Book Review: The Testaments
The Testaments, Margaret Atwood
My Rating: 5 / 5 stars
2021 TBR: 9 / 25
What is The Testaments About?
The Republic of Gilead is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, two girls with radically different experiences of the regime come face to face with the legendary, ruthless Aunt Lydia. But how far will each go for what she believes?
There are tiers of society that follow like such:
Commanders (high-ranking men, given Wives and Handmaids, the men in control),
Eyes (the secret police),
Guardians and Angels (kind of like private security),
Economen (lower ranking men under control of the Commanders, probably aren’t given Handmaids).
Then the women:
Aunts (under the Commander rule but they are sort of in charge of all women’s matters),
Wives (Commanders’ wives- they have control over their household staff and that’s it),
Handmaids (women who are believed to be fertile, handed out to high-ranking households to attempt to procreate with the husbands in a ritualistic-sexual act called the ‘ceremony’)
Econowives (married to low-ranking Economen and don’t get given household staff),
Marthas (cooks, cleaners, basically idolised servants, always women).
I find the way Atwood has constructed this state so interesting and alarmingly realistic. When you are reading the shocking rules and actions of the people in charge at Gilead, it feels likely. Obviously she has constructed a world so well that the reader becomes so invested and sucked-in to the world we’re reading. But, the way the structure of society is so, in my opinion, accurate to how it would be, makes it more chilling. I said this about The Handmaid’s Tale too. It really does feel like this could happen, and that is how it would. The story is so good, it’s terrifying.
Themes in The Testaments
Obviously a major theme in The Testaments is the treatment of women. In this sequel we meet Agnes, a daughter to a Commander and a Wife, who grows up in Gilead in a high status to one day be married to a Commander. Daisy, who grows up in Canada, learning about Gilead at school, and Aunt Lydia, the forceful presence in The Handmaid’s Tale, responsible for training the Handmaid’s to be grateful for the position God has supposedly chosen for them. She’s basically Aunt royalty. This book differs from its predecessor because we hear about Handmaid’s from an external point of view rather than the first-hand one Offred provides. We also get to see what it is like for the young women of the story to have only known a world where Gilead exists: whether that be because it governs what she does on a daily basis, or because it poses a constant neighbouring threat and point of conversation.
In this book we further see how women are treated in a convoluted and complicated way. Women are below men, at least that’s the way Gilead has constructed its societal ranks. But we see Agnes outsmart her parents and avoid the clutches of marriage by becoming Aunt Victoria. We also see the way her and her friends and the Marthas talk about men. They describe them in a childlike state of incapability to control themselves. Sexual urges are something men cannot help, and certainly cannot impact. Therefore, their acts are almost without power; they do not have the power to act in their own will, only to succumb to their urges.
This puts men in a powerful position because it excuses their actions and makes them unaccountable for their actions, especially to women. So their dominance over women is displayed: when Agnes is assaulted by the dentist she blames herself and thinks she must have led him to do such a thing: ‘So it was true then, about men and their rampaging, fiery urges, and merely by sitting in the dentist chair I was the cause.’ (96). It’s a fact we still see today, school girls are told to cover up so not to distract the boys or male staff members. In this world, the women wear long sleeves and full length dresses and cover their hair. It also makes men sound weak: unable to do anything of their own accord should a sudden ‘urge’ take hold. It’s interesting to read. A woman is powerless and deemed as the lowest sex, and yet they have the innate power to make a man act out of sheer temptation. At the same time, this ‘powerful’ woman is then punished, in place of a man, if any scandalous events take place.
As the idolised and yearned for symbol of hope in Gilead, Baby Nicole has a strange power over the state. Though just a baby when she went missing, Baby Nicole’s story is a well-known one. Smuggled out of Gilead to Canada by her inherently evil Handmaid mother, she is held onto as a story of hope for those who want to get out of Gilead, and as one of hope for those who wish to see her return to her ‘rightful’ place. This story also shows the dichotomy in the way Handmaids are treated. Though they are upheld and blessed to be ‘fruitful’ in an age of low birth rates, they are also treated as lesser humans and labelled as sexually promiscuous.
The Handmaids are called ‘sluts’ by almost every rank of woman in the novel. They are forced to sleep with husbands, passed around households to fulfil their ‘God-given’ duty. And yet, they are seen as if they wish to infiltrate families in this way. The wives resent the Handmaids for having to engage in ‘intimate’ relations with their husbands, and the young women treat them like the ‘Other Woman’ in the house. Yet the Aunts teach the Handmaids a convoluted way to view themselves. They are both grateful for their ‘service’, but also make them know they are nothing.
For Daisy, later Jade, then Nicole, we see her navigate the strange rules of Gilead both as an outsider and then an insider trying to fit in. Agnes (Aunt Victoria) and Becka (Aunt Immortale), three women which demonstrate the complicated nature of women with their ever-changing names, do their best to try and ‘correct’ her language which is so far from the muted, stunted way Gilead women must speak. I think this language is mirrored in the ‘outside world’ by Ada, confidant of Daisy-Jade-Nicole who appears to speak only in epigrams and sayings: ‘Least said, soonest mended’(122), ’Curiosity got the cat in trouble’ (188), ‘Faint hopes are better than none’ (197). These pre-made phrases parallel the clipped, pre-made phrases those in Gilead say in response to conversation: ‘Praise be’, ‘Under His eye’, 'Blessed be the fruit’ etc.
