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Chapter 2
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 is six or seven years old. She lives with her mother, Tabitha, and her father, Commander Kyle, though she rarely interacts with her father. She has a dollhouse that roughly mirrors their house, with a wife for the mother, a Commander for the father, and a “big kitchen for the Marthas.” The father doll sits in his study, which has books with blank pages that Tabitha insists are only decorations, like flower vases. Agnes is not allowed in Commander Kyle’s study, where he does his important work that only men’s brains are capable of doing, according to Aunt Estée and Aunt Vidala.
Tabitha’s insistence that books are only stacks of black pages that sit as decorations suggests that Agnes, as a girl, is so far removed from any sort of literature that she has never seen an actual book in person. The Aunts’ teaching that only male brains are capable of certain important work suggests that those in power believe men and women’s brains are biologically distinct, which could explain Gilead’s strict gender roles.
Themes
The dollhouse also contains a Handmaid doll and a swing set, though girls would never dare swing on the swings lest the wind lift their long skirts and allow someone to see beneath them. The Handmaid wears the red dress and white hat to cover her face, and her stomach is swollen and pregnant. Tabitha says their dollhouse does not need a Handmaid, since they already have Agnes, and Agnes is not sorry to take the Handmaid away, since the real ones make her anxious. She sees them sometimes, walking in pairs, eyes downcast but still watching. She tries not to stare, since it is rude to stare at lesser people and social outcasts, but she can’t help wondering whether they were once like herself, but “allowed some alluring part of themselves to show.”
Although the novel’s preceding book, The Handmaid’s Tale, focused exclusively on the Handmaids’ plight in Gilead, Tabitha removing the Handmaid doll from view suggests that Handmaids will play a much smaller role in this story. It also suggests that Tabitha feels a sense of shame and aversion toward Handmaids, perhaps implying that her own husband may have had one in the past.
Themes
In the evenings, Tabitha prays with Agnes that angels will stand guard around her bed and protect her soul. This unnerves Agnes, though, especially the thought of Angels with their uniforms and guns watching her as she slept, since some part of her body might stick out from under the covers and entice them to do terrible things. Agnes wonders about her soul as well, which seems to always be under threat, according to Aunt Vidala.
Gilead naming its soldier Angels highlights the religious hypocrisy inherent to Gilead’s mixture of religion and militaristic authority. Whereas biblical angels are typically viewed as a comforting presence, here they take on a violent, threatening role. Agnes’s fear that the Angels will take advantage of her if she is not careful and guarded enough makes the Angels seem rather like predatory demons.
Themes
