What is the conclusion of The Handmaid's Tale?
At the end of The Handmaid's Tale, the black van comes to arrest Offred, but Nick bursts into her room and says that it is from Mayday, an underground organization that helps people escape Gilead.
Serena had recently discovered Offred's affair with the Commander and accused her of being a slut. Offred is in a bad situation and wonders if she should use the one match she has to burn the house down, dying but sending a message of protest, or if she should rip her bed sheet up and hang herself.
Three men then come to arrest her. Nick enters Offred's room and tells her to trust him. Offred goes off with Nick and the two other men into the van. The Waterfords have no authority to stop the arrest.
Offred does not know if Nick is telling the truth when he says "trust me" to her...
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or if he is an Eye, trying to keep her quiet long enough to get her into the van.
The story ends on a note of uncertainty or ambiguity. Did Mayday rescue her, or was she truly arrested and killed?
At very end of the novel, it is much later in time, and Professor Pieixoto has discovered a buried set of audio tapes made by Offred. He speculates that Commander Waterford, who was killed in a purge, might have been executed because he harbored Nick, a member of Mayday. If this is true, then this suggests that Nick did help Offred to freedom.
How does The Handmaid's Tale end?
The Handmaid's Tale ends with the so-called "Historical Notes." These "notes" read like the transcripts from an academic conference that takes place in the future, and they present the keynote speech made by a scholar of the period in which Gilead existed. We learn that many people who attend the conference dress up as categories of people from Gilead—wives, handmaids, commanders, and so on—and that they participate in group sing-a-longs around cozy campfires. In other words, there are ways in which the humanity of the people who lived in Gilead is discounted; these individuals seem to forget that real people lost children, were turned into sex slaves, had their individuality absolutely obliterated, and even died, and instead, Gilead is remembered as some sort of cosplay-worthy past. It is not condemned but rather, in some ways, celebrated.
In addition, we see, through the keynote speaker's address, that sexism is still alive and well in the world. Piexioto makes a joke about "enjoying" (a euphemism for sex) the "Artic chair," what he calls the female colleague who introduces him. He also alludes to the sexual pun within the title, which refers to a handmaid's "Tale": tale is a story, but tail can euphemistically refer to a woman's sex organs and/or bottom (as in chasing tail, for example). Thus, he reduces both his colleague and Offred to sexual objects and even refers to the "Underground Femaleroad" as the "Underground Frailroad," mocking the supposed weakness of women who felt compelled to navigate their way to freedom.
What's more telling is that his audience laughs at each one of these references; Piexioto is not condemned for his sexist jokes, indicating that he is not alone in finding them amusing and appropriate. Thus, the novel ends with the truly unfortunate idea that sexism is somehow always going to exist. Even those people in the distant future who consider themselves to be so enlightened will perpetuate misogyny and chauvinism.