116 pages • 3 hours read
The Testaments
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaEpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Epilogue
Epilogue Summary: “The Thirteenth Symposium”
This appending section features a partial transcript from the proceedings of the Thirteenth Symposium on Gileadean Studies, International Historical Association Convention, Passamaquoddy, Maine, June 29-30, 2197. Professor Maryanne Crescent Moon, President, Anishinaabe University, Cobalt, Ontario chairs the symposium. The keynote speaker is Professor James Darby Pieixoto, Director, 20th- and 21st-Century Archives, Cambridge University, England.
Professor Crescent Moon notes that their location for this convention was formerly Bangor, a crucial point of exit for Gilead refugees, as well as for the Underground Railroad in the 19th century, adding, “As they say, history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes” (407).
Professor Pieixoto begins his presentation, noting that some of his jokes during his presentation at the Twelfth Symposium caused some controversy and he will take care not to reoffend. Professor Pieixoto reminds the audience of the excitement a few years prior when they found the tapes attributed to the Gilead Handmaid known as Offred. Despite the sabotage of Gilead server farms and libraries, plus the general loss of information from that period through data storage loss, they’ve found that these tapes are genuine.
Two other discoveries will add to their understanding of the Gilead period; A manuscript of handwritten pages known as The Ardua Hall Holograph, purported to have been written by “Aunt Lydia,” who had also been featured in the Offred tapes. Evidence suggests that this may be the “Aunt Lydia” identified by archaeologists as the subject of a statue found after the fall of Gilead. Professor Pieixoto is inclined to believe that the manuscript is genuine, though it might have been an attempt by one of Aunt Lydia’s suspected enemies to incriminate her. It might also have been possible that this was a misdirection, meant to protect the identity of the true Mayday contact within Gilead.
Professor Pieixoto reveals that they’ve also discovered two documents labelled as the transcripts of witness testimonies from two young women, “Agnes Jemima,” and “Nicole,” who had been assigned the hazardous mission of smuggling out materials that led to the collapse of Gilead, via the Ba’al Purge and revolts.
Professor Pieixoto describes the serendipitous discovery of the documents by a graduate student and the research done to evaluate these first-hand narratives. His team eventually interviewed an elderly woman in Passamaquoddy, whose great-grandfather had told a story of transporting women on his fishing boat. The research team also traced the route described in the transcripts to Campobello Island, where they found an old mansion that had been used as a refugee center, which had been damaged when Gilead blew up the causeway from the Gilead mainland to discourage further escapes. In the building, the team discovered carvings in a wall that read “N,” “A,” “G,” “V,” and “AL.”
Professor Pieixoto then addresses the identity of the mother of the half-sisters. It is known that there was a former Handmaid who was a Mayday agent and survived two assassination attempts. She then worked under triple protection at the Mayday intelligence unit in Barrie, disguised as an organic hemp farm. This woman may have been the author of the Offred tapes or the mother of the half-sisters, but further research is needed.
Professor Pieixoto concludes with some slides of a statue located on the Boston Common. Its sculptor was an artist active some decades after the fall of Gilead, and someone must have transferred to its present location after the Restoration of the United States of America. The inscription names the principal actors cited in the documents, which appears to indicate that the two young women lived to have children and grandchildren of their own. Professor Pieixoto takes the inscription as evidence of the authenticity of the transcripts. The statue depicts a young Pearl Girl, with an inscription:
In Loving Memory of Becka, Aunt Immortelle. This memorial was erected by her sisters, Agnes and Nicole, and their mother, two fathers, their children and grandchildren. And in recognition of the invaluable services provided by A.L. A bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter. Love is as strong as death (415).
Epilogue Analysis
As she did at the conclusion of The Handmaid’s Tale, the author ends this novel with a partial transcript of the proceedings of a scholarly symposium on Gileadean Studies. In the previous novel, this was a device to let the reader know that Gilead, in a future time from the events of the book, will fall and the United States restored. Atwood’s choice to bring back Professor Pieixoto and his view of Gilead as a historical puzzle is interesting, as readers criticized some of the comments Professor Pieixoto made in The Handmaid’s Tale as anachronistically sexist. The author breaks the Fourth Wall and has Professor Pieixoto acknowledge and apologize for these comments “at the previous Symposium,” in a clear nod to these criticisms.
