The first epigraph is a biblical story about Jacob, Rachel and I’m pretty sure in Genesis it states Jacob has a second wife but I cant recall her name. Basically, this epigraph demonstrates how Rachel’s infertility leads her into accepting that her husband takes on her maid as long as he gets her pregnant and they “have children by her”.  This definitely gives insight into what Offred’s role is in the home of the Commissioner and the Commissioner’s wife which I don’t think has a name so far in the story. It is interesting how the women are referred to in the first three chapters. Towards the end of chapter 3, the commissioner’s wife tells Offred not to call her ma’am because she’s not a “Martha” at first I thought it was a name but I’m now beginning to think it’s a level or category of women. If Offred isn’t  a Martha then she’s the better of the maids? Not sure, but curious to find out. Also, I think it’s funny that the narrator’s name is Offred, considering she has to wear all the red which she doesn’t seem to love. off red, but really on red.

I don’t know what the second epigraph is all about. It mentions something about a proposal, maybe this is a handmaid commenting on her past life before the proposal of bearing someone else’s children and how it changed her life. Not too sure about this one though.

Lastly, the third epigraph doesn’t make much sense to me either; it almost just seems ironic. There isn’t a sign in a desert that says don’t eat stones because you don’t need to tell people they cant eat stones because it’s obvious –people don’t usually go around eating stones. In a way maybe this hints towards weird and unacceptable things that are done in the story. It isn’t necessarily correct to have a woman spread her legs once a day so your husband impregnates her just so you can have her children.