Bird

The bird is a persistent and multivalent symbol in The Testaments, appearing in epigraphs, hymns, proverbs, and the final memorial inscription. It functions as a messenger, a figure for the soul, and an emblem of the hope that truth will be carried beyond Gilead's walls, even when human voices are silenced.

Epigraphs and the Motif of the Messenger

The novel opens with three epigraphs that establish the bird as a figure of communication and revelation. The first, from George Eliot's Daniel Deronda, states that "Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives, or else to be a monster." The second, from Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate, presents a mirror: "When we look one another in the face, we’re neither of us just looking at a face we hate—no, we’re gazing into a mirror….Do you really not recognize yourselves in us…?" The third, from Ursula K. Le Guin's The Tombs of Atuan, declares that "Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake….It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one." These epigraphs frame the novel's concern with seeing, being seen, and the burden of choice. The bird, as a creature that can traverse boundaries and carry messages, becomes a natural extension of this theme.

The Bird in Hymn and Proverb

Within the narrative, the bird appears in the hymns and proverbs of Gilead. The Ardua Hall hymn, written by Aunt Lydia, includes the line "A bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter" . This proverb, drawn from Ecclesiastes, is a warning that secrets will be exposed. It is also a promise that truth, however hidden, will find a way to be spoken. The hymn itself is a tool of control, reminding the Aunts of the price of deviation, but the bird image subverts this: it suggests that even within a system of surveillance, a voice can escape.

The Bird as Soul and Hope

For Agnes Jemima, the bird is linked to the soul and to hope. As a child, she prays the song "Now I lay me down to sleep" with her adoptive mother, Tabitha, which includes the lines "Four angels standing round my bed, / Two to feet and two to head; / One to watch and one to pray, / And two to carry my soul away" (E00200-E00207). Agnes pictures these angels as the armed Angels of Gilead, a terrifying image, but the song also offers the possibility of a soul being carried away to safety. Later, when Becka hides in the water cistern to allow Agnes and Nicole to escape, she says, "I'll think of you as birds, flying away" . The bird here becomes a figure of liberation, a creature that can transcend the walls of Ardua Hall.

The Bird in the Final Memorial

The bird motif culminates in the memorial statue erected on the Boston Common after the fall of Gilead. The statue depicts a young woman in Pearl Girl costume, carrying a bouquet of forget-me-nots, with two birds on her right shoulder . The inscription reads: "IN LOVING MEMORY OF / BECKA, AUNT IMMORTELLE / THIS MEMORIAL WAS ERECTED BY HER SISTERS / AGNES AND NICOLE / AND THEIR MOTHER, THEIR TWO FATHERS, / THEIR CHILDREN AND THEIR GRANDCHILDREN. / AND IN RECOGNITION OF THE INVALUABLE SERVICES PROVIDED BY A.L. / A BIRD OF THE AIR SHALL CARRY THE VOICE, AND THAT WHICH HATH WINGS SHALL TELL THE MATTER. / LOVE IS AS STRONG AS DEATH" (E03286-E03294). The birds on the statue are identified as belonging to the pigeon or dove family, traditional symbols of peace and message-bearing. The inscription directly quotes the proverb from the Ardua Hall hymn, transforming it from a threat into a testament of survival and memory. The birds carry the voice of Becka, whose sacrifice made the escape possible, and of Aunt Lydia, whose secret documents were smuggled out. The bird, once a figure of surveillance, becomes a figure of deliverance.

The Bird as a Symbol of the Narrative Itself

The bird also functions as a metaphor for the act of writing and testimony. Aunt Lydia, composing her holograph in secret, imagines her reader as a future historian, a "young woman, bright, ambitious" . She writes, "I hover behind you, peering over your shoulder: your muse, your unseen inspiration, urging you on" . The bird, like the written word, carries a voice across time and space. The novel itself, as a collection of testimonies, is a bird that has flown beyond Gilead's borders. The bird motif thus unites the novel's themes of surveillance, resistance, memory, and the enduring power of the human voice.