The Handmaid's Tale, #2

The Testaments

Name: The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)
Author: Margaret Atwood

by Margaret Atwood

Genre

Fiction, Science Fiction

Year

2019

Pages

475

Contents

Overview

Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments returns to Gilead through three intertwined voices: Aunt Lydia, a powerful founder of the women’s regime at Ardua Hall; Agnes Jemima, a girl raised among Gilead’s elite; and Daisy, a Canadian teenager whose ordinary life is shadowed by secrets. Their accounts reveal a society maintained by ritual, surveillance, coerced obedience, and carefully managed myths, especially the public obsession with the missing Baby Nicole.

The novel explores how authoritarian systems train people to participate in their own confinement, but also how memory, literacy, sisterhood, and hidden records can become tools of resistance. Its central conflict turns on whether those trapped inside Gilead—or implicated in its power—can use the regime’s own secrets against it without being destroyed.

Plot Summary ⚠️ Spoilers

The story unfolds through three testimonies. Aunt Lydia, now a senior power at Ardua Hall, secretly writes a manuscript while avoiding the surveillance system she helped create. Publicly honored with a statue and feared by other Aunts, she presents herself as loyal to Gilead while quietly collecting secrets in the Bloodlines archives and the restricted library. She reflects on her survival: before Gilead she was a family court judge, arrested after the coup, imprisoned in a stadium with other professional women, forced to watch executions, tortured in the “Thank Tank,” and coerced by Commander Judd into helping create the Aunts. From the beginning, her cooperation is mixed with calculation and revenge.

Agnes Jemima grows up in Gilead as the daughter of Commander Kyle and Tabitha. She is loved by Tabitha, but stories about her “rescue” hint that Tabitha is not her birth mother. At school, Aunts Vidala and Estée teach girls that men rule by divine design, women must guard their bodies, and marriage is inevitable. After Tabitha dies, Commander Kyle marries Paula, whose cold ambition isolates Agnes. Paula brings a Handmaid, Ofkyle, into the household to bear a child. Agnes learns from gossip and the Martha Zilla that she was taken from her birth mother, probably an escaped woman later turned into a Handmaid. The revelation destabilizes her identity.

Agnes’s faith in Gilead worsens as she witnesses cruelty disguised as holiness. Dr. Grove, Becka’s father and a respected dentist, assaults Agnes during an appointment, and the silence around him teaches her how protected powerful men are. Ofkyle, whose original name is later revealed as Crystal, dies giving birth to baby Mark, and Aunt Lydia praises the death as noble sacrifice. Agnes sees that Crystal did not choose sacrifice; she was used. As Agnes approaches marriage age, Paula and the Aunts arrange her engagement to the elderly and dangerous Commander Judd. Desperate, Agnes follows a hint from Aunt Lydia, claims a calling to become an Aunt, and is taken into Ardua Hall. There she reunites with Becka, now Aunt Immortelle, who escaped marriage after a suicide attempt.

At Ardua Hall, Agnes becomes Aunt Victoria and learns to read with Becka’s help. Literacy opens the regime’s lies to her: the Bible passages used in school were distorted, and secret files expose murders, false confessions, stolen children, and elite corruption. One dossier shows Paula murdered Commander Saunders and framed a Handmaid; another reveals Commander Judd’s pattern of dead Wives. Agnes also discovers that her biological mother escaped to Canada and works with Mayday, and that she has a younger half-sister: Nicole, the famous Baby Nicole.

In Canada, Daisy lives with Neil and Melanie, who run The Clothes Hound, a used-clothing store. She feels loved but guarded and notices missing evidence of her early life. After she defies Neil and Melanie by attending an anti-Gilead protest, her exposure on the news heightens danger. The store is burglarized, a Pearl Girl named Aunt Adrianna is found dead, and on Daisy’s sixteenth birthday Neil and Melanie are killed in a car bombing. Ada, a Mayday operative, rescues Daisy and hides her. Elijah then reveals the truth: Daisy is Baby Nicole, smuggled out of Gilead as an infant and hidden for years by Neil and Melanie.

