Previous
Chapter 35
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Testaments, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Religious Totalitarianism and Hypocrisy
Gender Roles
Truth, Knowledge, and Power
Shame, Fear, and Repression
Choice
Summary
Analysis
Agnes considers running away, though she’s never been taught any geography and does not know to where she’d run to. Meanwhile Commander Kyle and Paula do their best to convince Agnes to marry their choice, Judd. Weddings are easier when the bride is willing; some families have had to resort to injecting the bride with tranquilizers. Even the Marthas try to convince Agnes that marriage is a good thing and that suicide is a terrible thing to do. Agnes considers it, though, contemplating whether she should cut her wrists (though she has no access to secateurs) or hang herself. By the week’s end, Agnes is engaged to Commander Judd. He visits the house to meet her and kisses her on the forehead with warm, loose lips. Agnes is disgusted and tries not to envision their wedding night.
Once again, the fact that parents occasionally resort to drugging the bride so as to make her pliable and able to get through the wedding demonstrates women’s utter lack of choice and agency in Gilead. Under drugs or tranquilizers, any such wedding is obviously not their own choice, and any sexual contact is nothing less than sexual assault. Although this is a horrific situation, Atwood mentions in the Acknowledgements of the novel that she did not include any situation unless there was a historical precedent for it, suggesting that such horrific treatment of women has actually occurred in human history.
Themes
The wedding planners arrive and begin discussing details and preparations with Agnes and Paula. They note Agnes’s demeanor and suggest she be given a drink with a sedative. Everyone besides Agnes acts cheerful, but Agnes can tell Paula just wants it to be over with and Agnes out of her sight. With details arranged, the wedding will take place in two weeks, as soon as the wedding dress is made. Agnes regards these as the last 14 days of her life.
Once again, the wedding planners’ suggestion that Agnes be sedated reiterates her own lack of choice or personal agency. Agnes’s feeling that her life will end on her wedding day again echoes Becka’s sentiment that marriage will kill her, effectively ending her sense of self, personhood, and independent agency.
Themes
