Khaleesis since Game of Thrones.

Ahhh!! Thank you! I was wondering how the "new" offglen could be called offglen. It makes total sense now. So what are their names when they don't have a posting?

They'll always have a posting... I guess they get to be Marthas once they stop being fertile (if they're good, ie if they manage to have a baby for a Commander) and then they would get their own names back. Or they get shipped to the Colonies of they're bad and I dare say no-one then cares what their name is.

That's speculation btw, not spoilers.

I've just caught up, and I think they've done an amazing job of capturing the terror of the state control, and putting the story into a TV format where each episode must have a beginning, middle and end and people won't wait for things to be explained.

I think wives are assigned to men, depending on their rank. Its mentioned that the driver must be low ranking as he 'hasn't been assigned a woman yet'- presumably women born to, or belonging to, the middle and upper ranks aren't made to become handmaids or marthas so they are married off according to the will of the state.

I don't think you can consider comments "spoilers" when the book it's based on has been out for more than 30 years.

I don't think you can consider comments "spoilers" when the book it's based on has been out for more than 30 years.

fairfax i agree...and have tried not give away anything that is a plot spoiler...sorry to anyone who feels i have...

If this was a thread about the book I would agree with you. But it's not. It's about a TV show that is currently being aired (which is made clear in the OP) and people are watching as it is aired.

corporal... i cannot remember the book making it clear that the wives were already married to the commanders before the state of gilead came into being...and what MA also didnt make clear is what happened to 'ordinary' married women and men ..so not commanders , and not enemies of the state but lets say ordinary folk like farmers or post men etc..i just presumed that if they had not failed the states criteria then they were left to get on with life as best they could with a wife but maybe not a handmaid....
i have loved all MA's books and love the sometimes unsaid/vagaries that leave the reader to make their own interpretation as they stimulate great debates !
The heart goes first is another absolute corker of a book.

The tv show is based on a seminal book-
adaptations of classics surely follow different 'spoiler' equitette to brand new dramas.