The Handmaid’s Tale

Question 1

Context: Dystopia

Answer 1

dystopia is an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic
normally feature:
invasive surveillance
event that changes society
a totalitarian regime/dictatorship/rebellion/protest
Atwood refers to THT as speculative fiction - the idea that it could happen

Question 2

Context: Atwood

Answer 2

Canadian writer, born in 1939
Wrote THT living in West Berlin in 1984
visited countries in the Eastern Block such as Czechoslovakia, and East Germany.

Question 3

Context: Origins of America

Answer 3

found in 1600s by the Puritans
went over on ‘The Mayflower’
central belief is ‘in God, we trust.’

Question 4

Context: Surveillance

Answer 4

Nazi Germany: Gestapo encouraged them to monitor and report each other.
Soviet Union: KGB spies, spies in other countries, monitoring devices, sent to Gulag
Ceausesca’s Romania: banned abortion, controlling birth rate, 11,00 agents

Question 5

Context: Attacks on abotion clinics

Answer 5

August ‘82: 3 men identified as ‘Army Of God’ kidnapped owner of abortion clinic and held him hostage for 8 days.
May ‘84: Alabama abortion clinic was smashed up by a priest
25th December ‘84: Florida abortion clinic was bombed. described as ‘a gift to Jesus on his birthday’.

Question 6

Context: 1980’s America

Answer 6

Religious fundamentalists - scripture is word
late 70s: economic turmoil, serial killers e.g. Bundy, abortion laws (Roe vs Wade)

Question 7

Context: Nazi Germany

Answer 7

Hitler valued women for both their activism in the Nazi movement and their biological power as ‘generators of the race’
the 3rd Reich’s aggressive population policy encouraged “racially pure” women to have as many children as possible
Girls were taught to embrace the role of mother and obedient wife in school and compulsory membership in the Nazi League.

Question 8

Epigraph

Answer 8

Suggests many themes such as women, individuality etc
Rachel is barren, and instructs her husband to have sex with Bilhah, the handmaid.
Biblical reference: society uses religion for extremist views; this book is what happens when ideas are taken too far.

Question 9

“For the games that were formerly played there, the hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone.”
Chapter 1

Answer 9

References to games reflect the handmaids job is to have children for barren women. Children are associated with innocence, representing the Handmaids loss of innocence.

Question 10

“Felt-skirted as I knew from pictures, later in mini-skirts, then pants, then in one earring, spiky green-streaked hair.”
Chapter 1

Answer 10

This represents the movement of fashion and feminist movement.

Question 11

W”we weren’t allowed out, except for our walks, twice a day, two by two.”
Chapter 1

Answer 11

Biblical reference to Noah’s ark

Question 12

“Alma, Janine, Dolores, Moira, June.”
Chapter 1

Answer 12

Act of rebellion and defiance by attempting to keep their names, despite names being changed to Of(male name).

Question 13

“Water coloured picture of blue irises.”
Chapter 2

Answer 13

Irises are a symbol of hope, but these aren’t real flowers, therefore representing the false hope the Handmaids have in Gilead

Question 14

“Fraternize means to behave like a brother.”
Chapter 2

Answer 14

Language enforcing patriarchal views of Gileadian society.

Question 15

“I don’t like to come across the Commander’s wife unexpectedly.”
Chapter 3

Answer 15

The narrators perspective allows for intimate exploration of narrators thoughts.
The narrators apprehension about encountering the Commander’s wife suggests a sense of vulnerability which may stem from the subordinate position within the social hierarchy.

Question 16

“The cigarettes must have come from the black market, I thought, and this gives me hope.”
Chapter 3

Answer 16

Theme of rebellion

Question 17

“A motherly figure, someone who would understand and protect me.”
Chapter 3

Answer 17

Shows these Handmaids are in a society that pits women against eachother.
Offred’s inquisitive interior contrasts her passive and quiet exterior.

Question 18

“Blessed be the fruit.”
Chapter 4

Answer 18

Biblical reference: “be fruitful and multiply.”

Question 19

“His face is long and mournful, like a sheep’s.”
Chapter 4

Answer 19

This demonstrates human curiosity and shared struggle for desire and human connection

Question 20

“There are no lawyers anymore.”
Chapter 5

Answer 20

Contextual link to Roe vs Wade: this law was used to grant freedom to women, and this is removed in Gileadean society.

Question 21

“We were a society dying, said Aunt Lydia, off too much choice.”
Chapter 5

Answer 21

Celebrity females in 1980s films finally were presented as strong, powerful, and independent.
Represents New Right beliefs: we have too much choice.

