Scrolled Ashtray

The Scrolled Ashtray is a small, ornate object that sits on the lamp table beside Serena Joy's chair in the sitting room of the Commander's house. It is a minor but telling piece of household decor, one that the narrator, Offred, notices and mentally catalogues during the tense, ritualized evenings of the Ceremony. More than a mere accessory, the ashtray becomes a charged symbol of the forbidden pleasures, the subtle cruelties, and the desperate yearnings that define life within the regime's domestic sphere.

Appearance and Context

The ashtray is described as "little" and "scrolled," suggesting a delicate, ornamental design that fits the sitting room's overall aesthetic of subdued luxury. It sits on the lamp table beside Serena Joy's chair, within easy reach of the Commander's Wife, who is a heavy smoker. The ashtray is part of a room furnished with dusk-rose velvet drapes, eighteenth-century chairs, a tufted Chinese rug, and a suede leather chair for the Commander. This setting, which Offred notes has been shaped by years of money "trickling through" and "crusting and hardening like stalactites," is a space of enforced calm and rigid hierarchy. The ashtray, along with Serena Joy's lighter and cigarettes, represents one of the few personal indulgences permitted to the Wives, a luxury that Offred, as a Handmaid, is forbidden.

A Tool of Power and Ritual

Serena Joy uses the ashtray with a decisive, almost aggressive finality. When she puts out a cigarette, she does so with "one jab and one grind, not the series of genteel taps favored by many of the Wives." This action reveals a hardness beneath her composed exterior, a controlled violence that mirrors her treatment of Offred. The ashtray is also a prop in the nightly rituals of the household. During the Ceremony, Offred kneels in the sitting room, and Serena Joy sits in her chair, smoking and using the ashtray, her presence a constant, hostile reminder of the power structure. Offred, watching the smoke rise, breathes in the scent that has been "inside Serena's body," a visceral connection to the woman she both hates and, in a strange way, pities.

Object of Desire and Symbol of Forbidden Pleasure

For Offred, the ashtray represents more than just a container for ash; it is a tangible piece of the forbidden world she has been shut out of. She thinks about stealing it, along with the "little silver pillbox from the mantel," as a way to feel a sense of power. The act of taking something, even something so small, would be a rebellion, a secret assertion of self. The ashtray is also linked to the cigarette, a substance Offred craves with an almost physical hunger. When Serena Joy, in a rare moment of collusion, gives Offred a cigarette, the ashtray becomes the implied destination for its ash, a silent partner in a small, illicit transaction. The desire for the cigarette and the ashtray is a desire for the sensory pleasures and the small freedoms that have been stripped away.

Connection to Forbidden Items and the Black Market

The ashtray's presence is a reminder of the black market that operates beneath Gilead's surface. Serena Joy's cigarettes, which Offred assumes come from this underground economy, are a sign that even the Wives bend the rules. The ashtray itself, a simple object, is part of this ecosystem of privilege and transgression. Offred's longing for the ashtray is part of a larger pattern of desire for forbidden items: the hand lotion she gets from the Commander, the butter she hoards to moisturize her skin, the match she hides in her mattress. These objects, like the ashtray, are not just things; they are tokens of a lost world, tools for maintaining a sense of self, and potential instruments of resistance or escape.

The Ashtray's Thematic Significance

The Scrolled Ashtray, in its smallness and ordinariness, encapsulates the central themes of Offred's narrative. It is a symbol of the power that Serena Joy wields, the luxury that is denied to Handmaids, and the constant, gnawing desire for any form of agency. It is a piece of the "context" that Offred insists is "all," a detail that, when examined, reveals the intricate web of control, privilege, and longing that defines her existence. The ashtray is not just an object; it is a silent witness to the ceremonies, the whispered conversations, and the quiet acts of defiance that make up the texture of life in the Commander's house.