‘The Testaments’ introduces us to a whole new world once again. This is not the same Gilead that we once saw in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. Instead, it has started to rot from within.
As we see a secret war slowly beginning to brew, Aunt Lydia’s Wife School and her connection with the Pearls might finally become the key to a rebellion.
Who Are The Pearls And What Is Daisy’s Secret Role?
In Margaret Atwood’s book, we get to learn that the “Pearl Girls” are soon-to-be aunts who serve as Gilead’s missionaries. They travel to other nations to find young women to convert to Gilead’s faith. These girls live and breathe propaganda, and are then known as “pearls.” They are also trained as spies and operate abroad to protect Gilead’s lies. The idea is to show Gilead as a “civilised” country, and keep the steady stream of girls coming in.
We know colors have deep symbolization in Gilead. So, Pearl girls wear white. Their wardrobe indicates purity, innocence, and trustworthiness.
In ‘The Testaments’, we meet the newly recruited pearl, Daisy, and learn her backstory. She was a typical teenager back in Canada, her only concern in the world being hiding her boyfriend from her parents. Until she finds them killed in mysterious ways.
She meets June, who reveals her connection to the Mayday. Soon after, Daisy arrives in Gilead at Aunt Lydia’s Wife School, a preparatory school for wives of high commanders.
Although Daisy says that she has come to Gilead to serve God’s will, it is clear that her secret mission is to burn the place to the ground. Daisy is working as a spy for the Mayday and has already meticulously drawn a layout of Aunt Lydia’s school. We can make a guess as to what she might be up to next.
Can Aunt Lydia’s Elite “Wife School” Become Ground Zero For A Secret War?
At the end of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, we see Aunt Lydia growing disillusioned with Gilead, realizing that it has been eroding from within with hypocritical power struggles.
In ‘The Testaments’, she will become the pivotal force behind the rebellion to bring Gilead down. Sure, she joined the Commanders for survival, but she bought into the regime’s vision, too. She thought she was doing the right thing in a broken world. She always had an explanation for her cruely, which she deemed necessary for Gilead’s vision.
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However, she has now transitioned from training Handmaids to running an elite school in Ardua Hall. But it is clear that her duty to mold young girls into perfect submissive wives may be interrupted by her motherly instincts to protect them. This might become Aunt Lydia’s path to redemption.
Ardua Hall is the only place within Gilead where we see women functioning and managing the administration. Plus, she is working closely with the Pearl Girls, who have the ability to walk freely in foreign societies.
Together, the Pearl Girls double agents and Aunt Lydia’s Wife School might become the headquarters for another revolution in Gilead. And, the nation wouldn’t survive this time.
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