The Hanging

The Hanging is a children's singing game played by the younger girls at the Vidala School in Gilead. It is a sinister and frivolous ritual that reflects the society's preoccupation with execution, Handmaids, and the normalization of violence, serving as a dark mirror of the adult world's brutal practices.

Structure and Rules of the Game

The game is structured around a counting rhyme and a physical enactment of capture and death. The girls chant, "Who's that hanging on the Wall? Fee Fie Fiddle-Oh! It's a Handmaid, what's she called? Fee Fie Fiddle-Oh! She was (here we would put in the name of one of us), now she's not. Fee Fie Fiddle-Oh! She had a baby in the pot (here we would slap our little flat stomachs). Fee Fie Fiddle-Oh!" The girls then file under the uplifted hands of two other girls while everyone chants: "One for murder, Two for kissing, Three for a baby, Four gone missing, Five for alive and Six for dead, And Seven we caught you, Red Red Red!" The seventh girl is caught by the two counters, paraded around in a circle, and given a slap on the head. She is now "dead" and is allowed to choose the next two executioners.

Thematic Significance and Interpretation

The game incorporates elements of Gilead's official and unofficial religions. The Aunts likely thought the game contained a beneficial amount of warning and threat. The sequence of the chant—"One for murder" before "Two for kissing"—is noted by the narrator, Agnes Jemima, as puzzling, as it seems more natural for kissing to come before murder. The game's frivolity belies its sinister content, as children make games out of whatever is available to them. The game normalizes the violence of the Wall, the role of Handmaids, and the casual death of women, turning execution into a playground activity. The "Red Red Red" at the end of the chant likely refers to the red dresses of the Handmaids, further cementing their association with death and capture.