The Testaments Literary Elements

Dystopian fiction

Gilead at a time when there was blatant discrimination of women.

The narrators are in the first person and they include Becka, Aunt Lydia and Nicole who tell their stories in a sexist country. They hold the view that Gilead should be destroyed for equality to reign in the country.

The mood of the novel is somber since the characters continue facing discriminatory actions from the government whereas the mood of the novel is resigned for some of the characters have given up and accepted their fate.

The protagonists are the women who fought for equality and justice in Gilead even with punishments that are imposed on them whereas the antagonist was the government and the system that it had put in place to discriminate against women.

The major conflict is the blatant discrimination against women when they are forced to cover up and wear specific colors, they are not allowed to make friends, they are not allowed to move as they wish and have been divided into classes such as Handmaid, wives and Marthas.

The climax is when Aunt Lydia who was formerly considered very supportive of the state of Gilead betrays it. She does this by giving Nicole and Agnes very critical information regarding discrimination in Gilead for them to take to Canada and expose to the world.

The Shunammite girl told Becka that her adopted mother Tabitha was dying and Tabitha died two days later from an illness.

Becka claimed that her mother had a condition yet her adopted mother Tabitha was bedridden and in the verge of dying.

There is Biblical allusion where the girls were told to avoid being tempted as Eve was in the garden of Eden.

Description of Ada, ' She usually had on a black leather jacket, black jeans and heavy boots, she kept her long hair pulled back...'

The narrator claims that she did not love school and did not also hate it. This is a paradoxical statement because you can either love or hate.

A parallel has been drawn between the lives of the Marthas and the wives in Gilead. The Marthas were housemaids who served the wives. The wives were partners of the commanders who ruled Gilead. The wives lived a more simpler life since they did not do manual work.

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