Mayday
The underground resistance working to overthrow Gilead.
Mayday is the underground resistance network working to overthrow the government of Gilead in The Handmaid's Tale. In the novel Offred learns that her shopping partner Ofglen is a member; Ofglen later knocks out a Mayday spy who is about to be tortured and killed to spare him a violent death, and Offred is told she killed herself before she could be arrested. When the secret police come for Offred, Nick tells her to trust him and she cannot tell whether the men are Eyes or Mayday. The academic Madonne Miner has suggested that "June" may be a pseudonym, since Mayday is the name of the resistance.
Quick Facts
- Goal
- Overthrow Gilead
- Novel members
- Ofglen
Facts from the source article.
Background
In the television series Emily (Ofglen) is the first to tell June about Mayday, and Alma becomes one of June's first contacts in the group. Commander Joseph Lawrence, the architect of Gilead's economy, is on and off with Mayday and finally sacrifices himself to blow up a plane full of Commanders on its behalf, killing Nick with them. Ellen is a Mayday leader in season six, and Aunt Phoebe assists Mayday's plot against Boston's Commanders. In The Testaments Daisy works undercover for Mayday in Aunt Lydia's school, with the Guardian Garth Chapin as her handler, and Rita stays connected with the resistance from Canada.
More in Powers & Artifacts
Elsewhere in The Handmaids Tale
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