Critical Views (HMT and NEF)

Question 1

Wisker (comparable between HMT and NEF)

Answer 1

“reduced people to their functions: control, reproduction, service and those who regulate those functions”

Question 2

Ehrenreich (comparable between HMT and NEF)

Answer 2

“Gilead is only a colouring book version of Oceania”
“Offred is a sappy stand-in for Winston Smith”

Question 3

Grey (comparable between HMT and NEF)

Answer 3

“Atwood’s novel lacks the direct, chilling plausibility of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World”

Question 4

Kristoffer Rissanen (NEF)

Answer 4

“the party uses hate to keep itself in power”

Question 5

Jem Berkes (NEF)

Answer 5

“language becomes a method of mind control with the ultimate goal being the destruction of will and imagination”

Question 6

Bernard Crick (NEF)

Answer 6

“the configuration of the friendly into the threatening is a perfect piece of double-think” (BB’s name)

Question 7

Raymond Williams (NEF)

Answer 7

“inadequate deception” of proles and relationships”

Question 8

Beatrix Campbells (NEF)

Answer 8

she noted the “patriarchal values” in Nineteen Eighty-four

Question 9

Daphne pata (NEF)

Answer 9

“Nineteen Eighty-Four is too masculine”

Question 10

(HMT) Psychoanalytical criticism - “pleasure is an egg”

Answer 10

• egg as a symbol of fertility that Offred has become obsessed with.
• she has internalised Gilead’s views.

Question 11

(HMT) Psychoanalytical criticism - id, ego, and superego

Answer 11

The id – Instinct - shown through Offred’s relationship with Nick (she uses him as a way to fulfil her basic need for human interaction).

The ego – Reality - shown when Offred finds out that Ofglen has hung herself and she takes control of her emotions (the id wants her to cry and feel upset and the Superego wants her to pretend that nothing has happened - reply in a way that Gilead wants. The ego is mediating between those two feelings).
- Offred also represents ego through her small rebellious acts against Gilead – stealing a daffodil.

Superego – Morality - Offred as she still sympathises with other character in the text, although she herself is also in a bad situation.
- Commander knows that the way that they treat women in Gilead is wrong through the way that he treats Offred.

Question 12

(HMT) Feminist criticism - Moira

Answer 12

• Moira chose to put into Jezebels instead of being put into the colonies as it was the better choice – links to how women nowadays choose not to speak up as it the easier decision than what you might have to face if you didn’t.

Question 13

(NEF) Marxist criticism - Inner Vs Outer

Answer 13

From a Marxist perspective this massive difference in the lifestyles of the “Inner Party” and “Outer Party” due to an uneven distribution of wealth and privileges is evocative of how in the USSR from the years of 1922 to 1991 there was a massive disparity between the salaries of a peasant (28 rubles) and a state official (450 rubles).