How Does The Handmaid's Tale End?
The novel ends with an open question. Offred steps into a black van, and she (and the reader) cannot tell whether she is being rescued or arrested. The final section then jumps to the year 2195, where scholars discuss her recorded story.
The book never says what became of her. The Historical Notes do show that Gilead did not last.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Last scene of Offred's story | She enters a black van with two men |
| Final section | Historical Notes, a lecture at a symposium in 2195 |
| How the story survived | About thirty cassette tapes found in Bangor, Maine |
| Offred's fate | Never revealed |
| Gilead | Shown to be over by 2195 |
What happens in the last chapter?
The Eyes, the regime's secret police, come to Offred's house in a black van. The Commander is helpless, and Serena Joy has reason to want her gone. Nick quietly tells Offred to go with the men and says a word connected with the resistance, which suggests they may be friends.
She cannot be sure. She steps into the van, and her narration ends with the idea that she is heading either into darkness or into light. She also thinks she may be pregnant by Nick, though nothing in the book confirms it.
↑ Back to the topWhat are the Historical Notes?
After Offred's story, the book adds a transcript of the Twelfth Symposium on Gileadean Studies, held on 25 June 2195 at the University of Denay, Nunavit. The keynote speaker is Professor James Darcy Pieixoto of Cambridge University in England.
He explains that Offred's account was found on about thirty unlabeled cassette tapes in a footlocker in what used to be Bangor, Maine, a stop on what Gilead's escapees called the Underground Femaleroad. The scholars transcribed the tapes, put them in order and gave the result its title, in part as a nod to Chaucer.
↑ Back to the topDoes Offred escape?
The Historical Notes suggest, but do not prove, that she got out of the van and reached Bangor, since the tapes were recorded somewhere safe enough to talk. Professor Pieixoto says the team cannot tell what became of her afterwards, and that her story may stop where she chose to stop it.
The professor also tries to identify the Commander. He offers two candidates, Frederick Waterford and B. Frederick Judd, and favors Waterford. He cannot confirm it, because the narrator used false names to protect people.
↑ Back to the topDoes Gilead fall?
Yes, by implication. The scholars of 2195 study Gilead as a past regime, and the Notes treat it as a topic of research rather than a present danger. Many readers also notice that the speaker's own jokes and attitudes to Offred show how easily the past can be dismissed. The last line of the book is a polite question to the audience.
↑ Back to the topIs there more to the story?
Atwood returned to Gilead in The Testaments (2019), set about fifteen years later and narrated by other characters. It does not tell Offred's story directly. The TV series, which carries June (the name given to Offred on screen) well past the book's ending, omits the Historical Notes.
↑ Back to the topMore about The Handmaid’s Tale
This guide covers the novel only. The TV series and the 1990 film differ in places.