The Handmaid's Tale, #2
The Testaments
by Margaret Atwood
Contents
55
Overview
Jade/Nicole feels isolated at Ardua Hall, sensing disapproval from junior Aunts and distance from Aunt Beatrice. She longs for her past with Garth and fears she cannot contact allies in Canada. The chapter heightens stakes by casting doubt on the promised inside source needed to extract her from Gilead.
Summary
Jade/Nicole notices that the two young Aunts at Doorway C disapprove of her, and she lacks allies within Ardua Hall. Aunt Beatrice, once kind during her conversion in Toronto, now treats her with polite distance, deepening Jade/Nicole’s sense of abandonment.
Cut off from communications, Jade/Nicole feels fear and loneliness but tries to control it. She longs for her old life with Garth, recalling their time sleeping in a cemetery, panhandling, and eating junk food, while worrying he has moved on.
Her greatest anxiety centers on the promised inside contact—“the source”—from Ada and Elijah. She questions whether the source exists and fears that without them she will be trapped in Gilead with no way out, underscoring her precarious position and lack of agency.
Who Appears
- Jade/NicoleNarrator; isolated at Ardua Hall, misses Garth, and doubts the promised inside source.
- Two young Aunts at Doorway CDisapproving junior Aunts whose attitude heightens Jade/Nicole’s isolation.
- Aunt BeatriceFormerly kind converter in Toronto; now distant and uninvolved with Jade/Nicole.
- AdaCanadian ally; promised an inside source, now unreachable to Jade/Nicole.
- ElijahCanadian ally; helped arrange the source Jade/Nicole now doubts.
- GarthJade/Nicole’s past companion; she longs for him and their shared life.
- The source (unknown contact)Promised insider in Gilead; their absence threatens Jade/Nicole’s escape plan.