The Handmaid's Tale, #2
The Testaments
by Margaret Atwood
Contents
27
Overview
Agnes is enrolled at Rubies Premarital Preparatory, where Aunts train high-status girls for marriage. Shunammite embraces the prospect, while Becka is coerced into an elite match and dreads sex, hinting at past abuse. Becka reveals her birth mother was a Handmaid and her official mother weaponizes this shame. Agnes comforts Becka, deepening the chapter’s critique of Gilead’s marital system.
Summary
Agnes receives her green premarital wardrobe and is transferred to Rubies Premarital Preparatory, an Aunt-run school that grooms high-status girls to perform as household mistresses. The Aunts appear more polished, emphasizing social display and obedience.
Agnes reunites with Shunammite and Becka from Vidala School. Shunammite, newly styled and outspoken, eagerly catalogues desired husbands and crude expectations of sex, revealing her ambition for a high-ranking widower without children.
Becka appears thinner and distressed. She confides that despite begging to delay, her parents have accepted a prestigious match: the eldest son of a Son of Jacob, destined for command. Her official mother insists opportunities will worsen with age; her father, Dr. Grove, frames refusal as an insult that would harm him.
In private, Becka expresses horror at marital sex, describing it as disgusting and obliterating, which leads Agnes to suspect prior abuse but to avoid probing for fear of shared stigma. Shunammite minimizes Becka’s fear with material incentives and crass reassurances, which only heighten Becka’s dread.
Becka discloses that her official mother is not her real mother; a Martha revealed that Becka’s birth mother was a Handmaid. Her official mother uses this fact to shame her reluctance, contrasting it with the supposed promiscuity of Handmaids. Agnes, remembering Dr. Grove’s assault yet protecting Becka from that knowledge, embraces and assures Becka she understands.
Who Appears
- AgnesNarrator; begins Rubies premarital training, observes friends’ attitudes, comforts Becka, and withholds her own abuse experience.
- BeckaCoerced into an elite marriage; terrified of sex; reveals her Handmaid birth and maternal shaming; hints of prior abuse.
- ShunammiteEager for marriage and status; speaks crudely and dismisses Becka’s fears, emphasizing material rewards.
- Aunt LiseInstructor at Rubies; her absences allow the girls to speak candidly.
- Dr. GroveBecka’s father; pressures her to accept the match and cites family honor.
- Becka’s official motherUses Becka’s Handmaid parentage to shame her reluctance to marry.
- Their MarthaReveals to Becka that her birth mother was a Handmaid.