116 pages • 3 hours read
Margaret AtwoodThe Testaments
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaPart 22Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 22: “HEARTSTOPPER”
Chapter 60 Summary: “Transcript of Witness Testimony 369A”
Two days before Becka and Agnes’s Pearl Girl ceremony, Aunt Lydia arrives at their quarters. She tells them Commander Judd has raided Ardua Hall looking for incriminating evidence and having found none, he is determined to marry Nicole as soon as possible to increase his personal prestige. Agnes and Nicole must leave first thing in the morning. There is no Gilead plane to take them, so they will have to take another route. Aunt Lydia will get them their Pearl Girl things tonight.
Though she has a pass identifying Nicole as Aunt Immortelle, there is no time to reschedule the stay at the Retreat House. Aunt Helena will realize that Becka is still there, so Aunt Lydia asks Becka to conceal herself for at least 48 hours after the other two have gone. Nicole objects that this is too much pressure on Becka and asks why she cannot go alone, but Agnes reminds her that Pearl Girls always travel in twos.
Becka suggests that they make it appear that Nicole has escaped over the Wall, and Nicole to writes a note saying that she has decided that she is not suited to be an Aunt and has run away with an Economan. That night, Aunt Lydia returns with a bag, saying that at six thirty in the morning, there will be a car waiting to drive Agnes and Nicole through the east gate. They will ride to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where they will board a bus. She hands over a map, with an X marked where they are to disembark. The password will be “May day and June moon” (355), and their contact will take them to their next destination.
Aunt Lydia tells them that if their mission is successful, the people who murdered Nicole’s adoptive parents pay. There is also a chance that the sisters will reunite with their mother. Becka whispers that this would be wonderful for them, and Agnes says that she has prayed for this outcome.
Aunt Vidala sometimes walks near the statue in the mornings, and Aunt Lydia encourages Nicole to hit her if she sees the girls escaping. Becka tells Agnes that she wishes she were going along. Agnes says that she wishes that too, but Becka will be protecting them. She promises that she will find a way to get Becka out later. Becka is going to hide in the cistern on the roof. She will drain the water first. Becka and Agnes each confess that they love each other, and they hug and cry together. Becka tells Agnes to get some sleep and goes to her room.
Chapter 61 Summary
Early the next morning, Agnes and Nicole slip out of Ardua Hall. Just as they reach Aunt Lydia’s statue, Aunt Vidala comes around the corner, demanding to know why Agnes is wearing a Pearl Girl dress. Aunt Vidala notices Nicole, and grabs her pearl strand, which breaks. Nicole strikes Aunt Vidala in the chest, and Aunt Vidala crumples to the ground. Nicole drags Aunt Vidala’s body behind the statue.
Agnes and Nicole show their passes at the gate, and the black car is waiting for them. Agnes worries when Nicole speaks rudely to the driver, but Nicole replies that Aunt Lydia would not send them with a real Guardian. Nicole takes an orange out of her pocket that she found on the ground by Aunt Lydia’s statue and offers Agnes half, but Agnes declines because it had been a sacred offering. Agnes is afraid that Nicole is going to make a misstep that will get them arrested.
Chapter 62 Summary: “Transcript of Witness Testimony 369B”
Nicole’s arm itches and she wonders why the tattoo is taking so long to heal. She had thought Aunt Lydia’s idea of putting the microdot in the tattoo was brilliant, but now she thinks it problematic. They pass through checkpoints, and the Angels make rude comments about Pearl Girls. Agnes has to restraint Nicole from talking back.
In Portsmouth, the driver lets them out and they enter the bus station. After a long wait, a bus finally arrives, and they board. The bus stops at a checkpoint, but the Angels merely tell Agnes and Nicole that they are brave for heading into Sodom (Canada), which Nicole thinks is laughable. As they go further north, the friendliness of the fellow passengers decreases. They get angry looks, and Nicole thinks that enthusiasm for Gilead is much lower in this region. Nicole gets more anxious as time passes, wondering if anyone has noticed their absence at Ardua Hall.
Late in the afternoon, they get off the bus to meet their next transportation. The town is rundown, with boarded windows. Agnes leads Nicole into a shabby convenience store with little on the shelves. They sit at the counter and order coffee from the scowling Economan worker. Agnes comments that it is warm for a May day, but the man replies that it is not May: “‘Of course not,’ she said. ‘My mistake. There’s a June moon’” (363). The man smiles and tells them that they both need to use the washroom. They all exit through a door, which leads to a shed. The man complains about the bus being so late and hands them clothes and new backpacks.
Agnes and Nicole change out of their Pearl Girl dresses and into the warm clothing. Something catches on Nicole’s arm, making her swear, but she is happy to be back in clothes that make her feel like her normal self.
