Commander Saunders
Commander Saunders was a high-ranking Gilead official, a member of the Sons of Jacob, and the first husband of Paula. His death, which occurred before the main events of the narrative, is a foundational scandal that exposes the corruption and violence lurking beneath the regime's pious surface. The story of his murder, as told by different characters, becomes a key piece of evidence in the secret files that Aunt Lydia later uses to control and manipulate those in power.
Identity and Background
Commander Saunders was a Commander of some standing in Gilead, though his exact rank and role are not specified. He was married to Paula, a woman who would later become the second wife of Commander Kyle. The couple had no children together, a fact that may have contributed to the tensions in their household. His household included a Handmaid, whose function was to bear a child for the couple. The Commander's study, where he was killed, was a private space, a room that in Gilead was considered the exclusive domain of men, off-limits to women and children.
The Murder and Its Two Versions
Commander Saunders was killed in his study by his Handmaid, who used a kitchen skewer as a weapon. The event was a scandal that was much whispered about at school. Two conflicting versions of the murder circulated. Paula's official account, which she presented to the authorities and to society, was that the Handmaid was insane. According to Paula, the girl crept downstairs at night, stole the skewer from the kitchen, and took Commander Saunders by surprise when he opened his study door. Paula insisted that her husband had always been respectful to the Handmaid and to her position. The Handmaid was caught, hanged, and her body displayed on the Wall.
The other version, which was whispered among the Marthas and passed on by Shunammite, was far more sordid. It involved a "sinful connection" between the Commander and the Handmaid. In this account, the Handmaid had enticed Commander Saunders, and he had ordered her to creep downstairs at night to meet him in his study. The demands he made of her were said to be unnatural, driving the Handmaid mad. This version suggested that the murder was a desperate act of a woman pushed beyond her limits. The Marthas, who could think of little else, speculated that the Handmaid was "borderline" to begin with.
Paula's Complicity and the Aftermath
Paula's role in the aftermath of the murder was crucial. When her husband did not appear for breakfast, she went looking for him and discovered him lying on the floor without his trousers. Before calling the Angels, Paula put the trousers back on him, a task that required the help of one of her Marthas because dead bodies are either stiff or floppy, and Commander Saunders was a large man. Shunammite reported that Paula got a lot of blood on herself while wrestling the clothes onto the corpse, and that she must have had "nerves of steel" to do what was right to save appearances.
Years later, the truth about Commander Saunders's death was revealed in a secret file that was left for Agnes Jemima on her desk in the Hildegard Library. The file, which contained photographs and transcripts of secretly recorded conversations, proved that there had been no illicit liaison between Commander Saunders and his Handmaid. Instead, Paula and Commander Kyle had been having an affair even before Tabitha, Commander Kyle's first wife, had died. Paula had befriended the Handmaid and offered to help her escape, providing her with a map and the names of Mayday contacts. After the Handmaid set out, Paula herself skewered Commander Saunders. She then bribed and threatened her Martha to back up the story of the murderous Handmaid. The Handmaid, who was found wandering the streets with an inaccurate map, was interrogated, tortured into a false confession, and hanged for a crime she did not commit.
Significance
Commander Saunders's murder is a microcosm of the systemic corruption and violence of Gilead. His death is not a simple crime of passion but a calculated act of elimination by his wife, who was motivated by her affair with another powerful man. The case demonstrates how the regime's legal and social structures are used to protect the elite and scapegoat the powerless. The Handmaid, a woman with no rights and no voice, is the ultimate victim, sacrificed to preserve the reputation of a Commander and the ambitions of his wife. The secret file on Commander Saunders becomes a weapon in Aunt Lydia's arsenal, a piece of "discreditable knowledge" that she can use to control Paula and, by extension, Commander Kyle. The story of Commander Saunders thus serves as a dark lesson in the true nature of power in Gilead, where truth is malleable, justice is a sham, and the bodies of women are the currency of both desire and destruction.
