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Chapter 59
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
Lydia rushes into Becka and Agnes’s apartment and announces that there is an emergency. She says that Judd has discovered Nicole’s true identity and wants to marry her soon, so they must hatch their plan tonight. Lydia will have their clothing, passports, and Pearl Girl dresses ready for Nicole and Agnes by tonight, but Becka must hide herself for 48 hours, since there will not be enough time to arrange an escape for her as well. Though this will be a tremendous risk for Becka, everything else depends on her. Nicole will write a note claiming that she eloped with a maintenance man and escaped over the Wall to buy them some time.
Again, rather than telling Nicole, Agnes, and Becka the truth, Lydia lies to them by telling them that Judd has just learned Baby Nicole is in Gilead, depicting her as a morally ambiguous character with loyalty to nobody but herself. Once again, Becka is faced with little choice on whether or not to accept her role. However, this time, Becka’s loss of choice is for the sake of saving her friends, suggesting that one may have to set aside their own personal agency and freedom for the sake of others.
Themes
Lydia arrives in the evening with everything bundled in a bag and gives Agnes and Nicole a map, passwords, and instructions to be outside to meet their driver early the next morning. However, Lydia also warns them that Aunt Vidala likes to walk the grounds in the morning. If they run into her, Nicole will need to hit her.
Nicole’s physical training, which disturbed Becka and Agnes, immediately has its usefulness, suggesting that Nicole’s belief in women’s need to learn self-defense and develop the power to fight is fully justified, even if it does not fit into Gilead’s traditional gender roles.
Themes
Nicole writes the elopement note and goes to bed, while Agnes and Becka sit up with each other. Agnes worries for Becka, since she’ll surely be caught and hurt, and wishes she did not have to leave her behind, but Becka is firm that this is the only possible way. Becka determines that she’ll hide in the cistern on the roof, but Agnes worries that this is too dangerous. Agnes tells Becka that she is a “true sister” to her, and they each tell each other that they love each other, and have only ever loved each other.
Although Becka has little choice in the matter, she sets aside her own demand for personal agency and accepts her fate—even though it will certainly lead to arrest, torture, and death—in order to help her friends, demonstrating that a person may voluntarily sacrifice their personal agency and power to choose for the sake of a greater good and other people. In the midst of their concurrent struggles, Becka and Agnes find real love and familial intimacy from each other, even though Gilead tried to deny it from them, which is itself an act of resistance.
Themes
