2.2.2

Chapter 3

Test yourself

Chapter 3 - Summary

The setting changes to the garden. We find out this is the Commander's Wife, Serena Joy's favourite place.

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Flashback - meeting Serena Joy

  • Offred remembers her own garden and says that she does not like to be around the Commander's wife.
  • The reader experiences a flashback to the first time Offred met the Commander's Wife. This is a tense conversation where she is told to not be seen unless called for.
  • We find out that Offred has been a Handmaid for a Commander before Serena Joy's husband and that it didn't result in a pregnancy.
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Offred recognises Serena Joy

  • It is implied that a Handmaid is only given a limited amount of times to get pregnant before she is no longer needed. This makes Offred's position in the family even tenser.
  • At the end of the chapter, Offred remembers that she has seen Serena Joy before, in the past, on TV, as a singer on the "Growing Souls Gospel Hour".
  • Offred realises that the once-famous gospel singer is now is this terrible circumstance and says: "So it was worse than I thought".

Chapter 3 - Key Quotations

Here are four key quotations from Chapter 3:

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"Looks like peace"

  • "From a distance, it looks like peace"
Illustrative background for __"...a reproach to her..."Illustrative background for __"...a reproach to her..." ?? "content

__"...a reproach to her..."

  • "I'm a reproach to her; and a necessity"
Illustrative background for <b>...Scriptual precedent"Illustrative background for <b>...Scriptual precedent" ?? "content

...Scriptual precedent"

  • "They can hit us, there's Scriptural precedent"

Jump to other topics

1Author Background

1.1Margaret Atwood

2Chapter Summaries

3Dedications & Epigraph

3.1Dedications & Epigraph

4Context

5Narrative Structure & Literary Techniques

6Themes & Imagery

7Characters

8Readings

8.1Readings of The Handmaid's Tale

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