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Agnes reflects that she has changed since entering Ardua Hall: no longer a child, she is now an inexperienced woman. Aunt Lydia permits Agnes to live with Becka, who welcomes her and explains the Hall’s motto, the Hildegard Library, and the existence of restricted books. Agnes struggles with required submission and reading, but begins to learn with Becka’s help.

Through Becka, Agnes learns about Corrections in the soundproofed cellars and the strict library permissions. She is introduced to the Aunts’ approved names and selects Aunt Victoria, while absorbing lessons about Gilead’s smallness and the outside world. As she reads refurbished primers and Aunt Vidala’s moral rhymes, Agnes confronts sanitized depictions of the past and internalizes the Aunts’ control over knowledge.

Becka confides her distrust of men and criticism of Gilead’s narrow image of God, entrusting Agnes with these doubts. Becka also recounts the cautionary tale of Aunt Lily: after a Correction and denial of autonomy, Lily was isolated for a month and later died by suicide in the rooftop cistern, which the Aunts publicly recast as a medical death. The story exposes the brutality and secrecy of Corrections.

Later, Shunammite visits Agnes at the Schlafly Café, now wearing the blue of a Wife after marrying Commander Judd. Shunammite probes Agnes’s wellbeing and gossips about Paula and Becka, but Agnes maintains composure, asserts her new identity as Aunt Victoria, and distances herself emotionally, signaling commitment to the Aunts’ path and a guarded stance toward former school ties.