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The Testaments
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BetaPart 17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 17: “Perfect Teeth”
Chapter 46 Summary: “The Ardua Hall Holograph”
Aunt Lydia’s greatest fear is that, despite her efforts, Gilead will continue far into the future. She relates her meeting with Commander Judd the previous day, as they watched a Particicution on closed circuit television. A Particicution is a ceremony in which a group of Handmaids execute criminals with their bare hands. An Angel who was smuggling lemons and Dr. Grove are to be Particicuted. The Angel’s actual crime had been taking bribes from Mayday and assisting the escape of Handmaids, but the Commanders want this kept secret.
Aunt Elizabeth framed Dr. Grove under Aunt Lydia’s instruction. She went to Dr. Grove for an appointment. In the middle of her examination, she climbed out of the dentist’s chair, ripped her clothing, and screamed that Dr. Grove tried to rape her. A male dental assistant saw her and testified that she was disheveled, and Dr. Grove cursed at her.
Aunt Elizabeth presides over the Particicution. Dr. Grove goes second, after having to watch the Angel torn apart by shrieking Handmaids. He is then dispatched, still screaming, “I didn’t do it!” All the Aunts and Supplicants are in attendance, as well as newly arrived Pearl Girls off to the side. Aunt Lydia notes that Daisy is there: “The Pearl of the greatest price was among them; right after the sporting event we were about to witness, I would place her in the dwelling unit that would be best for my purposes” (279). Aunt Immortelle faints, and Aunt Lydia supposes that she will blame herself for Dr. Grove’s death.
Commander Judd asks if Dr. Grove was actually guilty, and Aunt Lydia tells him that Dr. Grove had been a pedophile, which Commander Judd calls a terrible affliction. Aunt Lydia says that Dr. Grove was deflowering too many young women and they were becoming Aunts. She suspects as much happened to Agnes, she says, sparing Commander Judd the thought that Agnes was averse to him.
Aunt Lydia tells Commander Judd that Baby Nicole has successfully been brought into Gilead. Commander Judd is thrilled. Aunt Lydia says that her Pearl Girls followed her instructions perfectly, though they did not know the girl is Baby Nicole. Baby Nicole is with two younger Aunts so that she will share her thoughts with them. They must first determine that Baby Nicole is a true believer and give her time to become acquainted with her personal history.
After the Particicution, Aunt Elizabeth suffers a nervous breakdown and must go to a Retreat House. Aunt Lydia goes with Aunt Vidala and Aunt Helena to visit her. Aunt Lydia thinks that Aunt Elizabeth must have collapsed from the anxiety of having borne false witness and assures her that she is practically a saint at Ardua Hall for what she has gone through.
Part 17 Analysis
Aunt Lydia successfully exacts her punishment on Dr. Grove. Aunt Lydia comments that Aunt Elizabeth had confided to her early on in their association that she had college theatrical experience, so Aunt Lydia had known she would be perfect for this role. The dental assistant, too, is amenable to testifying that he had long suspected Dr. Grove of “irregularities” in his behavior with his female patients and lies about Dr. Grove’s profanity, which helps seal Dr. Grove’s fate.
At the Particicution, Aunt Elizabeth conducts the proceedings, as the wronged party in Dr. Grove’s trial. After she blows the whistle and allows 70 Handmaids to converge on Dr. Grove, still protesting his innocence, it feels like a vindication to the Aunts and Supplicants in attendance. Aunt Lydia knows that the Aunts feel a sense of community after these events, which is also of value.
It appears that Commander Judd considers Dr. Grove’s molestation of young girls an “affliction” rather than a crime that warranted his loss as the best dentist in Gilead. This is understandable, since Commander Judd himself is a pedophile who favors very young girls. Aunt Lydia has to put it into terms that resonate with Commander Judd, that Dr. Grove had to be stopped because his actions had been causing young girls to join the Aunts rather than marry.
Aunt Lydia calls Daisy “the Pearl of Greatest Price,” in keeping with how much she has risked and how invaluable Daisy will be to the ultimate success of her plan to take down Gilead. Aunt Lydia plans to place Daisy with Agnes and Becka, the other main participants in her plan. Becka had remarked to Agnes that there were two empty bedrooms in her residence unit, and it appears that this was no accident.
Having used Aunt Elizabeth in her scheme to incriminate Dr. Grove, Aunt Lydia finds it convenient that Aunt Elizabeth has a nervous breakdown and must go to a Retreat House. Aunt Lydia had already taken the precaution of recording Aunt Elizabeth’s dramatic performance in Dr. Grove’s examination room, via a camera hidden in a diagram of a perfect set of teeth, in case she ever needed evidence of Aunt Elizabeth’s lies.
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By Margaret Atwood
