Previous
Chapter 64
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
Gardeners find Aunt Vidala lying behind Aunt Lydia’s statue, alive but comatose. Everyone assumes that she had a stroke. Lydia visits Vidala’s body in the intensive care unit in Ardua Hall and considers cutting off her oxygen supply then and there but decides that Vidala will likely die on her own.
Although Lydia is ruthless, her decision not to murder Vidala suggests that she has a certain amount of restraint and conscience as well, and would rather refrain from potentially unnecessary killing.
Themes
During lunch, Aunt Helena notices that Victoria and Immortelle are missing, but Lydia mentions that they said they’d be fasting and praying. However, when Helena also notices that Jade is missing, she goes to their apartment to check and finds Jade’s note explaining that she has eloped with a plumber. When she reports this to Lydia, Lydia surmises that as young and strong as Jade was, she most likely climbed over the Wall.
Since the Wall is a symbol of Gilead’s power and authoritarian control, the idea that Jade climbed over the Wall suggests that she has subverted Gilead’s control in her desire to exercise her own personal agency and choose a lover for herself. Even though Jade did not truly climb the Wall, her escape to Canada with dangerous information nonetheless represents a subversion of Gilead’s power.
Themes
