The Handmaid's Tale, #2
The Testaments
by Margaret Atwood
Contents
26
Overview
Paula brings a wardrobe team to prepare Agnes for Premarital Preparatory classes and an imminent marriage, asserting control over Agnes’s body and image. Agnes is fitted with recycled green outfits signaling marital readiness, her old school clothes taken away, underscoring lost autonomy and the closing of her childhood.
Summary
Paula escalates Agnes’s transition toward marriage by summoning a wardrobe team to manage everything from clothing to decor, emphasizing that Agnes has no say in her own presentation. Agnes reflects that “wedlock” feels like an iron door, capturing her dread.
Aunts Lorna, Sara Lee, and Betty measure Agnes in her bedroom while Paula supervises, correcting Agnes’s speech and asserting authority. The scrutiny makes Agnes feel exposed as her body is assessed like property. After measurements, Paula dismisses the idea of new underclothing, deeming the interim short.
Days later, the Aunts return with two recycled green outfits—one for warm seasons and one for cold—altered to fit Agnes. The green color marks her as ready for marriage; matching hats complete the controlled image. Agnes moderately dislikes them but takes faint hope from having both seasonal sets, imagining a possible delay.
Agnes’s old pink school clothes are removed for reuse, symbolizing the end of her schooling and girlhood. The chapter closes with her acceptance of the imposed costumes and the shrinking choices before her as Paula’s plan advances.
Who Appears
- AgnesNarrator; subjected to a wardrobe fitting for Premarital Preparatory classes, signaling imminent marriage and lost autonomy.
- PaulaStepmother; orchestrates and dominates the wardrobe process, pushing Agnes toward marriage and ending her schooling.
- Aunt GabbanaSenior Aunt overseeing marriage preparations; brings in a wardrobe team to manage Agnes’s premarital image.
- Aunt LornaWardrobe-team Aunt; takes Agnes’s measurements and helps choose premarital outfits.
- Aunt Sara LeeWardrobe-team Aunt; taciturn assistant during fitting and outfit preparation.
- Aunt BettyWardrobe-team Aunt; records measurements, returns with altered green dresses.