Contents
Birth Day
Overview
Summoned by a Birthmobile, Offred joins other Handmaids as Janine (Ofwarren) delivers a healthy girl, Angela, amid ritualized female solidarity and the Wives’ envy. Offred recalls Red Center propaganda, her activist mother, and learns how Moira escaped by impersonating an Aunt. Returning exhausted, Offred secretly visits the Commander, plays forbidden Scrabble, and he asks her to kiss him, exposing a risky new intimacy.
Summary
Offred wakes from dreams of her lost child and mother, steadies herself with small rituals, and hears a red Birthmobile siren. She is rushed with other Handmaids to Ofwarren’s (Janine’s) Commander’s house, where anxiety over possible deformity mixes with state statistics and Aunt Lydia’s lessons about environmental ruin and Unbabies.
Inside, Wives gather upstairs while Janine labors under Aunt Elizabeth’s guidance. Offred’s memories surface: Red Center films of violence and Unwomen, and an older documentary showing her mother at feminist protests. The room’s smells, chants, and synchronized breathing bind the Handmaids into coerced communal labor.
As lights dim, Janine is seated on the birthing stool; the Commander's Wife mounts behind her to symbolically “deliver.” Janine bears a healthy girl, later named Angela by the Wife. The Handmaids feel triumphant yet hollow, holding “ghost babies” as they are driven home, aware Janine will nurse briefly before reassignment while the Wife claims the child.
Exhausted, Offred lies in her room and recounts Moira’s escape: Moira dismantled a toilet mechanism into a weapon, disarmed Aunt Elizabeth, swapped clothes, bound her, and strode out as an Aunt—never recaptured, becoming a subversive legend among the women.
That night, with Serena likely still away, Offred answers the Commander’s illicit summons. In his study—lined with forbidden books—he asks her to play Scrabble. The clandestine game thrills Offred with language’s forbidden pleasure. When she leaves, he asks for a kiss “as if you meant it,” revealing a personal vulnerability and initiating a perilous private bond.
Who Appears
- OffredHandmaid narrator; attends Janine’s Birth Day, recalls propaganda and her mother, learns of Moira’s escape, and secretly plays Scrabble with the Commander, who asks for a kiss.
- Janine (Ofwarren)Laboring Handmaid; delivers a healthy girl later named Angela; weeps amid ritual while the Wife claims the infant.
- The CommanderSummons Offred to his study; initiates forbidden Scrabble games and requests a sincere kiss, exposing risky intimacy.
- Serena JoyCommander's Wife; attends the Birth as a privileged Wife and, through the wife of Warren, claims and names the newborn Angela.
- Aunt LydiaEnforcer and instructor; her lessons on birthrates and Unbabies frame Offred’s memories; recounts Moira’s escape to Janine.
- Aunt ElizabethGyn Ed instructor overseeing Janine’s labor; previously overpowered by Moira during Moira’s escape.
- MoiraOffred’s rebellious friend; escaped the Red Center by impersonating an Aunt, becoming a galvanizing legend.
- OfglenOffred’s shopping partner; present at the Birth, helps pass spiked juice, shares the communal chant.
- CoraMartha; helps Offred depart for the Birth, later expresses hope Offred will produce a child for the household.
- Offred’s motherAppears in documentary memory leading feminist protests; a touchstone for Offred’s reflections on the past.
- Wife of WarrenClaims Janine’s newborn, presides over naming the baby Angela amid other Wives’ envy.