Question 22

“Headless sheep.”
Chapter 6

Answer 22

Sheep represent the Handmaids
Biblical image: lamb of God, however this has been distorted, showing theocracy is wrong.

Question 23

“The woman handed me one of the magazines. It had a pretty woman on it, with no clothes on, hanging from the ceiling by a chain wound round her hands. I looked at it with interest. It didn’t frighten me. I thought she was swinging, like Tarzan from a vine, on the TV.”
Chapter 7

Answer 23

Burning women’s liberty and autonomy.
Group of feminists policy of illusion to Nazi’s - burning books.
Atwood is critiquing the feminist movement, alluding that they are Nazi’s.
Atwood is also protesting against the attitudes and actions of 2nd wave feminism.
Fire alludes to the witch trials - patriarchal attacks on women and ‘unexplained power’.

Question 24

“She was wearing a dress I’d never seen, white and down to the ground.”
Chapter 7

Answer 24

Theme of purity, innocence and childhood.
The stage has complete control over daughter - stripping and removing her character. Shows how Gilead destroys the individual.

Question 25

“One is a priest, still wearing the black cassock.”
Chapter 8

Answer 25

Emphasises how anyone could be a victim of a totalitarian scheme.

Question 26

“It’s a beautiful May Day.”
Chapter 8

Answer 26

May Day - emergency call - lack of trust so have to be secretive.
Reference to WW2 and totalitarian scheme , comparing Handmaids to soldiers

Question 27

“Under his eye.”
Chapter 8

Answer 27

Biblical attack on the American System, one nation, under God.
Atwood is suggesting that Gilead is not that different.

Question 28

“Was he invading? Was he in my room? I called it mine.”
Chapter 8

Answer 28

Predatory behaviour: shows power, exertion of dominance, and a violation of power.
Offred’s previous moments of protest are futile.

Question 29

“The stains on the mattress. Like dried flower petals. Not recent. Old love; there’s no other kind of love in this room now.”
Chapter 9

Answer 29

Offered places value on these ‘matters stains’, shows how she longs for human interaction with the world.
Motif of flowers - death of the love we know
Offred uses this as a distraction to linger in the past, and not focus on the present.

Question 30

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound could save a wretch like me, who once was lost, but now am found, was bound but now am free.”
Chapter 10

Answer 30

Changed lyrics: “was blind but now can see” represents how Gilead views freedom. The regime suggesting they have freed women - totalitarian
Religious link - theocracy
Link between Gilead and America - history came to its natural conclusion
Rita, Serena joy, and Offred all sing/hum, all signs of protest despite their societal position.

Question 31

“The snakes and sword are bits of broken symbolism left over from the time before.”
Chapter 11

Answer 31

Illegal symbol - will always linger, cannot erase history no matter how hard you try.
Symbols and meanings can change but rewriting the past is dangerous.

Question 32

“Give me children, or else I die.”
Chapter 11

Answer 32

Social/emotional death if the Handmaids don’t have children.

Question 33

“My nakedness is strange to me already. My body seems outdated.”
Chapter 12

Answer 33

Detached from her own body because of strict regimes.

Question 34

“You must be a worthy vessel.”
Chapter 12

Answer 34

‘Worthy’ - chosen by God to be a mother - abide by moral laws of Gilead
Hinting that people are undeserving

Question 35

“There were paintings about suspended animation, about waiting, about objects not in use. They were paintings about boredom.
But maybe boredom is erotic, when women do it, for men.”
Chapter 13

Answer 35

Offred is in a state of suspended animation like the paintings. She too is an object but is being kept from what makes her human.
Zoomorphism - strips Offred of her consciousness and humanity.

Question 36

“Her fault, her fault, her fault, we chant in unison.”
Chapter 13

Answer 36

Primal chanting - highlights the distortion of morality and mental state.
Element of isolation and divide and conquer

Question 37

“I used to think of my body as an instrument of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will.”
Chapter 13

Answer 37

Before, Offred’s body was an instrument, an extension of herself. Now, the only thing her body is the only thing that matters - to have a child.
Highlights the internalisation from the state.

Question 38

“They’re the genital organs of plants.”
Chapter 14

Answer 38

Continuous focus on how the Handmaids only use in Gileadean society is their fertility.

Question 39

“Leave it there,for the next woman, the one who comes after me, to find.”
Chapter 17

Answer 39

Offred is longing to be remembered and known, like the girl in the room before her,

Question 40

Context: Dystopia

Answer 40

dystopia is an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic
normally feature:
invasive surveillance
event that changes society
a totalitarian regime/dictatorship/rebellion/protest
Atwood refers to THT as speculative fiction - the idea that it could happen