The Ceremony
Gilead's monthly, state-sanctioned ritual of procreation.
The Ceremony is the ritual in The Handmaid's Tale in which a Handmaid is subjected to sex with her Commander once a month, during her likely fertile period, with the Commander's Wife present, in the hope of conception. The novel article describes it as a ritualized rape and as a non-marital sexual act sanctioned for reproduction: the Handmaid lies on her back between the legs of the Wife as if the two were one person, and the Wife has to invite the Handmaid to share her power this way, which many Wives find humiliating and offensive.
Quick Facts
- Takes place
- Monthly, in the Commander's household
- Present
- Commander
- Wife
- Handmaid
- Purpose
- Conception
Facts from the source article.
Background
Offred does not call the Ceremony rape, on the grounds that she agreed to become a Handmaid, although the alternative may have been execution or hard labour cleaning nuclear waste; whether that is a belief she adopted to lessen the strain or the result of her indoctrination is left unclear. In the television series the Handmaids are assigned to the homes of the ruling elite and must submit to the ceremony with their Commanders in the presence of their Wives.
More in World & Setting
Elsewhere in The Handmaids Tale
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