The Testaments

Present-day Agnes says that she will describe the preparations for her proposed marriage, noting that she is able to describe the marriage process in Gilead both from the perspective of a bride-to-be and of an Aunt. All families seek to marry their daughters off early for fear of the girl losing her virginity, a stoning offense.

Commander Kyle, Aunt Vidala, and Aunt Gabbana discuss Agnes’s marriage as though she is not there. Commander Kyle only protests once that 13-year-old Agnes is young, but Aunt Gabbana disagrees. She comments on Agnes’s wide hips and wants to see her teeth. The Aunts insists that they consider no family lower than Commander. Aunt Gabbana assures Agnes that she will have at least three candidates to choose from. Paula asks for a hasty process and says that she’ll make the usual donation to Ardua Hall.

Agnes doesn’t return to school and instead works on a petit point embroidery for her future husband. She embroiders a tiny skull in the corner, imagining it to be Paula’s, though she will tell anyone who asks that it is a memento mori, a pious motif. Agnes reflects on how girls don’t attend funerals because there is writing on the headstones, and Gilead society prohibits girls from reading.