I tend to think the former.

Yes, yes. Gardening is a huge part of her life in the book.

Yes. That's true. However it is also likely that the failure of the Gilead elites to have kids is because the husband is sterile, a word and concept that is now outlawed, so the handmaid system isn't really going to accomplish anything in that case. For all we know, Serena Joy is totally fertile and the Commander is…

They are just the Wives. That is their cast. And no they are not allowed to read. Or do anything really but make social calls to each other and discipline Handmaids and Marthas.

WHERE IS CHAPTER IV?!?!??! I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR HOURS!!!!!

I think he probably sees he is being manipulated, but also doesn't particularly care. He probably thinks it's all just "women squabbling among themselves" and thinks it is cute.

In the trial both Martha and handmaid were referred to by rank and number. But in daily life the Martha goes by her first name and the handmaid goes by Of followed by the commander's first name.

Yep this is asshole crisis communications 101. You see it constantly when someone is killed by the cops, suddenly it's all about assassinating the dead person's character rather than the cop's prejudices. Or in public rape accusations.

Well we knew someone at the Red Center was named June, but not necessarily that it was or was not her.

Again that conversation is all about Troy. Everything about her is defined by him. She has no real characterization of her own.

Fertility is just the excuse, the weakness exploited by the Commanders to create this terrible society. If what they actually, truly cared about was improving the birthrate then none of the things they've done make sense. They are pretty much anti-sex, with certain exceptions, and definitely anti-science.

If the handmaid died in childbirth they'd probably just consider it a bummer that a good brood mare was lost before she could provide for another commander, but ultimately a convenience, since now they don't have to find a place for her after she's too old to be fertile.

Oh interesting. I had not considered that.

I disagree. She is a plot device in other ways, but she is never really characterized except as someone to facilitate A to B plot movement.

I think a trip inside the Colonies is a must.

There are definitely "daughters" who get married off en masse at the prayvaganza ceremony. But it's hard to say if they were born to the commanders and wives in the before times, or were kidnapped and reassigned like Hannah.

I think Offred is being an unreliable narrator in that instance. She has internalized the lessons of the Red center and believes that she somewhat "deserves" being a handmaid for not resisting more, for not attempting escape (in the book), for not killing herself. Plus, she feels a sense of having failed her daughter…

Yeah that could probably work. Unless Gilead has gone antivax, which actually would be a pretty funny addition to their anti-science idiocy.

But they already had Offred mention her father, so even if her mom comes up, it will be different.

I did wonder if insemination actually would be possible. Like, I'm sure any and all official medical equipment used for that purpose was destroyed by the regime. And even something as basic as a turkey baster, the doc has no justifiable, legal reason to own. He can't send a woman in his household out to buy one for…