Baby Mark

Baby Mark is the infant son of Commander Kyle and his second wife Paula, born through the Handmaid Ofkyle (Crystal) in a birth that killed his biological mother. His arrival in the household of Commander Kyle marks a turning point for Agnes Jemima, the Commander's adopted daughter, as the new baby absorbs all the love and attention that once belonged to her, and his existence embodies the brutal logic of Gilead's reproductive system: a healthy male child is celebrated while the woman who bore him is discarded.

Birth and Death

Ofkyle's labor was long and terrifying. Agnes, hiding on the stairs, heard the Handmaids chanting "Push, push, push, breathe, breathe, breathe" and Ofkyle's anguished cries of "Oh God, Oh God" coming "deep and dark as if it was coming out of a well." The birth went catastrophically wrong: an Aunt barked into her Computalk that Ofkyle was losing too much blood, and a real doctor was summoned. He ran up the steps shouting "Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit of a God!" — electrifying language Agnes had never heard from a man. The baby was saved, but Ofkyle died. The Marthas later explained that "they had to cut her open" to extract the child. Baby Mark was a healthy son, but his mother was gone.

Household Impact

After the birth, all attention in the household focused on Baby Mark. He had a loud voice and demanded constant care. Paula, though she enjoyed the prestige of having a male baby, was not motherly at heart: she would produce and exhibit him for her friends, then quickly hand him over to the wet nurse, a plump, lugubrious Handmaid who had recently been Oftucker but was now, of course, Ofkyle. When not eating, sleeping, or being shown off, Mark passed his time in the kitchen, where the Marthas doted on him, exclaiming over his tiny fingers, toes, dimples, and male organ, out of which he could project "a truly astonishing fountain of pee." Agnes was expected to join in the worship, and when she did not show enough zeal, she was told to stop sulking because soon enough she would have a baby of her own and then she would be happy.

Narrative Role and Thematic Significance

Baby Mark functions as a narrative device that crystallizes the central themes of Gilead's reproductive tyranny. His birth is the direct cause of Crystal's death, illustrating the regime's willingness to sacrifice women for the sake of producing children. His presence in the household displaces Agnes, who was already marginalized after Tabitha's death and Paula's marriage to Commander Kyle. The baby becomes the new center of the family's emotional and social life, while Agnes is pushed further into isolation and despair. Mark's existence also reinforces the arbitrary value Gilead places on biological lineage: he is a "real" child of the Commander and Paula, whereas Agnes, adopted and of unknown parentage, is increasingly treated as an inconvenient lump to be disposed of through marriage. In this way, Baby Mark is not a character with agency but a symbol of the system's priorities and the human cost they exact.