the handmaid's tale essay questions a level

A-Level English With Miss Huttlestone

A FULL MARK ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Essay

The following essay, penned by Heidi in year 12, captures the essence of the top band – it is developed, has true voice, and supports each ambitious idea with extensive textual evidence. Heidi’s knowledge of theorists, and her passion for debate adds enviable flair to the response .

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is not primarily about the suppression of women but about their defiance. To what extent to you agree?

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is a piece of speculative fiction about both the extensive oppression of women and their attempts to defy it, however their attempts exist in accordance with the misogyny that existed in the time before Gilead and this greatly limits the effectiveness of it. As philosopher Christopher Lasch would say, their protest is incurvatus in se or turned inward. This means that the protest throughout the narrative is lacklustre and far more about the actualisation of the self than the organised movement against total oppression. Atwood’s writing in the era of Reganism, where the rights of women were being pushed back against and thus the narrative reflects the internalised misogyny that each woman possessed via social conditioning that lowers one’s ability to protest effectively. Characters who defy do so by becoming more masculine as the culture hegemonic standard is that men are strong, and women are weak that existed long before Gilead came to be. Atwood seems to say with the lack of effective protest that the suppression of women existed before, it harmed women before, and it will continue to do so unless far greater pushback is made.

Firstly, the character of Serena Joy is created such that her defiance comes from her personal brutality and masculinisation of the self. She is a character who smokes, a recurring motif seen in all protesting characters, however smoking itself is seen as a masculine trait throughout history, with instances such as the Nazi regime totally banning smoking for women when they came to power. Further, the image of a cigarette is incredibly phallic, and the fact that this phallus is used as a semiotic representor of protest reflects the nature of such an act for women. They see no other alternative but this masculine object to use as their defiance, the social conditioning from year of demonisation of feminine power stemming long before Gilead has run so deeply into the psyche that the characters look for a phallic object to protest using. Serena, in her smoking is described by Offred by putting ‘the cigarette out, half-smoked, decisively one jab and one grind’, this imagery is violent, it is the pressing of the cigarette downwards and crushing of its end. The use of the repetition of the determiner ‘one’ creates the imagery of conclusion, she has done this action before and she is used to pushing the cigarette out, she needs no further courses of action. These traits embody the stereotypical masculine, she has decisiveness and not the stereotypical questioning femininity that has been so greatly propounded by wider society. This line also relates to Offred later recognition that she must ‘steel herself’ when partaking in the ceremony, Serena seems steely here, she seems solid, she seems in practise and almost robotic. Further, the way Serena acts is told to be opposing those in in the same social class as her and Offred goes on to say that they ways she puts out her own cigarette is different to the ‘many series of genteel taps favoured by many wives’. Not only does this quote indicate that there is protest and the taking up of black-market objects across the female hierarchy, but it separates Serena and solidifies her as a far more masculine and expectation defiant character. The other wives are dainty and adhere to gender norms that were present pre-Gilead, their actions are graceful and ladylike, they are far more the ‘Angel in the House’ than Serena seems to be. In addition to this, to tap a cigarette is to remove the ash, presumably a fully smoked one, since the Wives cannot work they are reliant on their husbands for the money to buy the black-market cigarettes, yet Serena disrespects this, her cigarette is wasted. She defies the view of ‘waste not want not’. Atwood has stated previously that there are droughts and struggles to get things into the regime, but Serena does not care, her protest here is one of apathy. She removes herself from the feminine doting stereotype who cares over all small details. The character of Serena Joy is one of two opposing sides, on the one hand she is the defiant strong masculine woman who acts aggressively and appositionally, yet her protest is about becoming a man more than it is becoming a defiant individual. She is far more preoccupied with masculinising herself to remove from the expectation of women than fostering true escape from Gilead. This makes her character one entangled with both the suppression of women and the feminine and the defiance of expectation. 

