The Handmaid's Tale, #2
The Testaments
by Margaret Atwood
Contents
56
Overview
Agnes and Becka struggle to manage Jade’s irreverence and defiance, exposing deep ideological rifts. Aunt Lydia urges patience, while Agnes wrestles with what becoming an Aunt might corrupt in her. A clandestine Bloodlines file reveals Agnes’s parents are Mayday operatives, Nicole is her sister, and Baby Nicole is secretly in Gilead—information Agnes dangerously pockets.
Summary
Agnes narrates Jade’s messy habits, irreverence, and defiance of rules, which aggravate daily life with Agnes and Becka. Jade dismisses belief in God, provoking Becka, and practices intense workouts and self-defense, challenging Gilead’s norms. Their exchange exposes victim-blaming assumptions that Jade rejects.
Aunt Lydia summons Agnes and Becka and instructs them to teach Jade “safer ways,” framing Jade’s behavior as ignorance from Canada and counseling patience. Agnes, meanwhile, questions whether pursuing Aunt power will harden and corrupt her nature.
At the Hildegard Library, a Bloodlines file—clearly placed by Aunt Lydia—appears on Agnes’s desk. It details Commander Kyle’s line and reveals that Agnes’s biological mother is an escaped Handmaid now in Canada, identified as a Mayday intelligence operative; her biological father is also in Canada and linked to Mayday. Agnes reflects on her erased memories and longing for connection.
Turning the page, Agnes discovers her mother had a second child: Nicole. She realizes the celebrated “Baby Nicole” is her younger sister, with a handwritten note stating that Baby Nicole is currently in Gilead. Feeling gratitude, fear, and entanglement, Agnes questions loyalties and, on impulse, steals and hides the pages with the photographs despite the grave risk.
Who Appears
- Agnes Jemima (Aunt Victoria)Narrator; clashes with Jade’s irreverence, questions Auntly power, discovers her parents are Mayday and that Baby Nicole is her sister in Gilead; steals files.
- Jade (Baby Nicole)Untidy, skeptical, and defiant; practices self-defense; rejects Gilead’s beliefs, straining relations with Agnes and Becka.
- Becka (Aunt Immortelle)Defends religious doctrine; condemns Jade’s views and tattoo; urged by Aunt Lydia to help teach Jade safer behavior.
- Aunt LydiaAdvises patience with Jade; likely supplies Agnes with the clandestine Bloodlines file revealing crucial family secrets.
- Agnes’s biological motherFormer Handmaid; escaped to Canada; identified as Mayday intelligence; mother of Agnes and Nicole; under threat.
- Agnes’s biological fatherUnnamed; reportedly a Mayday operative in Canada; location unknown.
- Commander KyleAgnes’s adoptive father; his Bloodlines file leads Agnes to her true parentage and Nicole.