Line #19 Literature/TheTestaments


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_testaments_2.jpg]]
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3	''The Testaments'' is the 2019 follow-up to ''Literature/TheHandmaidsTale'', written by Creator/MargaretAtwood.
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5	Set 15 years after the ending of ''The Handmaid's Tale'', which centered around the totalitarian state "Gilead", the book picks up with the perspective of three narrators: the adopted daughter of a Commander, a young woman observing Gilead from Canada, and [[DrillSergeantNasty Aunt Lydia]] of ''The Handmaid's Tale'', a founder and respected leader within the nation.
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7	As the book opens, Lydia charts her history amid the establishment of Gilead (and her promotion to a leadership role within Gilead) in the "Ardua Hall Holograph", a manuscript recorded in secret and planned for a far-greater purpose. Meanwhile, a privileged Daughter named Agnes begins to receive illicit material revealing some of Gilead's oldest secrets, and "Baby Nicole", a famed teenager within Gilead society, learns that her purpose -- and lineage -- may be far greater than she realized.
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9	The novel, based on story treatments that went unused for the [[Series/TheHandmaidsTale Hulu television series of the same name]], [[CanonWelding adapts elements from the adaptation]]. The book won several accolades, including a joint award for the 2019 Booker Prize.
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11	Unmarked spoilers for ''The Handmaid's Tale'' follow.
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13	!Tropes for ''The Testaments'' include:
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15	* AlternateContinuity: Despite Hulu quickly picking up the rights to the novel to make a direct sequel to their series based on the first book, its portrayal of Aunt Lydia is completely irreconcilable with the one in the show, making some major changes necessary.
16	* AerithAndBob: The Daughters of Gilead in Agnes' School. Among her classmates, there are Becka and Shunammite. While the Aunts pick their own names based off of products, their names can be as common as Elizabeth, Helena, and Victoria, to more uncommon, like Immortelle, Vidala, and Estèe.
17	* ArrangedMarriage: The Daughters of Gilead can expect this. Marriages are arranged by parents and Aunts, with some "say" from the girls. [[spoiler:Averted by both Becka and Agnes as they becomes Supplicants, Aunts-in-Training, to escape marriage.]]
18	* AsTheGoodBookSays: Literature/TheBible is used to justify the treatment of the women in society. One story in particular in Judges, the Levite and his Concubine, is used in Agnes' school to teach women to be obedient. Agnes eventually discovers that the Bible doesn't say what those in power claim it says.
19	* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler: Aunt Lydia finishes her manuscript with a vial of morphine at the ready, intending to give herself a lethal overdose before she can be arrested and executed.]]
20	* TheBluebeard: [[spoiler:Commander Judd constantly kills off his child-wives after he grows bored with them in order to find a new one.]]
21	* BreakTheHaughty: Shunammite is not the nicest girl, but a husband [[spoiler: who is poisoning her]] and [[spoiler: an Unbaby]] later, she is a shadow of her former vivacious self.
22	* BusCrash: As alluded to in the epilogue of ''The Handmaid's Tale'', the man Offred dubbed "Commander Fred" was killed in a purge sometime in the fifteen years between novels. It's ambiguous whether Serena Joy shared his fate; Baby Nicole is said to be wanted by her legal family within Gilead who are his "surviving relatives", but it's never elaborated on exactly who they are (or even if they're real, and not a concoction of the regime to further pressure the Canadian government to repatriate the child).
23	* CanonWelding: The plotline of Baby Nichole being taken to Canada originated in the [[Series/TheHandmaidsTale series]]. The name is spelled "Nicole" in the novel.
24	** While Aunt Lydia is shown to be a judge in the book, Commander Judd mentions that she used to teach, which is a nod at the Hulu series, where Lydia was a teacher.
25	* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler: Aunt Lydia, at least three times over. One, she works Agnes and Nicole around to a position of being ready to help her bring down the government of Gilead. Two, she manipulates one potential rival into committing perjury, then gets her packed off to a sanitarium and out of the picture. Three, she sets up a second rival to be attacked by Agnes and Nicole and then killed by a third rival.]]
26	* ColorCodedCharacters: Continuing from ''The Handmaid's Tale'', Daughters wear Pink/Plum, Marriage Ready Girls wear Spring Green, and Pearl Girls wear silver.
