The Testaments

At age seven, Agnes dearly loves her devoted mother. They play for hours with Agnes’s doll house, with its little blank books in the study. Her mother tells her that books were decorations, like flower vases, with nothing in them. There’s a doll for every family member: a Commander, a Wife in blue, a little girl, three Martha dolls in green, two Angels with plastic guns to guard the house, and a Guardian of the Faith to drive the car. The Commander doll spends all its time in the study, like Agnes’s father, Commander Kyle. This is because, according to Aunt Vidala the Religion teacher, the Commander is thinking large thoughts with his larger, male brain.

There is also a Handmaid doll in red, but it stays in the box. Real Handmaids make Agnes nervous. When the students see the Handmaids, their teachers instruct them not to stare at the red-clad women, nor ask questions about them, as they will learn about “all of that” when they are older. Agnes wonders if the Handmaids have become damaged by carelessly tempting men.

The Aunt doll doesn’t belong in the house but at school or at Ardua Hall. When she plays alone, sometimes Agnes locks the Aunt doll in the cellar and pretends that it cries out.

At night, Tabitha sings Agnes a song about angels around her bed who will carry her soul away when she dies. This bothers Agnes because she pictures the black-clad Angels with guns and worries that she'll accidentally expose her body and inflame their urges. Agnes also recalls the Aunts’ lectures about guarding one’s soul. 

Around age eight or nine, Agnes spends less time with her mother, who is always upstairs “resting.” Agnes likes to watch the “Marthas,” Vera, Rosa, and Zilla, in the kitchen. The family has three Marthas, a symbol of importance. One day, Agnes asks to bake bread from scratch, but Rosa says that’s unnecessary, as Agnes will have Marthas someday. Learning to bake bread would be troublesome for her future husband and Marthas. Vera lets slip that Agnes may not need a Handmaid, considering her mother. Agnes questions her, but Zilla says that it is just that Agnes’s mother was able to have her own baby, so Agnes will also.

Agnes, upset, goes upstairs to her mother’s bedside. She asks why she must be married. Tabitha reminds Agnes that she had chosen her. Agnes is too old for the fairytale and says she came out of her mother’s stomach like all babies. Tabitha doesn’t confirm her theory. 

Shunammite from school is Agnes’s best friend, having chosen Agnes to elevate her status. One day, Shunamite tells Agnes that Tabitha is dying, as Agnes’s Martha had relayed as much to her Martha. At first, Agnes thinks this is ridiculous. Back home, Agnes demands to know which Martha had lied and said that her mother is dying. Zilla gently says that they thought her mother had told her. Agnes collapses in tears, saying, “All I could see in front of me was loss and darkness” (27). Tabitha dies two nights later.