Moreover, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ presents the extent that misogyny invades the self through the internalisation of Gileadean and pre-Gileadean ideas of women and stereotypes. Throughout the novel, the ideas of Gilead are presented through the character Aunt Lydia, who remains a construct within the mind of Offred until the near end of the book. In turning the character in to a construction, Atwood is able to expertly show just how pervasive and condemning misogyny is to the minds of women, just how easily it finds itself inside the heads of those it infects. She uses no quotation marks around Aunt Lydia’s remarks to emphasise the degree at which it has been absorbed into each person. ‘Yours is a position of honour, she said’ is something Offred repeats in her internal narrative within the story. This idea has embedded itself in the protagonist and she speaks of how her ‘flesh arranges itself differently’ and she is less a woman and more of a ‘cloud’. Through this metaphorical imagery, the reader is shown the degree at which Gilead breaks the psyche of women. Offred is within Gilead to the point at which it ahs changed her flesh entirely and is no longer herself, no longer bodily autonomous. To include this detail, Atwood creates the impression that the ideas of the patriarchy imbed themselves so deeply within the women subjected to them that they gain the ability to almost change their existence and self-perception entirely. A feminist reader would conclude from this that the character of Offred is one afflicted with internalised misogyny, she becomes her own oppressor and the oppressor of those around her due to her social conditioning. This is backed up by the recollection of a session within the Red Centre that was reflective of the struggle sessions of Maoist China where in abuse was shouted at a central, labelled dissident – in this case Janine. She says that ‘We meant it’, the ‘it’ in reference to the psychological attacks levied against the rape victim, yet she refuses to label it such due to well-placed shame, replacing it with a mediator, replacing it with the innocent and decent sounding ‘it’, she attempts to remove herself from her own actions. In using a collective pronoun, she is implicating the entirety of the Handmaidens who were with her in this abuse, she acts as though she understands their thoughts and in many ways she likely does as they were all put through the same cycle of abuse. It also creates the idea of togetherness and sisterhood; however, this is sisterhood that has been manufactured by the state to abuse someone, it is sisterhood that exists because of women coming together to attack another. So often in the modern media, women are pitted against one another and there seems a great manipulation to make them hate each other. This sisterhood is contrived, it is there because Gilead understands that they must give these women a slight amount of togetherness, so long as it is to attack another individual. This defiance here is a reflection of the patriarchy.

Despite this internalisation, there are many instances of the creation of distinction between us and them within the narrative. Although much of what Aunt Lydia has told Offred is presented uncommented on and internalised, we are still seen some instances of the opposition to her word such as the criticism of her cherry picking of the Bible verse ‘Blessed are the meek’ and her decision to not ‘go on to say anything about inheriting the earth’. The Bible verse blessed are the meek was debated in DH Lawrence’s novel ‘The Rainbow’ wherein his defiant female Ursula character criticized the term due to the connotation it holds that you must be poor and weak to be ‘blessed’ by God. Her character believed that this term is used to satiate the poor and those in unfortunate positions. In many ways, Aunt Lydia’s statement of this term represents that, she is trying to say that the women are weak and must stay ‘meek’ to be drawn under God’s Grace, however Offred unpicks this and criticizes her use of the term in the fact it has so clearly been cherry picked for this purpose. It is meant to satiate the handmaids, lower their drive to protest and suppress them. Yet in Offred educated background she is aware that this is not the full quote and defies expectation by finishing it herself. A reader may believe that this means she sees a life outside of Gilead, that she believes she will ‘inherit the earth’, or rather there will be some form of balance restored. The use of ‘they’ within this recital also indicates a belief in a collective of Handmaids that will work to subvert the rule of Gilead, she does not talk about herself here and rather talks about a collective of the ‘meek’ who shall take over and repossess what they have been stripped of. Further, this idea of the collective ‘meek’ being together is emphasised in the idea that comes after Ofglen’s taking of Offred into the resistance. Offred thinks ‘there is an us then, there is a we’ before going onto say ‘what about them’. These three collective pronouns create the idea that there are two groups of people in Offred’s mind and that she is separate from the regime and its agents. The ‘them’ is in reference to the state actors that exist within Gilead and their violence. Offred separates herself from the violence in the recognition of a ‘them’, she is no longer a part of what has placed others on a wall, what has murdered those around her because she is able to self-actualise and join a group, to join a ‘we’, to join an ‘us’. and while this sentiment is incredible, it is short lived and just a few pages onward Offred reverts to the personal. The chapter ends with the pronoun ‘me’ in Offred joy that she was not taken away by the Eyes. This is a sad reflection that relates to the thesis that protest within Gilead is protest governed by laws of self-actualisation and not true revolutionary action. Offred creates an ‘us’, joins it, and, due to social conditioning, leaves it at the first sign of struggle.  