27	* TheDeadHaveNames: After [[spoiler: Ofkyle]] dies, Agnes searches for and eventually uncovers her name, which would otherwise have been lost to history. [[spoiler: Her name was Crystal.]]
28	* DeathByChildbirth: One of [[spoiler: Commander Judd's]] young wives had an Unbaby with two heads lodged in her birth canal. Her husband refused to allow the doctors to save her, using the fetal heartbeat as an excuse. As we later find out, he did it on purpose so he could get another child bride.
29	** The Handmaid assigned to [[spoiler: Commander Kyle]] and his wife is essentially sacrificed so that her son could be saved.
30	* DepravedDentist: [[spoiler: Becka's father]], who molests not only his own daughter but also his young patients, with [[spoiler: Agnes]] among them.
31	* DistantFinale: Like the previous book, the story ends with a text recording of a historical conference years after the fact, which gives further information regarding the fate of Gilead and many of the novel's characters.
32	* DividedStatesOfAmerica: The novel mentions that UsefulNotes/{{California}} and UsefulNotes/{{Texas}} managed to hold out against Gilead and survived as independent nations, which was never mentioned in the first book (although it would be unlikely for Offred to have any knowledge of this).
33	* DoubleAgent: [[spoiler:Aunt Lydia has been collaborating with Mayday for a long time, sending intel to aid the Underground Femaleroad smuggle refugees to Canada.]]
34	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Becka]], as well as many other girls and women living in Gilead.
35	* DystopiaIsHard: Gilead continues to struggle with discontented citizens. Mayday is very active within Canada and Gilead.
36	* EarnYourHappyEnding: After a grueling escape effort, [[spoiler:Agnes and Nicole manage to escape to Canada where they are suggested to have reunited with their mother and started families of their own. The intel they smuggle out eventually leads to the collapse of Gilead and allows for the re-establishment of the USA.]]
37	* FishOutOfWater: [[spoiler: Daisy/Jade/Nicole when she infiltrates the Pearl Girls after pretending to convert. And Agnes after she and Nicole escape to Canada]]
38	* GossipyHens: The Marthas spread a lot of gossip about which children are whose and what really went on in some of the Commanders' marriages.
39	* GuessWhoImMarrying: [[spoiler: Agnes' widowed father]] marries a terrible woman who quietly eliminates all traces of her predecessor and wants a baby of her own. It turns out that [[spoiler: not only did Paula have an affair with Commander Kyle even before Tabitha's death, but she murdered her first husband and framed her poor Handmaid.]]
40	* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Aunt Lydia, the formerly villainous tyrant to the Handmaids, is one of the protagonists who's trying to bring down Gilead from the inside. This plotline is possibly adapted from the Hulu series, which shows her starting to waver in her loyalty through her ToughLove for her Handmaids, especially June and Janine.]]
41	* {{Hypocrite}}: An infuriating example in the Gilead elites; in spite of their pious and proper facade, they are guilty of continuously committing every single sin which their precious Bible condemns. Additionally, in spite of wailing that the birth rates have plummeted to dangerous lows, they execute thousands and thousands of people (not counting the underhanded murders that the Commanders and Wives plan against their competition and spouses). Regardless of who you are in this regime, your life is cheap.
42	** HypocriticalHumor: A notable example is when Aunt Lydia tells Commander Judd that she [[spoiler:framed Becka's father because he was a pedophile, and such sins can't be allowed in Gilead. Judd, himself a pedophile who disposes of his Wives once they're out of their teens, enthusiastically agrees.]]
43	* LetsYouAndHimFight: Aunt Lydia convinces Aunt Elizabeth that Aunt Vidala is scheming against her; initially to get Aunt Elizabeth to [[spoiler: frame Becka's father]], and later to [[spoiler:kill Aunt Vidala when she regains her memories after a coma and threatens to expose Aunt Lydia as a double agent.]]
44	* LivingLegend: Aunt Lydia holds a lot of power in Gilead. Her picture is hanging everywhere and a statue of her stands outside the Ardua Hall building. Her name is both revered and feared. Baby Nicole holds this title as well. It's been over a decade since her disappearance and many still pray for her return.
45	* MaritalRapeLicense: What terrifies the Daughters of Gilead and motivates them to become Aunts or outright drives them to suicide.
