Context is all—a paraphrase from Shakespeare’s King Lear: “Ripeness is all” (V, ii, 9). The requests for a game of Scrabble and a kiss, under normal circumstances, would not seem bizarre, but in the context of Gilead, the Commander’s desires appear perverted and racy.
the man had been cruel and brutal—an allusion to Adolf Hitler, credited with orchestrating the annihilation of over six million Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, retardates, handicapped, and elderly victims, whom he considered detrimental to the breeding of his Master Race.
the mistress—an allusion to Eva Braun, Hitler’s mistress, who is thought to have committed suicide with her lover.
Lichchen—German diminutive for darling.
the wandering womb—an ancient Greek explanation for female hysteria, which derives from the Greek hystera, or womb