Finally, the way protest within the novel creates itself is in line with the concept of inward protest rather than outward revolutionary action. This is called incurvatus in se in the words of Christopher Lasch and generally forms itself in the self-actualisation over active opposition against injustice. One example of this is the stealing of a ‘withered daffodil’ from the kitchen by Offred. The daffodil is named after the Greek myth of narcissus and semiotically reflects narcissism. For Atwood to specify this flowers breed she creates the impression that what Offred is doing is to oppose standards of beauty set out by Gilead. However, a Laschian reader would take this symbol far differently. The fact that her protest is the taking of a symbol of narcissism is a reflection of the inability to protest non-narcissistically created in the 1980s during the creation of neo-liberalism. This phenomena praised the individuals actions over anything else and thus the individual saw themselves as more important than the collective group. Atwood, writing at a time where neoliberalism was being created, places her character past in the same time line as her own and thus Offred is afflicted by the same hegemonic standard. Offred exhibits much of the narcissistic tendencies that are noted by Lasch, namely the taking without much real action and what little action that does take place being to self-actualise. Her decision to take the Daffodil was arrived at because it ‘will not be missed’, this is an example of ‘meek’ defiance, and the aforementioned internalisation of such a thing. We have seen how Aunt Lydia wanted the handmaids to be ‘meek’ and Offred still acts in this way, she still internalises her message. The daffodil is ‘withered’, it is presumably about to be thrown out, it is dying. And Offred recognises this and takes it, because this protest is about self-actualising more than it is protest. 

Overall, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is a novel that cannot be split into the suppression of women and their defiance. It must be viewed as a conjunction of the two; how the suppression of women harms their protest, how the protest of women changes their suppression. These two concepts exist in symbiosis, the protest of the female characters is in accordance to hegemonic weakening female stereotypes, the women are forced to internalise ideas about their own gender that are near impossible to refute. 

Share this:

Published by gcseenglishwithmisshuttlestone

Secondary English teacher in Herts. View all posts by gcseenglishwithmisshuttlestone

Leave a comment Cancel reply

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

PMT Education is looking for a Content Intern over the summer

The Handmaid’s Tale

University of East Anglia - MA Creative Writing (Prose)

Friendly and approachable Cambridge graduate and PhD student, committed to making English accessible to all

Notes || Exam Prep || Character Profiles || Themes || Additional Reading & Videos

This text is included in  Paper 2 . You can find notes and guides for it below.

• Literary Form
• Overview and Key Scenes

Additional Reading & Videos:

• Essay: The Handmaid’s Tale Through the Lens of Marxism
• Essay: Gendered Power/Body Relationships in The Handmaid’s Tale
• Essay: A Colorblind Narrative
• Article: ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: A White Feminist’s Dystopia
• Article: 1980s critical reactions to The Handmaid’s Tale
• Video: Plot summary
• Video: Symbolism and Motifs in The Handmaid’s Tale

Character Profiles

• The Commander

Connect with PMT Education!

• Revision Courses
• Past Papers
• Solution Banks
• University Admissions
• Numerical Reasoning
• Legal Notices

The Handmaid's Tale

By margaret atwood, the handmaid's tale essay questions.

Throughout The Handmaid's Tale Offred considers the multiple meanings and connotations of specific words. What might Atwood be suggesting about the flexibility or lack of specificity of language? What does this obsession with words convey about Offred's character or situation?

How does the Gileadean government use the constant potential of surveillance to keep its citizens in line? Do you think Offred should have taken more risks to better her situation, or was she doing the best she could given the circumstances?

In an interview, Atwood said that "This is a book about what happens when certain casually held attitudes about women are taken to their logical conclusions. For example, I explore a number of conservative opinions still held by many - such as a woman's place is in the home. And also certain feminist pronouncements - women prefer the company of other women, for example. Take these beliefs to their logical ends and see what happens."

How does the world of Gilead contain elements of extremely conservative, religious beliefs, as well as elements of more liberal, feminist beliefs? Do you think Atwood accomplished her goal?

How is The Handmaid's Tale a novel about the writing process? What issues of storytelling does Offred raise in the Tale , and how does she choose to resolve or sidestep those issues?

One of the main goals of the Gilead Regime seems to be to control and regulate sex and sexuality. Do you think they succeed? Are sexual relations more ordered and "normalized" under the new regime?

