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Paula
Commander Kyle is Agnes’s legal father, though they are of no biological relation. Commander Kyle is an important political figure in Gilead who is often busy and has no relationship with Agnes whatsoever—as she grows up, she rarely sees him. After his wife Tabitha dies of an apparent illness, Commander Kyle marries Paula. However, when Agnes is an adult living in Ardua Hall, Lydia reveals evidence of Paula’s affair with Kyle before they were married. Lydia also reveals that Paula murdered her first husband, which implies to Agnes that Tabitha was also murdered by Commander Kyle so that he could marry Paula.
Commander Kyle Quotes in The Testaments
The The Testaments quotes below are all either spoken by Commander Kyle or refer to Commander Kyle. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 18 Quotes
The truth was that they’d cut Crystal open to get the baby out, and they’d killed her by doing that. It wasn’t something she chose. She hadn’t volunteered to die with noble womanly honor or be a shining example, but nobody mentioned that.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Commander Kyle Character Timeline in The Testaments
The timeline below shows where the character Commander Kyle appears in The Testaments. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3
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...
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Chapter 5
...she knew that Tabitha was dying already, that her parents would’ve told her, though Commander Kyle is almost never home now. Tabitha dies two days later, and Agnes feels as if...
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Chapter 13: Transcript of Witness Testimony 369A
...which Agnes received a black dress to wear. Afterward, the distinguished attendees return to Commander Kyle’s home for a reception. Among these guests is a widow named Paula, who has a...
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Several months later, Kyle marries Paula and gives her Tabitha’s wedding ring, even though it should have gone to...
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Chapter 14
Not long after her Kyle and Paula’s wedding, Agnes hears a disturbing story at school. In their classroom hangs portraits...
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Chapter 15
A few months later, Commander Kyle gets a Handmaid, whose name becomes Ofkyle, to bear him a child. Shunammite insists, “They’re...
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...dark forest and she realizes Shunammite must be telling the truth. This means that Commander Kyle is not even her real father; she belongs to nobody. And if Shunammite knows, then...
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Chapter 16
From that moment, Agnes is fascinated by Ofkyle, her father’s Handmaid. Although Agnes is not allowed to speak or interact with Ofkyle, Agnes finds herself...
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Chapter 18
...continues to swell. Agnes makes herself as invisible as possible but watches and listens. Commander Kyle seems unaffected by the pregnancy, but men are trained to be stoic. Other wives pay...
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Chapter 36
...been taught any geography and does not know to where she’d run to. Meanwhile Commander Kyle and Paula do their best to convince Agnes to marry their choice, Judd. Weddings are...
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Chapter 40
...to change her mind. During their conversation, Paula insists that the Aunts will require Commander Kyle’s permission to nullify the marriage arrangement, and he’ll never give it. However, Lydia enters and...
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Chapter 51
...not murdered by his Handmaid, but by Paula, who was having an affair with Commander Kyle even while Tabitha was alive. Paula framed the Handmaid for the murder, and the Handmaid...
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