46	* MeaningfulRename: Subverted. Initially Agnes becomes Aunt Victoria, Becka becomes Aunt Immortelle and Nicole (who'd previously also been known as Daisy) becomes Jade. These are ''supposed'' to be this trope, but all the girls continue to use their birth names among each other, and [[spoiler:Agnes and Nicole revert to their birth names permanently when they escape to Canada.]]
47	* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: [[spoiler: Aunt Lydia]] never forgave the injustices she suffered at the hands of the Gilead regime. Add to that the disgust she feels for the festering corruption and immorality hiding underneath the pious and proper facade and you have more than enough reasons for her covert anti-Gilead campaign.
48	* NeverLearnedToRead: Agnes and Becka were not taught to read [[spoiler: until they became Supplicants]], as per Gilead's policy forbidding girls and women from reading or writing.
49	* NoNameGiven: The novel cleverly avoids ever having to reveal the real names of the characters from ''The Handmaid's Tale'', since the epilogue of the first novel claims most or all to be pseudonyms. Aunt Lydia's real first name is never revealed (it almost definitely wasn't Lydia, since the Aunts change their names to those of pre-Gilead beauty and household products when they join the faction); nor is the original name of Agnes (who was presumably called something else before being snatched from her birth parents and forcibly adopted within Gilead). [[spoiler:Offred, Luke, Nick, and Commander Fred are all alluded to and/or make brief appearances, but without their real names being mentioned.]]
50	* NoWomansLand: Gilead is a horrible place to live in if you are a woman. Even the Wives and Daughters of the Commanders, arguably the most privileged women in the country, are subjected to rape, infidelity, humiliation and are sometimes murdered by their husbands to make room for younger Wives.
51	* OldManMarryingAChild: Commander Judd prefers younger wives, and [[spoiler: Agnes and later Shunammite]] are forced to marry him when they are young teenagers, as they are both mentioned to have just started their periods.
52	* ParentalIncest: [[spoiler: Becka]]'s disgust towards sex and marriage is fueled mainly by her father's sexual abuse.
53	* ParentalNeglect: The book delves deeper into what happens when the babies stolen by Gilead's elites grow up. While the children lack for nothing material while growing up, in many cases both the Commanders and the Wives tend to be emotionally neglectful and distant from their stolen children, because the reason they wanted them was status, and not a real desire for parenthood. Commander Kyle agreed to adopt Agnes to please his wife, and never got attached to the child, while Paula uses baby Mark as a way to obtain praise and validation from the other Wives, but otherwise doesn't seem to be very interested in the baby. It's also implied that Wives see children born out of Handmaids to be inferior to children born from a "proper" union, and this trickles down to the girls themselves.
54	* PayEvilUntoEvil: Aunt Lydia finds out that [[spoiler: Becka's father, a popular dentist,]] is a pedophile who is molesting his young patients and his own daughter. She decides to get rid of him so she enlists the help of Aunt Elizabeth and his own assistant to frame him for attempted rape. It works, and he is gruesomely killed by a mob of shrieking Handmaids, to the regret of absolutely nobody.
55	* SlippingAMickey: Invoked. One of the Aunts advise Commander Kyle and Tabitha to give Agnes a sedative before her wedding, when they notice how reluctant she is.
56	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Given how many people in Gilead are executed for various sins as well as the low birth rate and Gilead's bad reputation, the population isn't growing. As a result, not only is Gilead trying to make itself look like a good destination for anyone in need of a refuge, they've also started the Pearl Girl initiative, wherein Pearl Girls are sent out of the country in pairs with the mission of finding a young woman and convincing her to come to Gilead.
57	** Gilead is a terrible country and Mayday are a group trying to bring that country down. However, at the end of the day, Gilead is still a ''country'' with lots of ties to other countries, and Mayday are a terrorist organization. Therefore, Mayday is forced to operate covertly just to survive- and it's condemned by a lot of people, even with how bad Gilead is.
58	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The fates of a few major characters from ''The Handmaid's Tale'' are still not revealed by the end of ''The Testaments''. [[spoiler:Moira and Serena Joy stand out, since their stories are particularly open-ended.]]
59	* WickedStepmother: Paula is this for Agnes, whom she sees as an unpleasant remnant of Tabitha, the previous Wife.
60	* WithFriendsLikeThese: Shunammite claims to be Agnes' "best friend" but only really uses her for status / convenience, and ditches her whenever Agnes falls out of favour with others.

Context Literature / TheTestaments