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The Handmaid's Tale Chapter Six Summary and Analysis

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

After leaving All Flesh, Ofglen deliberately chooses a longer route back, pretending piety to pass a church. Offred knows Ofglen's real goal is to see the Wall. They pause at the churchyard, where the old gravestones remain untouched—only recent history has been erased. Ofglen bows her head as if praying, but Offred suspects her of acting. They then turn to face the Wall, which now holds six freshly hanged bodies in white bags. The men are doctors executed for performing abortions before the regime; placards around their necks display foetus drawings. Offred notices blood seeping through one bag, forming a red smile. She feels blankness, not hatred, and is relieved none of the men is Luke. She forces herself to distinguish between objects—the red of blood and the red of tulips—to maintain sanity. A tremor runs through Ofglen, perhaps tears, but Offred remains guarded. The chapter closes with Aunt Lydia's voice: what is repeated becomes ordinary.

Key Events

  • Ofglen and Offred take the long way back from All Flesh, stopping at a disused church.
  • They observe the churchyard's old gravestones, untouched by the regime's historical revision.
  • Ofglen pretends to pray; Offred doubts her sincerity.
  • The pair turns to face the Wall, where six bodies of executed doctors hang in white bags.
  • Offred sees blood on one bag, forming a red smile that forces her to acknowledge the reality of death.
  • She feels relief that Luke is not among the hanged.
  • Offred mentally works to keep each object distinct—tulips and blood, flowers and corpses—to preserve her own grip on reality.
  • Ofglen trembles, possibly crying; Offred holds her composure.
  • The chapter ends with Aunt Lydia's maxim about the ordinary becoming habitual.

Character Development

  • Offred: Her internal struggle deepens. She consciously represses emotion to survive, yet the blood smile breaks through her detachment. She actively disciplines her mind to separate symbols from reality, a coping mechanism that hints at her fragile sanity.
  • Ofglen: Remains opaque; her bowed head and tremor suggest hidden grief or a personal loss, but Offred cannot trust her motives. Ofglen's role as a potential ally or spy is ambiguous.
  • Luke: Though absent, he is evoked through Offred's relief—his absence from the Wall provides a momentary, selfish comfort, showing how love is twisted into a survival reflex.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

  • The Wall as Spectacle: The regime displays executed bodies to instill terror and control. The hooks resemble "steel question marks," underscoring how the dead answer nothing yet serve as warnings.
  • The Blood Smile: The seeped blood on the white bag creates a childlike red smile, contrasting innocent imagery with brutal violence. It forces Offred to acknowledge the bodies are real, not snowmen.
  • Memento Mori: The old gravestones with skulls and hourglasses remind Offred of mortality—but the regime's executions impose a political death, not a natural one.
  • The Ordinary (Aunt Lydia): The quote about ordinary becoming what is used to reveals how the regime normalizes atrocity through repetition.
  • Memory and Erasure: The church is preserved as a museum of "our ancestors," but recent history is purged. Only pre-revolutionary artifacts remain, showing the regime's selective preservation.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter Six is pivotal for world-building: it shows the regime's mechanism for terror—public executions with placards to justify retroactive crimes. It deepens Offred's psychological portrait, revealing her discipline to compartmentalize horror. The chapter also introduces the concept of "time travellers" from the past, suggesting the regime views pre-Gilead doctors as war criminals. The blood smile becomes a haunting image that resists Offred's attempts at numbness, foreshadowing future cracks in her compliance.

Study Questions and Answers

  1. Why does Ofglen insist on passing the church, and what does Offred suspect about her motives?
    Ofglen pretends to be pious but actually wants to see the Wall and the executed bodies. Offred suspects Ofglen's every act is performance, yet she cannot be sure if Ofglen feels genuine grief or is simply going through the motions expected of a Handmaid.

  2. What is the significance of Offred's observation that the red smile on the bag is the same red as the tulips, yet "there is no connection"?
    Offred is struggling to keep objects separate in her mind to avoid being overwhelmed by the horror. The tulips are real flowers; the blood is real blood. She needs to believe each thing stands on its own, without metaphorical meaning, so she can continue to function without descending into madness.

  3. How does Aunt Lydia's statement about the ordinary apply to this chapter?
    Offred notes she barely heard the morning's bells for the Salvaging—she is already becoming accustomed to executions. The regime relies on repetition to make atrocity feel routine. The chapter demonstrates how living under constant terror forces people to normalize what should be unthinkable.

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