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Chapter 3

English Lit: Edexcel A Level The Handmaid's Tale, topic 2.2.2

Chapter 3 - Summary

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

Flashback - meeting Serena Joy

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.
Offred recognises Serena Joy

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:

"Looks like peace"

"Looks like peace"

  • "From a distance, it looks like peace"
"I once had a garden"

"I once had a garden"

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

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

  • "I'm a reproach to her; and a necessity"
...Scriptual precedent"

...Scriptual precedent"

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

Test yourself on Chapter 3

  • What does the Commander's Wife tell Offred?

  • What show was Serena Joy a singer on previously?

  • What happened when Offred was a Handmaid to someone before Serena's husband?

  • Complete the quotation from Chapter 3:

    "From a distance, it looks like..."

  • What does Offred remember she "once had" in Chapter 3?

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