Offred has come to the doctor to have a checkup. He’s a specialist—a gynecologist we assume because the word is never used, so Atwood could be playing with the word “specialist.” After we read about the doctor’s behavior, we wonder what he’s really a specialist of. His specialty seems to be talking patients into having relations with him. For the Handmaid’s benefit, of course. So, Offred enters the waiting room with the Guardian who has escorted her here. In the waiting room is a so-called nurse who is a brute of a man with a scar on his face. He’s much more of a guard than a nurse. With this image, we further get the idea that brute force in a martial state is more desirable than the suitability of a functional role. His hands are even “too big for the keyboard” (59). Now we receive quite a dose of color symbolism. Whiteness of the waiting room and the examination room—purity or sterility? And red red everywhere. Even the Guardian wears red, signifying that the Handmaids are his particular purview (or...