Diving Deep into Chapter 37

Throughout The Handmaid’s Tale, many details of the society of Gilead are revealed slowly throughout the book. Chapter 37 reveals important details about the Commanders and their ‘club’.

As Offred first arrives at the hotel, it looks familiar to her. She thinks to herself “I know where I am. I’ve been here before: with Luke, in the afternoons, a long time ago. (234)” When looking back to page 172, where Offred discusses the nature of her relationship with Luke, she mentions: “So the hotels, with Luke, didn’t mean only love or even sex to me.” This is relevant because it shows how this was the same hotel where she had her affair with Luke, and is now where the Commanders have their affairs. The hotel is a symbol for these relationships, as it has continuously been a place for them.

As I continued my close reading, I noticed the way the colors of clothing in the club were slightly different from the way they are portrayed in the society. Offred observes, “There are men with them, a lot of men, but in their dark uniforms or suits, so similar to one another, they form only a kind of background. The women on the other hand are tropical… (234-235)” Throughout Gilead, the women are assigned many different colors, while the men stick to black and dark green. While this wasn’t as clear to me before, this quote made me realize how colorful they made the women. The women stick out the most, while the men get to hide in their muted colors. In Gilead, women stick out to keep them in line, but in the club they stick out like shiny objects.

Another theme that was constantly brought up throughout this chapter was the mention of shoes. Shoes are a symbol for character, societal place, power or servitude. When the Commander brings Offred to sit down he says “I thought your feet might be getting tired, in those shoes. (236)” Reading this quote reminded me of how, in the previous chapter, when Offred had to lie by the Commander’s feet, she noticed his shoes. “My forehead is against his shoes. I have never been this close to his shoes before. They feel hard, unwinking, like the shells of beetles: black, polished, inscrutable. They seem to have nothing to do with feet. (233)” The Commander’s shoes are a symbol of his character: refined, unreadable. His shoes are an image of himself and his role of power. Offred’s shoes reflect similarly. When she gets her shoes from the Commander, she describes: “There are shoes too, mauve ones with absurdly high heels. Nothing quite fits; the shoes are a little too big… (231)” Offred’s shoes represent how she doesn’t exactly fit her role in society and how out of place she feels.

One of the lines that stuck with me most was during Offred’s conversation with the Commander about the club. When Offred asks why it wasn’t forbidden, he says “Well, officially… But everyone’s human, after all. (237)” This line, as well as the whole chapter, reveal how performative the acts of Gilead truly are. While the women have an abundance of rules, the men get to do whatever they want. The Commander says ‘everyone’s human’ but he is only talking about the men and their needs.

This idea is further developed throughout the chapter under the idea of ‘Nature’, which the Commander has brought up multiple times. The first mention is during a conversation with Offred: “This way they’re [women] protected, they can fulfill their biological destinies in peace… Those years were just an anomaly, historically speaking, the Commander said. Just a fluke. All we’ve done is return things to Nature’s form. (220)” The Commander uses Nature to justify women’s role for childbirth and men’s needs for sex. At the club, in another conversation with Offred, he brings up the idea again, “‘It means you can’t cheat Nature,’ he says. ‘Nature demands variety, for men. It stands to reason, it’s part of the procreational strategy. It’s Nature’s plan.’… ‘Women know that instinctively. Why did they buy so many different clothes, in the old days? To trick men into thinking they were several different women. A new one each day.’ (237)” The Commander acknowledges that men are the problem, but blames women and nature for it. He uses this idea to justify the needs of men and the reasoning for the societal rules for women.