Chapter 95: The Threshold – Summary and Analysis
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
In this chapter, the elderly narrator sits on her back porch during a warm spring rain, gazing at her garden. She reflects on the stack of papers she has been writing—her manuscript. She daydreams about a young woman (the “you” she addresses) arriving at her door one rainy evening. The narrator imagines welcoming her, wrapping her in a blanket, making cocoa, and telling her the story that the manuscript contains. She hopes for a listener, not love or forgiveness, only someone who will see her. She concludes by saying she leaves herself in the reader’s hands, as that is the only place she will be.
Key Events
- The narrator sits on her back porch in the rain, observing the garden and the scent of spring.
- She considers the stack of manuscript pages beside her, which she has been writing for months.
- She imagines tying up the finished pages and placing them in a steamer trunk, to be retrieved by a lawyer after her death.
- She daydreams about a knock at the door: a young woman in black, with a rucksack, standing in the rain.
- In the fantasy, the narrator recognizes the visitor as “my cherished, my last remaining wish” and welcomes her inside.
- The visitor calls her “Grandmother,” ending a sense of disownment.
- The narrator imagines offering the visitor tea and cocoa, then telling her the story of how she came to be there.
- She reflects that if that visit actually happened, the manuscript would be unnecessary.
- She states her desire for only a listener—someone who will see her without prettifying her.
- The chapter ends with the narrator leaving herself in the hands of the reader.
Character Development
- The Narrator (implied to be an older woman, possibly Iris or a similar figure from Atwood’s work): Shows vulnerability and a longing for connection. She admits her daydream of being recognized by a younger relative. She is aware of her own aging—her arid eyes, her “fossilized cottage.” Her desire for a listener rather than love or forgiveness reveals a need to be witnessed without judgment.
- The Addressee (the “you”): Inferred to be a granddaughter or young female descendant. She is portrayed as reckless, beautiful, and unafraid of the elements. Though not physically present, her imagined arrival drives the narrator’s emotional arc.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Thresholds and Crossing: The title “The Threshold” and the repeated image of crossing a doorway symbolize transition—between life and death, isolation and reunion, secrecy and revelation.
- Rain and Spring: The warm spring rain creates an atmosphere of renewal and melancholy. The scents of earth and phlox evoke youth and heartbreak, tying memory to the present.
- The Manuscript as Legacy: The stack of papers represents the narrator’s attempt to preserve her story for a future reader. Tying it with string and storing it in a trunk suggests an act of bequest.
- Seeing and Being Seen: The narrator’s deepest wish is for someone to “see me” without decoration. This motif connects to the act of storytelling as a plea for authentic recognition.
- The Gothic Old Woman: The narrator self-consciously describes herself as an old woman with “hair like burning spiderwebs” and a weedy garden, playing with the archetype of the crone or witch. She invites the visitor despite the risk.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 95 serves as a meta-narrative conclusion to the book’s frame story. It reveals the narrator’s motivation for writing: to be heard by a specific descendant. It also heightens emotional stakes by introducing a longed-for reunion that may or may not ever occur. The chapter crystallizes the themes of memory, legacy, and the desire for connection that run throughout Atwood’s novel. By directly addressing the reader as the intended recipient of the manuscript, it blurs the line between fiction and reality, inviting the audience to become the “you” who holds the narrator’s story.
Study Questions and Answers
1. What does the narrator intend to do with her manuscript when she finishes it?
She plans to tie the papers with an elastic band or ribbon, slide them into a steamer trunk, and leave the key with her lawyer. The bundle will stay there until the addressee returns from her travels.
2. Why does the narrator say she would not recommend a young girl crossing her threshold?
She compares herself to a witch-like old woman living alone in a fossilized cottage, suggesting an air of danger or brimstone. Yet she knows the addressee, like all women in their family, is reckless and will come in anyway.
3. What is the one thing the narrator wants from the visitor?
She wants only a listener—someone who will see her as she is, without prettifying her. She explicitly says she does not ask for love or forgiveness, which are not the visitor’s to give.