The Handmaid's Tale Chapters 10–12 Summary & Analysis | SparkNotes

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• Every month, a Guardian accompanies Offred to a doctor, who tests her for pregnancy and disease.

• A sheet hangs down from the ceiling, cutting off the doctor’s view of her face

• He says many of the Commanders are either too old to produce a child or are sterile,

• and he suggests that he could have sex with her and impregnate her.

• The bathroom has no mirror, no razors, and no lock on the door.

• Lying in the bath, she thinks of her daughter and remembers the time when a crazy woman tried to kidnap the little girl in the supermarket.

• The authorities in Gilead took Offred’s then-five-year-old child from her, and three years have passed since then.

• She looks down at her ankle, and sees the tattoo that Gilead places on all Handmaids.

• Handmaids are not allowed coffee, alcohol, or nicotine

• In this extremely patriarchal world, men cannot be called sterile. If a woman fails to conceive, she is labeled “barren,” and no one considers that the man’s sterility may have been the reason.

• She must eat dinner apart from the rest of the household; her baths and movements are regulated as if she is an animal;