Mayday’s network has been damaged because Gilead found the microdot camera system hidden at The Clothes Hound. Elijah explains that an unknown source inside Gilead has been sending intelligence through Pearl Girls’ brochures and now demands that Nicole herself enter Gilead to retrieve a cache capable of damaging the regime. Daisy reluctantly agrees. Trained by Ada and Garth, she adopts the alias Jade, receives a scarified “GOD/LOVE” tattoo as a signal, and poses as a vulnerable runaway. Pearl Girls Aunt Beatrice and Aunt Dove recruit her, process forged documents, and bring her into Gilead as a convert.

Jade arrives at Ardua Hall, witnesses a vigil in which a distressed recruit is reassigned as a Handmaid, and sees a brutal Particicution where Dr. Grove is killed. Aunt Lydia has engineered Grove’s downfall through false testimony by Aunt Elizabeth, punishing him for real abuses he would otherwise escape. Lydia places Jade with Agnes and Becka. Jade’s Canadian irreverence alarms them, while Aunt Vidala grows suspicious. Lydia then summons Jade, confirms she is Baby Nicole, and inserts a microscopic message into the tattoo. Soon after, Lydia tells Agnes and Becka the full truth: Jade is Nicole, Agnes’s sister, and must escape to Canada carrying the evidence.

Events accelerate when Commander Judd learns Jade is Baby Nicole and plans to marry her on state television. Aunt Lydia arranges a dawn escape: Agnes and Nicole will leave disguised as Pearl Girls, while Becka hides at a Retreat House to cover their absence. Becka ultimately conceals herself in the emptied roof cistern and dies there, later memorialized as having served selflessly. At dawn, Aunt Vidala intercepts Agnes and Nicole near Lydia’s statue; Nicole incapacitates her, and they pass through the gates with forged papers.

The sisters travel by car, bus, and resistance contacts, abandoning their Pearl Girl identities for civilian clothes. A boatman delivers them to Captain Mishimengo’s schooner, the Nellie J. Banks, where they hide in the hold as searches begin. Nicole’s tattoo becomes infected and feverish, and the sisters argue over whether Gilead should be renewed or destroyed, but they reconcile. Forced off the ship in fog near Canadian waters, they take an inflatable toward shore. The motor fails, and they row through freezing waves until they crash onto rocks and survive.

Ada and Garth rescue Agnes and Nicole, and they are taken to the Campobello Refugee Medical Centre. The microdot cache exposes Gilead’s elite crimes, triggering the Ba’al Purge and beginning the regime’s collapse despite official denials. The sisters reunite with their mother, who embraces both daughters. Back in Gilead, Aunt Lydia completes her manuscript, hides it inside a book, and prepares to kill herself with morphine as the Eyes come for her. Centuries later, scholars at a symposium assess Aunt Lydia’s holograph and the sisters’ testimonies, concluding that the records are likely authentic and that Agnes, Nicole, Becka, and “A.L.” were central to Gilead’s downfall.

Characters

Aunt Lydia

A founder and senior Aunt at Ardua Hall who publicly enforces Gilead’s rule over women while secretly collecting evidence against its leaders. Her manuscript recounts her coerced rise from imprisoned judge to architect of the Aunts, and she ultimately uses Nicole and Agnes to smuggle damaging documents out of Gilead.
Agnes Jemima

Raised as Commander Kyle and Tabitha’s daughter, Agnes becomes disillusioned by Gilead’s teachings, arranged marriage, and hidden corruption. After entering Ardua Hall as Aunt Victoria, she learns to read, discovers Nicole is her sister, and helps carry Aunt Lydia’s evidence to Canada.
Nicole

Also known as Daisy, Jade, and Baby Nicole, she is raised in Canada by Neil and Melanie before learning she was smuggled out of Gilead as an infant. Mayday sends her back into Gilead undercover, where she becomes the courier for Aunt Lydia’s microdot evidence.
Becka

Agnes’s close friend, later Aunt Immortelle, who escapes a forced marriage by entering Ardua Hall after a suicide attempt. A survivor of Dr. Grove’s abuse, she tutors Agnes, helps protect Nicole, and sacrifices herself by covering the sisters’ escape.
Commander Judd

