In the story, an environmental disaster has led to most women becoming infertile, and the small number who are still able to become pregnant are forced to become
In The Handmaid's Tale, infertility is linked to another one of Gilead's prominent problems: pollution. As revealed in the season 1 episode "A Woman's Place," inorganic farming and radioactivity are to blame for declining fertility.
It is implied that some Wives are capable of bearing children, but most are older women and thus have difficulty conceiving (or their husbands are infertile), which is also hampered by widespread infertility. As a result, Wives have to 'share' their husbands with Handmaids, in order to get a child.
It is explained in a flashback that pollution and other factors caused infertility on most women so that only very few could get children.
The Waterfords were previously believed to both be infertile. Fred had failed to get both June and a previous handmaid pregnant, despite many attempts even outside Gilead's "ceremony". Serena was shot in her lower abdomen by a protester in the days before Gilead, and her injuries damaged her reproductive organs.
“So is she impressive to him? Sure. But Fred is the father.” Fans of the show will have to wait until season five to see how the rest of Serena's pregnancy will go, especially when she finds out that Fred has been killed.
Fred Waterford Got Serena Joy Pregnant
However, the baby was actually conceived at a time when both Fred and Serena were doubting their decision to create Gilead.
Handmaids are allowed to stay with their babies for a few weeks, breastfeeding them, but after they are weaned, the Handmaids are forced to leave the household and are assigned to a new Commander.
The childbirth scene is primal and intimate and prompts the women to confess their secrets: June tells Serena that she didn't kill her when she had the chance because she simply didn't want to, and Serena realizes she has been forced into essentially being a handmaid in the Wheelers house and begs June to take her baby ...
Wives are dressed in modest dresses of varying shades of teal/blue, indicative of their supposed 'purity' as non-sinners (compared to the violent, but fertile, shade of red the handmaids wear).
She is the wife of Luke Bankole and the mother of a young daughter, Hannah. She is also the mother of Nichole who she had with Nick in Gilead.
Gilead seeks to deprive women of their individuality in order to make them docile carriers of the next generation. the most famous example), and The Handmaid's Tale carries on this tradition. Gilead maintains its control over women's bodies by maintaining control over names.
Though Waterford is probably sterile, Gilead doesn't allow for that possibility to be voiced–even to himself.
The Marthas
They are low-ranking, infertile women who cook, clean, and help take care of the ruling class's offspring.
In the television adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale, Offred not only gets pregnant. She gives birth to a healthy daughter who is later smuggled into Canada by her friend, Ofglen. This is one dramatic way in which the show differs from the novel.
The Commander's wife is believed to be infertile and Offred is to serve as a “two-legged uterus” for the couple. Many aspects of Offred's tale show a disparity between how men and women are treated.
Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) learns that Esther is pregnant after having been raped by Commander Putnam (Stephen Kunken), and goes to Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) to seek a punishment for Putnam.
This article contains spoilers.
There's a new Serena Joy Waterford in the fifth season of Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale. Not only has she been edged out of her protected position as the Wife of a powerful Commander, but as a single pregnant woman, she soon became a Handmaid.
Serena's obvious unhappiness means that she teeters on the edge of inspiring the reader's sympathy, but she forfeits that sympathy by taking out her anger on Offred. Serena Joy seems to possess no compassion at all for Offred. She can see the difficulty of her own life, but not that of another woman.
June Osborne
Luke and June first began seeing each other when Luke was still married to Annie (Kelly Jenrette), whom he later divorced. Due to their marriage being Luke's second, June is considered an "adulteress" in Gilead, and because of her fertility, is forced to be a handmaid as reparation for her sin.
Lydia thus enlists Agnes in their plan to get Nicole and the damning information out of Gilead. Agnes and Nicole pose as missionaries and make their escape into Canada, where Agnes finally meets her long-lost biological mother, the former Handmaid known as Offred.
Handmaids who successfully bear children continue to live at their commander's house until their children are weaned, at which point they are sent to a new assignment to a new commander. Those who produce children will never be declared "Unwomen" or sent to the Colonies, even if they never have another baby.
Following Fred's death, Serena initially believed she could become an international flag-bearer for Gilead values. That's not how things have worked out. Once she was forced to move in with the Wheelers, it became apparent pretty quickly that her only currency was her child.
Serena leaves and Nichole is left with Luke. June manages to smuggle a tape to Luke where she explains that Nicole was "born out of love", between her and Nick and that her real name is Holly.
Serena is detained by Canadian immigration and since she's an undocumented person, she doesn't have the immediate right to a lawyer. The detention facility doesn't have infant care, so Child Protection Unit will oversee Noah's care.