Daisy-Jade-Nicole holds a power over men in her role as the rightful parcel to be returned to her place in Gilead. Though she is a ‘slut's’ (Handmaid's) daughter, she is held in high esteem because of her supposed parentage from a Commander. She ‘whips up the faithful, she inspires hatred for [Gilead’s] enemies, she bears witness to the possibility of betrayal within Gilead and to the deviousness and cunning of the Handmaids, who can never be trusted.’(33). The power Baby Nicole holds is conditional however. She is a powerful and often thought of symbol, but she is merely a symbol. The power she holds in people’s thoughts is only one because she is wanted back where she is thought to belong. If she is returned she becomes, once again, a possession of the state of Gilead. Commander Judd expresses a desire to have her married to him, which as we know means she will probably be conveniently ended and swapped in for a newer, younger model. Therefore, once she would be retrieved and returned to Gilead, it would be a success for the state, and her power would immediately be eclipsed.
From reading Aunt Lydia’s account of the fall of Gilead, we see its shifts and changes. Aunt Lydia describes in her own words how she is ‘swollen with power’ but also ‘formless, shape-shifting’ (32). This shows the ever-changing position of women in Gilead, especially one who wishes to maintain control over herself and others. Aunt Lydia experiences the rise of Gilead as a high-ranking Judge who is removed from her position and ability to own money. Removed by the new leaders, along with other high earning/ ranking professional women. These women are captured and made to suffer, to remove any ‘incorrect’ feeling of power or rights. We see Aunt Lydia (as her former self) be morally crushed, and rebel against the new regime, until she then becomes obedient. She is given power over the Handmaids and over other Aunts, and she is one of the four founding Aunts which establish the rules and goings-on of women in Gilead. Her power to do this is limited. It is granted by the Commanders in a way which expresses the futility of her power. Men do not need to be concerned by the little matters of women, which is why it is down to these women to do. So their power is merely granted because their roles are deemed inferior and inconsequential to the people in real power.
Aunt Lydia’s power remains so. She and Commander Judd have a close working relationship, a direct method of communication, and we frequently see them discuss plans and events which do take place. In these meetings, however, she refers to herself in a subservient and inferior way in order to get what she wants. So, although in Commander Judd’s eyes she remains inferior and the power remains in his hands, she does manipulate this power in order to get her way. So by having no power, she gains power. It is an interesting dynamic and one which made me admire Aunt Lydia. We almost forgive her actions in The Handmaid’s Tale to Offred and the other women, because we learn of what had happened to her when Gilead rose to power. Is her treatment of the women in her power excused by the way she was herself treated by simply being a woman? I’m not sure.
Aunt Lydia, if her writing and the other two girls' Witness Testimonies are to be believed, was a key orchestrator in the events which lead to Gilead’s downfall. She uses her power within Gilead to gain knowledge of people’s actions and crimes in order to slowly enact justice. She learns of Paula, Agnes-Victoria’s step-mother’s crimes and uses them to get Agnes-Victoria out of her inevitable death sentence as Judd’s next young bride. She hears of Dr Grove the dentist’s sexual misconduct against his daughter and sets up Aunt Elizabeth to accuse him and have him punished. She uses her power as an Aunt and her ability to control information to slowly improve the lives of certain women. Eventually this too leads her to be a source for the Mayday organisation which helps refugees from Gilead and intends to infiltrate and corrupt Gilead from within. Gilead itself is already rife with corruption. By smuggling Baby Nicole in and out of Gilead, she leaks information of this corruption in order to help the world interfere with the rule of this totalitarian theocracy.
I think this novel, and its predecessor, is about the way this would occur if it were to happen in real life. Atwood herself has said that’s how she believes these circumstances would come about. Shutting down women’s bank accounts, returning them to the home, and diminishing their freedom. It’s about this imaginary, and yet plausible, dystopia. However, I think it’s also about the ways women adapt and change to their circumstances. Women are a force to be reckoned with. In every rank of Gileadean society, women band together and help each other. The Handmaids care for each other, the Marthas work together and form ally relationships with the Handmaids. The Wives support each other, they are all equally powerless against their husbands, and all feel threatened by their Handmaids. The Wives do however exert their limited power of their household by their mistreatment of their Handmaid and Marthas in order to gain some sense of control of their lives, otherwise they are simply thrown off to the side as unimportant. The Aunts care for each other and the Handmaids. They find information and try to help the young girls, young Aunts, and even Handmaids where possible. Though brutal methods are used to maintain this power, their ultimate role is one of guidance and leadership.
The Power of Women
The story demonstrates the ability of women to do the best with their situation, to support each other and come together at every opportunity. Though the instinct is to protect oneself simply to survive, it’s also to look after one another. I think it’s a painfully shocking story about censorship, the breakdown of language, and the powers that will silence women when given the chance. But it’s also about the cleverness of women, the complexities of women, the beauty of women.
Above all, it’s just really really good, and you should definitely read it.
The Testaments, Margaret Atwood: 5 stars.
Ellen Victoria x
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