A powerful founder of Gilead and head of the Eyes who coerces Aunt Lydia into serving the regime. He hunts Mayday, seeks to exploit Baby Nicole for propaganda, and is exposed through the secret evidence Lydia sends out.
Aunt Vidala

A severe founding Aunt and Aunt Lydia’s ideological rival at Ardua Hall. She suspects Jade/Nicole, tries to frame Lydia, and becomes a direct threat to the escape plan before Nicole incapacitates her.
Aunt Elizabeth

One of the founding Aunts, vulnerable to Aunt Lydia’s manipulation. Lydia uses her fear and ambition to entrap Dr. Grove and later to deflect danger from herself.
Aunt Helena

A founding Aunt who is less forceful than Vidala or Lydia and often follows stronger personalities. She reports suspicious events at Ardua Hall and helps show the factional instability among the Aunts.
Tabitha

Agnes’s loving adoptive mother, whose rescue story masks the truth about Agnes’s origins. Her illness and death leave Agnes vulnerable to Paula’s control and intensify Agnes’s longing for maternal truth.
Commander Kyle

Agnes’s legal father, a distant Commander who allows Paula and the Aunts to determine Agnes’s future. His Bloodlines file leads Agnes toward the truth about her parentage.
Paula

Commander Kyle’s second Wife and Agnes’s stepmother, who pushes Agnes toward marriage and seeks status through a Handmaid-born son. Secret files reveal she murdered Commander Saunders and framed a Handmaid.
Shunammite

Agnes’s ambitious schoolmate, who embraces Gilead’s marriage system and later becomes Commander Judd’s Wife. Her rise contrasts with Agnes’s resistance and leaves her endangered by Judd’s lethal pattern.
Aunt Estée

A kinder teacher from Agnes’s school who softens Gilead doctrine but still repeats its distortions. She becomes crucial when Agnes claims a calling and helps bring her safely to Ardua Hall.
Aunt Gabbana

The Aunt who manages Agnes’s marriage prospects and evaluates her for suitability as a Wife. Her role shows how the Aunts administer elite arranged marriages.
Aunt Lise

An instructor at Rubies Premarital Preparatory who trains girls for Wifehood. She reports Becka’s suicide attempt to Aunt Lydia, enabling Becka’s transfer to Ardua Hall.
Zilla

A Martha in Agnes’s household who offers Agnes practical comfort and guarded truths. She confirms that Tabitha was not Agnes’s birth mother and hints at the dangers surrounding Handmaids and powerful men.
Ofkyle

The Handmaid in Commander Kyle and Paula’s household, later identified by Agnes as Crystal. Her death giving birth to Mark becomes one of Agnes’s clearest early recognitions of Gilead’s injustice.
Dr. Grove

Becka’s father and a respected dentist who abuses both Becka and Agnes. Aunt Lydia engineers his execution through a public charge that hides, but punishes, his real crimes.
Neil

Nicole’s adoptive father in Canada and co-owner of The Clothes Hound. He helps protect Baby Nicole and handles the microdot system before he is killed in the operation against Mayday.
Melanie

Nicole’s adoptive mother in Canada, who runs The Clothes Hound’s shop floor and keeps Nicole close for safety. Her planned revelation to Nicole is cut short by the attack that forces Nicole into hiding.
Ada

A Mayday operative who rescues Nicole after Neil and Melanie are killed. She trains Nicole for the Gilead mission, helps coordinate the escape network, and later participates in the sisters’ rescue.
Elijah

A Mayday organizer connected to SanctuCare who reveals Nicole’s identity as Baby Nicole. He explains the microdot system, coordinates the mission, and later describes the political impact of the leaked documents.
Garth

A young Mayday operative who trains Nicole in self-defense and poses as her controlling boyfriend to attract the Pearl Girls. He helps move her through safe houses and later carries her to safety after the landing.
George

A street regular and Mayday lookout connected to The Clothes Hound. He provides the eyewitness account that Neil and Melanie were taken from the shop before the car bomb exploded.
Aunt Beatrice