Chapter 63 Summary: “Transcript of Witness Testimony 369A”
Agnes finds the new clothing extremely distasteful. She tells Nicole that she cannot wear men’s clothing in Gilead without repercussions. Nicole replies that they are not going to be in Gilead and tells Agnes to suck it up. Agnes doesn’t understand what this means. Nicole laughs and says it means to be brave. Agnes notes she will not understand the language in Canada, but Nicole will.
The man drives Agnes and Nicole in an old truck. Agnes thanks him for helping them, and he says he gets paid, though he’s too old to be putting his neck in a noose. He smells of alcohol, reminding her of the Marthas drinking Commander Kyle’s leftover alcohol from parties. She feels homesick for the Marthas, and for Tabitha. In a way, Aunt Lydia had been a mother to her also, and she would never see her again either. The reality of meeting her real mother seems distant.
Agnes falls asleep in the truck and dreams of Becka. In the dream, she is so happy that Becka came with them.
Chapter 64 Summary: “Transcript of Witness Testimony 369B”
After a long, silent ride, the man tells Nicole to wake Agnes up. They drive up to a private dock, where a boat is waiting for them. The man gives them their backpacks and leaves. In the boat, there is another man who tells them to turn off their flashlights. Agnes and Nicole get in, and the man tells them they’re on the Penobscot River. Nicole realizes that Agnes’s whole world is about to change, while she is relieved to be going home. They reach their ship, the Nellie J. Banks.
Part 22 Analysis
Aunt Lydia catches Agnes, Nicole, and Becka off guard when she suddenly appears and tells them that the mission plans have changed. They are not ready, mentally or emotionally, and struggle with this announcement. Most disturbing is the realization that Becka will not have a cover story or a way to avoid detection, so she will have to figure out for herself how to keep herself concealed for two days.
So far in the text, everything has gone mostly according to Aunt Lydia’s plan. Any interruption in the plan, she deftly amends with manipulation. Here, we see that Aunt Lydia is growing weaker. After taking on the role of the fox again and actively setting up alternative means of transportation for Agnes and Nicole, the perpetually robust Aunt Lydia seems drained. Aunt Lydia dismisses the girls’ concerns in her usual irascible manner: “‘The minor infirmities of age,’ she said. ‘I hope you will live long enough to experience them’” (356). She truly does hope they live to old age, but she knows how likely it is that they will be captured and put to death. This is the burden weighing on her now, that causes her physical strength to flag.
The greatest burden for Agnes at this time is having to leave Becka, knowing how much danger she will be in once she and Nicole have gone. Agnes tries to think of a way that Becka could come with them, but they both know it is impossible. Knowing this will certainly be the last time she will be with her friend, Becka tells Agnes that she has been the one love of her life. Agnes now has a sister, and somewhere a mother, but Becka has only Agnes, and she needs to express her love before they part.
Fortunately for Agnes and Nicole, Aunt Lydia warns them that they might encounter Aunt Vidala near her statue early in the morning. All of Aunt Lydia’s surveillance and her habit of trying to know everything about everyone, particularly her enemies, pays off now, when Aunt Vidala confronts Agnes and Nicole as they begin their escape. Without that warning, Agnes and Nicole may have been too startled to stop Aunt Vidala before she was able to sound an alert, and their mission would have been over before it started. Instead, Nicole makes use of the self-defense training, delivering a “heartstopper” blow to Aunt Vida’s chest. “Heartstopper” is the title of this section of the book and could be a reference to this attack on Aunt Vidala, the heart-stopping fear they all feel as they enter into this mission, as well as the pain in Becka’s heart as she says goodbye to her only true friend.
Nicole feels sorry for Agnes, since they are leaving the only way of life that Agnes has ever known, while Nicole herself is going back to a place familiar to her. Her stay in Ardua Hall had been bewildering and awful enough in the short period of time she was there, whereas Agnes will be outside Gilead and forced to adapt for the rest of her life. The tables have turned, and Nicole is empathetic.
In her own thoughts, Agnes confirms what Nicole has suspected: Agnes is afraid and lonely. Now Agnes is on her way to a strange new place where she will not know how to speak or behave. Putting on the new clothes had been the first step. Wearing undergarments that feel sinful and clothing that mimics that of a man feels so innately wrong to Agnes that she can barely stand to keep them on. She will be putting on a new persona, a person living outside Gilead, and this will feel as uncomfortable and wrong as the blue jeans.
These chapters offer an interesting look at the Mayday network along the Underground Femaleroad first-hand. Ada had described this element of the network to Nicole briefly, but now she is experiencing it herself. The Mayday operatives that Nicole had met in Toronto had all seemed selfless and committed to helping women escape from the horror of their lives in Gilead. The men that transport Agnes and Nicole are much more matter of fact about their role in the network. Agnes thanks the man for driving them in his truck, but he simply replies that he’s getting paid. After Agnes falls asleep in the truck, Nicole sits silently with the driver, thinking he considers the girls cargo. Later on the river, Nicole asks that unnamed man if he is a smuggler and the man points out the pointlessness of borders: just lines on a map. These men have no higher calling or altruistic intentions.
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