"Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum" Is Still Important on 'The Handmaid's Tale'

Publish date: 2024-06-03

The Latin phrase "nolite te bastardes carborundorum" is still utilized in 'The Handmaid's Tale,' but what does it imply? Here's the place it comes from.

Source: Hulu

Warning: This article comprises spoilers for Season 5 of The Handmaid's Tale.

The final moments of the Season Four finale of The Handmaid's Tale show a headless frame placing on a wall with the words "nolite te bastardes carborundorum" written at the back of it. Most devoted lovers of the show (and the e-book, for that subject) know this is a callback to other seasons, and Season 1 particularly. However, there are some viewers who're still a little foggy on what the Latin phrase means and its significance in the series.

So, what does "nolite te bastardes carborundorum" mean on 'The Handmaid's Tale'?

In Season 1 of The Handmaid's Tale, while June is at the finish of her rope and fearing for her safety and long term in the Waterford home, she sees the words "nolite te bastardes carborundorum" carved into her closet wall. The words were put there via the handmaid who had been in the house prior to her. And, when June felt courageous sufficient to invite Fred what the Latin words intended without telling him where she noticed them, he translated for her.

Source: Hulu

In the show, "nolite te bastardes carborundorum" translates to "don't let the bastards grind you down," and it makes sense, given June's place as a handmaid and the lifestyles that she and different handmaids are pressured to are living in Gilead. But, as The Handmaid's Tale writer Margaret Atwood explained to Time in 2017, the true "Latin" words within the word are made up.

"I'll tell you the weird thing about it," Margaret informed the opening. "It was a joke in our Latin classes. So this thing from my childhood is permanently on people's bodies."

Some enthusiasts have the so-called Latin phrase have it inked on their our bodies endlessly. Even if the translation is off, it still holds meaning and weight among fanatics.

Source: Hulu

Who wrote "nolite te bastardes carborundorum" on the wall in Season 1?

In Season 1 of The Handmaid's Tale, June learned that the handmaid who have been positioned within the Waterfords' home prior to her died via suicide. Before she died, although, she carved the ones pseudo-Latin words into the closet wall.

It was in the end printed that Fred had taught the word to her before her loss of life. She was once best featured in a flashback that explained her courting with Fred, but her words still remain a part of the collection.

June may well be starting her own revolution on 'The Handmaid's Tale.'

One of the final scenes of The Handmaid's Tale Season Four presentations Fred hanging from a wall, similar to handmaids who're believed to have broken rules in Gilead. Their punishments are incessantly critical, and in Season 1 especially, there were many circumstances of handmaids being hung from walls to turn the arena how they had "sinned."

me when june says she’s gonna put fred on the wall #handmaidstale #thehandmaidstale pic.twitter.com/FhLR180KAl

β€” 🎈 (@SuspianX) June 16, 2021

Because June writes "nolite te bastardes carborundorum" on the wall through Fred's lifeless body, it could mean she will hunt down alternative ways to get justice in opposition to other Gilead commanders.

She is essentially at the point of no return, and if she will be able to take one existence and go away in the back of any such weighted message, she might lead different former handmaids to do the same.

The Season Five premiere once once more incorporated the phrase in a photo from Fred's assassination β€” and when Mark Tuello repeats the word at the finish of Episode 1. We have a feeling it may not be the closing time we stumble across it, both.

Seasons 1–4 (and part of Season 5) of The Handmaid's Tale are actually streaming on Hulu.

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