A Pearl Girl who recruits Nicole under the alias Jade and escorts her into Gilead. She presents Jade at the Thanks Giving ceremony without knowing the full significance of Nicole’s identity.
Aunt Dove

A Pearl Girl whose identity is used to move Nicole across the border into Gilead. Her documents and role help Nicole enter Ardua Hall undercover.
Aunt Adrianna

A Pearl Girl connected to Aunt Lydia’s intelligence channel through Mayday brochures. Her death in Canada exposes the danger within the courier system and intensifies Gilead’s accusations against Mayday.
Aunt Sally

A Pearl Girl who kills Aunt Adrianna in self-defense during the Canadian operation. Aunt Lydia conceals her role to preserve control of the narrative.
Captain Mishimengo

The captain of the Nellie J. Banks, a smuggling vessel that carries Agnes and Nicole toward Canada. He hides them during inspection and risks his ship and crew to help complete the escape.
Agnes and Nicole’s mother

A former Handmaid and Mayday-linked fugitive in Canada, identified in Agnes’s Bloodlines file as mother to both Agnes and Nicole. She reunites with her daughters after their escape and confirms the family bond severed by Gilead.
Commander Saunders

Paula’s first husband, officially said to have been killed by a Handmaid. Agnes later learns from secret files that Paula murdered him and framed the Handmaid.
Mr. William

Dr. Grove’s dental assistant, present in the environment that protects Grove’s abuse. He later gives testimony that helps Aunt Lydia’s fabricated case against Grove succeed.
Professor James Darcy Pieixoto

A future historian who analyzes Aunt Lydia’s manuscript and the testimonies of Agnes and Nicole at a symposium on Gilead. His presentation frames the documents as key sources for understanding Gilead’s collapse.
Professor Maryanne Crescent Moon

The symposium chair who introduces the later academic discussion of the testimonies. Her framing places the escape and documents within a broader historical memory of refuge and resistance.
Mia Smith

A graduate student credited with uncovering the mislabeled testimonies file. Her discovery enables the later scholarly reconstruction of Agnes and Nicole’s role.

Themes

Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments is structured around testimony itself: who gets to speak, who is silenced, and how buried truth can outlive tyranny. Aunt Lydia’s secret manuscript in Ardua Hall, Agnes’s recollections of girlhood in Gilead, and Nicole’s account as the famous “Baby Nicole” together form a counter-archive against a regime built on erased names, burned books, falsified scripture, and hidden crimes.

Power, complicity, and survival: Aunt Lydia embodies the novel’s most morally difficult theme. Her memories of the stadium, the Thank Tank, and her coerced rise among the Aunts show how terror manufactures collaborators. Yet her later hoarding of files, manipulation of Judd, Vidala, Elizabeth, and Helena, and final act of smuggling evidence reveal power turned back against itself. Atwood refuses to make her simply heroic: Lydia survives by cruelty, calculation, and revenge, but also engineers Gilead’s undoing.
The control of women’s bodies: Agnes’s education, marriage preparation, and horror at puberty expose Gilead’s central obsession: making female bodies serve male lineage and state ideology. Ofkyle/Crystal’s death in childbirth, Becka’s terror of marriage after abuse, and Judd’s plan to marry Nicole on television all show women converted into symbols, vessels, or trophies. Even “sacrifice” is a lie imposed after the fact.
Knowledge as danger and liberation: Books, archives, Bloodlines files, and microdots carry explosive force. Agnes’s discovery of the real biblical concubine story breaks Gilead’s religious spell; later dossiers reveal murder, bribery, and false confessions beneath pious slogans. Literacy does not merely educate her—it destabilizes the world she was taught to trust.
Mothers, daughters, and chosen kinship: The novel repeatedly complicates motherhood. Tabitha is not Agnes’s biological mother, yet her love is real; Melanie and Neil are not Nicole’s parents, yet die protecting her. Agnes and Nicole’s sisterhood, Becka’s loyalty, and Ada’s care suggest family can be made through devotion as much as blood.
Resistance through memory: Becka’s hidden sacrifice, Lydia’s holograph, and the future Symposium all insist that testimony matters. Gilead falls not only through force, but because its victims and compromised witnesses preserve what it tried to erase.