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
At preparatory school, Aunt Lise teaches the girls such skills as handling one’s Handmaid, interior decorating, and flower arranging. Becka’s wedding has been arranged for November, but Becka wishes she would develop a serious illness so she could avoid it. One day, while they are learning flower arrangements, Becka takes the secateurs (pruning scissors) and slashes her wrist, pouring her blood onto the floor. Agnes watches her face as she does it and notes that Becka looks ferocious, more determined than she’d ever seen her before. Paramedics arrive and carry Becka away. As she passes Agnes with a serene look on her face, Becka bids her goodbye.
Becka’s suicide attempt represents a final act of autonomy. Rather than be forced into a marriage she doesn’t want and lose her ability to choose, Becka makes the active choice to end her life on her own terms, rather than slowly withering away beneath someone else. Becka’s decision that her power to choose is more important that life itself suggests that choice and personal agency are fundamental rights of a person and are critically important to one’s well-being.
Themes
