| Daisy (Novels) |
Daisy is one of the three narrators of The Testaments, where her story is chronicled as that of "Transcript of Witness Testimony 369B". She is initially 16 years old and lives with her foster parents Neil and Melanie; she later uses the pseudonym Jade when infiltrating Gilead on behalf of Mayday.
Character disambiguation: Due to Daisy's past as Baby Nicole and the existence of a half-sister born prior to the rise of Gilead, a researcher in a far future speculates she could be the biological daughter of Nick and Offred [1]. (Disambiguations/Mother of Agnes and Nicole)
Appearance[]
As Jade, Daisy dyes her hair pastel green and has a tattoo on her arm, reading "LOVE GOD."
Story[]
In the Past[]
Early Gilead Period[]
Nicole's mother was a Handmaid who got pregnant during an assignment to a Gileadean household; she went underground with her newborn baby daughter Nicole at some point. Near the Canadian border she handed her baby to trusted Mayday members, to smuggle her out of the country. Her mother did not follow her daughter but continued keeping up with her. In Canada, Nicole was renamed Daisy and raised by foster parents.
In Gilead, Daisy is known as "Baby Nicole." Her infamous story about her treacherous Handmaid mother taking her away to Canada has become legendary both in Gilead and in Canada, as engineered by Aunt Lydia to show that betrayal can even happen in Gilead. Missionaries from Gilead, the Pearl Girls, hand out flyers demanding Nicole's return. Anti-Gilead activists, meanwhile, use Nicole as a symbol of freedom and liberation. She is a focus of the Easter prayer by the Aunts in Ardua Hall, where the Aunts pray for her return. Canada did indeed plan to extradite Nicole to Gilead, but by then she had disappeared.
Daisy was then raised by adopted parents, Neil and Melanie, who led her to believe they were her biological parents for her own safety. They owned a clothing shop in Toronto, The Clothes Hound, frequented by all sorts of customers, including Pearl Girls.
Early-Middle Gilead[]
Growing up, she attended the Wyle School, a private school named for the sculptor Florence Wyle that always took strict attendance. Daisy once wrote a flippant essay on Baby Nicole - unaware that she was writing about herself - saying that the utilitarian thing would be to simply hand Nicole back. She irritated her teacher by making pro-Gilead arguments when she was handed a C for her essay.
When she was growing up, Daisy had suspicions about Melanie not being her real mother - she thought that she was far too overprotective, and had the smell of a stranger. She still loved her parents, however, and was touched by Melanie's tradition of getting ice cream and cake for her on her birthdays, and singing the song "Daisy."
Present Time[]
IV The Clothes Found[]
Daisy's life was changed when Aunt Adrianna and Aunt Sally visited The Clothes Hound. Soon after, Daisy sneaked onto a field trip to an anti-Gilead demonstration, and got tied up in a clash between Canadians and Pearl Girls. The police responded with brutality, until her mother's friend Ada saved her.
VIII Carnarvon[]
Aunt Adrianna was found dead some days later, and - on Daisy's supposed sixteenth birthday - her parents were dead in a car-bombing at the hands of Gilead agents. Ada picked her up from school that day, explaining the gravity of the situation. Daisy was taken to a Sanctu-Care center in a Quaker Meeting-House, and from then on to a safe-house called Carnarvon. Elijah met with her, explaining to her her true identity - that of Baby Nicole.
XII Carpitz[]
Daisy was taken from Carnarvon to another safe house in Etobicoke, a carpet store called Carpitz. Ada, Elijah and Garth instructed her that there was no way to keep her safe, but she could help out Mayday by infiltrating Gilead. Daisy poses as a homeless, traumatized girl called "Jade", with Garth pretending to be her abusive boyfriend. They hang out in spots frequented by the Pearl Girls, and over the course of a week, Daisy allows herself to be persuaded to come with Aunt Beatrice and Aunt Dove to Gilead. Due to Canada's restrictions on people-smuggling, Gilead agents forge Aunt Dove's passport with Daisy's photo, and she is taken to Gilead on a private jet.
"Jade" witnesses an extravagant ceremony welcoming the new Pearls to Gilead. She is given to the Supplicants, Aunt Victoria and Aunt Immortelle, to instruct her in the ways of Gilead before being assigned to one of the regular classes of women. Aunt Lydia soon calls Victoria, Immortelle, and "Jade" to her office, where she reveals the truth: "Jade" is Baby Nicole - as well as the half-sister of Aunt Victoria - and she had Mayday smuggle her into Gilead as part of her plan to remake Gilead and root out the corruption in society. She implants a chip containing crucial information into Daisy's arm, and plans to have her leak it when Aunt Victoria and Daisy escape.
Aunt Victoria permits Daisy to call her Agnes, the name she had growing up in Gilead. Victoria and Immortelle are ready to begin their postings as Pearl Girls, so Daisy takes on Immortelle's identity to escape Gilead. Dressed as a Pearl Girl, Agnes and Daisy go north into New England before meeting with a Mayday agent to escape. Though Daisy develops a fever, the half-sisters take Captain Mishimengo's boat out to the Coast of Fundy, successfully rowing their inflatable to the coast. The sisters reach Canada and are finally reunited with their mother.
Professor Pieixoto finds an inscription indicating that Daisy had children of her own in the future.
References[]
- ↑ The Testaments, Epilogue: The Thirteenth Symposium; The Handmaid's Tale (Novel), Epilogue: Historical Notes