Chapter 40
English Lit: Edexcel A Level The Handmaid's Tale, topic 2.13.1
Chapter 40 - Summary and Key Quotations
The chapter opens back in the Commander's house. Offred is disturbed at midnight by Serena Joy, who wants her to visit Nick to try and get pregnant.
Encounter with Nick
- Offred visits Nick and recounts two different stories of her sexual encounter. She cannot tell the reader which is true as she reminds us again that they are "reconstructions".
- She admits that she feels hugely guilty for enjoying this intimate encounter with Nick, as she still doesn't know whether Luke is alive or dead.
"Myself... alive... human"
- "Myself, my obverse"
- There are moments where Offred views Serena Joy as a sort of double of herself.
- "I'm alive in my skin"
- In Offred's first account of sleeping with Nick, she talks about the pleasure of being touched. She seems to be emotionally engaged in the process.
- "Some acknowledgement that he too is human"
- Offred finds emotionless sex dehumanising. Atwood stresses this by juxtaposing Offred's nights with the Commander and Nick.
"Didn't happen that way"
- "It didn't happen that way either"
- Even Offred's alternative version of events is not a 'true' account. We're reminded that the entire novel is Offred's reconstruction - and that she is an unreliable narrator for that reason.
Test yourself on Chapter 40
Why does Offred feel guilty about enjoying her time with Nick?