Through Professor Pieixoto’s presentation, the reader gets a glimpse of the events that resulted from Agnes and Nicole’s successful mission. The information sent from Aunt Lydia via microdot appears to have led to a massive purge of the Gilead leadership. The reader may assume that Commander Judd was part of that purge, as he indicated that his position was already tenuous.
While the reader knows Agnes, Daisy/Nicole, and Aunt Lydia intimately after having reached this point in the novel, Professor Pieixoto treats their writings from an historical viewpoint, one that doesn’t consider their accounts yet verified as authentic. The Professor seems particularly unsure about the legitimacy of Aunt Lydia’s memoirs and calls upon future historians to continue the examination of the holograph.
The transcripts of Agnes and Daisy/Nicole’s testimonies have more credence, as Professor Pieixoto’s research team has been able to uncover more evidence of their veracity. It is curious that the reason that it took so long for anyone to discover these testimonies is that their file had the label “Annals of the Nellie J. Banks: Two Adventurers.” The keyword signifiers therefore led researchers to believe that this document concerned the Nellie J. Banks that had been a famous rumrunner in the early 20th century. It took a chance act of a graduate student in search of a thesis topic to find the file’s true content.
Professor Pieixoto’s descriptions of his research team’s efforts to validate the transcripts led them to follow the route that Agnes and Nicole had taken during their escape. A descendant of Captain Mishimengo is interviewed and the refugee center where Nicole and Agnes were airlifted is identified, and carvings are found on a wall. These appear to be the initials of Nicole, Ada, Garth, and Victoria. There is also an “AL” for Aunt Lydia.
That Agnes identified herself by “V” as Victoria suggests that she was still very religious. Interestingly, she had been doubting her religious beliefs prior to her escape with Nicole, but the adventure, and her repeated prayers for safety, seems to have strengthened her resolve. That the refugees added Aunt Lydia’s initials indicates that the resistance remembered Aunt Lydia’s role in the destruction of Gilead and considered her one of their own. Atwood may be hinting that there’s a possibility Aunt Lydia made it out of Gilead.
These sources of evidence help make the case for the authenticity of the transcripts, but what has convinced Professor Pieixoto is an inscription on a statue currently standing on Boston Common. The Professor describes the artist who sculpted it as having been active in Montreal during the years following the fall of Gilead. Professor Pieixoto considers this piece of evidence to be the kind of discovery that gratifies historians:
The collective memory is notoriously faulty, and much of the past sinks into the ocean of time to be drowned forever; but once in a while the waters part, allowing us to glimpse a flash of hidden treasure, if only for a moment (414).
Professor Pieixoto uses the term “hidden treasure,” which is how Aunt Lydia hopes people will regard her memoirs.
The statue is of a Pearl Girl, holding forget-me-nots, with two birds on her shoulders. The inscription memorializes Becka, to whom Agnes and Nicole, and their families, owe such a debt of gratitude. Becka’s last words to Agnes had been, “I will think of you as birds, flying away. A bird of the air will carry the voice” (357). This comes from a verse from Ecclesiastes, demonstrating Becka’s belief that Agnes and Nicole would successfully carry their message. The two birds on the shoulders of the statue are Agnes and Nicole. The forget-me-nots the statue carries signify that Agnes, Nicole, and their families will never forget Becka’s love and sacrifice. The inscription concludes with “Love is stronger than death,” from the Song of Solomon, showing that Agnes and Nicole believe that the love that Becka epitomized was stronger than the destructive forces of Gilead, and transcended her death. The sisters likely chose to memorialize Becka as a Pearl Girl, as she was disappointed that she wouldn’t be able to make this important step in her religious path.
Unlock all 116 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Margaret Atwood
