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
People emigrate out of Gilead in high numbers, which is an embarrassing look for “God’s kingdom on earth.” Especially in Vermont and Maine, where the locals despise Gilead’s government, many individuals take payment from Mayday operatives to guide and smuggle women out through the woods and onto freedom. Lydia’s family came from that area and, before Gilead was established, were a crime-ridden, lower class lot who resented her intelligence, especially since she was a girl. Her father often tried to “wallop those pretensions out of [her].” He was murdered before Gilead was instituted, but Lydia figures she would have arranged for his throat to be cut either way.
Gilead’s emigration problem demonstrates that, although they claim to be the bastion of religious purity, its citizens are so unhappy that they flee in large numbers, suggesting that it is little more than an oppressive tyranny. However, Lydia recalls that she faced violent sexism and repression even before Gilead was formed. This suggests that although Gilead has systematized such gendered oppression, using religion as a catalyst, such misogyny is not unique either to Gilead or to religion.
Themes
Vidala, Elizabeth, and Helena present Lydia with a new plan they’ve written up to decrease the escaping of women into Canada involving more search dogs and better interrogation methods. Lydia assumes the interrogation bit was Vidala’s doing; she secretly loves to torture. Lydia promises to pass the plan along to Commander Judd. Later in the day, the Aunts report back that a number of civilians have been arrested with suspected connections to Mayday in Canada, and they’ll either by interrogated or traded as hostages. Lydia takes the opportunity to tell them about the two operatives recently killed in Canada and the existence of a traitor in their midst, leaking information. The Aunts are all deeply concerned by this and know that it could even be one of them.
Although the reader cannot know what Lydia’s inner narrative was during the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the divide between herself (who secretly helps to smuggle people out of Gilead) and the other head Aunts (who are devising new ways to crack down on such escapees) suggests that this has been her position all throughout Gilead’s existence. She has been quietly opposing the other Aunts and aiding their enemies while keeping up the pretense of avid cooperation and zealous patriotism.
Themes
Lydia goes back to writing about her arrest in the early days: After she and Anita were left at the stadium, their handcuffs were removed and they were “herded” into a section of marked off bleachers. There were hundreds of other women there, sorted by profession. Lydia and Anita were placed with the other judges and made to sit silently for hour as other women were deposited and sorted. As she sat, Lydia thought about how foolish she was to assume that the liberty, human rights, and democracy she’d enjoyed would always exist. Since it seemed the perpetrators were sorting out the professional women, she’d need to revert herself to her “underclass” upbringing and scheme to survive.
Lydia’s reflection on how foolish it was to think that democracy and human rights would always exists seems a grave warning to the reader as well, who most likely makes those same assumptions. Just as Lydia’s personal autonomy, and physical safety were suddenly stripped away from her through a historical event, Atwood warns that anyone’s fundamental rights could be taken in that same way unless members of society take proactive measures to protect them.
Themes
By mid-afternoon, men passed out bottles of water, covered by other men pointing rifles at the women as if they were enemy combatants. The women were not allowed to even go to the bathroom, so human waste trickled down the bleachers after so many hours. In the late afternoon, 20 women were led out into the middle of the stadium and arranged in two lines, escorted by men with rifles. A black-uniformed man shouted into a microphone about God judging sinners, ending with “God will prevail!” The men said “Amen” and opened fire on the lines of women, executing them in front of their audience of the other women. Lydia didn’t understand why they should make such a show if everyone was going to die. At sundown, the women were given sandwiches and allowed to go to the bathroom.
Although the Sons of Jacob dress their coup in religious imagery and conventions, their treatment of women as enemy combatants and execution as if they were prisoners of war suggests that a hatred of empowered women and desire to subjugate them are the true heart of the new regime. This is reiterated by the fact that highly educated women, who would be more difficult to control and subjugate, are the ones brought to the stadium for execution.
Themes
Get the entire The Testaments LitChart as a printable PDF.