When the Doctor suggests that he help Offred conceive, she rejects his offer, even though she knows she is unlikely to be caught. When Serena Joy offers to help her, she says yes almost immediately, despite her serious lack of trust for Serena Joy and the immense amount of power Serena Joy has over her. Why do you think she accepts Serena Joy's offer rather than the Doctor's?

The Handmaid's Tale is set in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and most of the buildings and landmarks mentioned throughout the novel are parts of Harvard University. Why might Atwood have chosen a major university as the headquarters of this new regime? In your answer, consider the relationship between knowledge and control.

Explain the meaning of "particicution" within The Handmaid's Tale . Did you find the particicution believable? In other words, can you imagine yourself going along with the "rules" if you were placed in a similar situation? Defend your answer with specific examples from the novel, history, and/or your own experiences.

Why is the hotel where Moira is kept known as "Jezebel's"? How does this name fit in with the Gileadean's tendency to place the primary responsibility on women for any sexual problems or deviancy?

In his keynote speech, Professor Pieixoto tells his audience that "we must be cautious about passing moral judgment upon the Gileadeans" because "we have learned by now that such judgments are of necessity culture-specific." Do you agree? Explain your critique or defense of the Gileadean rule.

The Handmaid’s Tale Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Handmaid’s Tale is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Why is the Bible kept locked up?

The Bible is kept locked up so the regime can interpret it in any way they please. They do not want people freely reading it as they could interpret it in a way that runs contrary to the state's interests.

"[The Bible] is an incendiary device: who...

The handmaids were only allowed in twos. Why?

Handmaids must always move about in twos, supposedly for protection, but really so that they can always be spied upon.

Why handmaids were only allowed in twos?

It was supposed to be for their own protection but it was really so they could spy on each other.

Study Guide for The Handmaid’s Tale

The Handmaid's Tale study guide contains a biography of Margaret Atwood, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Handmaid's Tale
• The Handmaid's Tale Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Handmaid’s Tale

The Handmaid's Tale literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Handmaid's Tale.

• Social Commentary in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
• The Roles of Women in Kate Chopin's The Awakening and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
• Gilead's Greatest Hits: Volume One
• Language as a Form of Power In The Handmaid's Tale
• Selfishness and Survival in The Handmaid’s Tale and 1984

Lesson Plan for The Handmaid’s Tale

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Handmaid's Tale
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Handmaid's Tale Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Handmaid’s Tale

• Introduction
• Plot summary

The Handmaid's Tale: What To Compare It To ( OCR A Level English Literature )

Revision note.

The Handmaid’s Tale: What To Compare It To

For Component 2, you will study at least two whole texts from the chosen topic area, and at least one of these must be from the core set text list. For the second text, you can either study the other core set text, or another text from a list of suggested set texts. The two core set texts are The Handmaid’s Tale and George Orwell’s 1984. Given that The Handmaid’s Tale explores key themes of power, gender, identity and survival, there are numerous examples of dystopian fiction that could be used for comparison. A detailed comparison with the other core text, 1984, will be explored here, along with a comparative summary of other texts:

The Handmaid's Tale and 1984

Comparisons with other texts

The second task in Component 2 is the comparative essay, and it should include an integrated comparative analysis of the relationships between texts. This means that you are required to explore contrasts, connections and comparisons between different literary texts within the topic area of dystopia, including the ways in which the texts relate both to one another and to literary traditions, movements and genres. The best responses pick up on the prompt words within the quotation given in the task and then select material accordingly. In this way, by sustaining a coherent, question-focused argument throughout, comparison becomes a technique through which the texts can be used to shed light on each other.

For the following suggested comparison, you will find:

The comparison in a nutshell

Similarities between the ideas presented in each text

Differences between the ideas presented in each text

Evidence and analysis of these similarities and differences

It is better to choose two principal texts to form the basis of your response and allow references to others to appear briefly as literary context. If you try to write in detail about too many texts you will struggle to produce a coherent, detailed and sustained argument.

The Handmaid’s Tale and 1984

Comparison in a nutshell:

This comparison provides the opportunity to compare imagined near-futures in which totalitarian governments have systematically stripped their citizens of rights, individuality and identity, while developing an atmosphere of mistrust and surveillance.

Similarities:

Differences:

The following list is not exhaustive, and the wider you read, the more connections and comparisons you will have to draw upon in the exam. Some of the following examples are taken from the prescribed text list, while others are suggestions for comparison.

You've read 0 of your 0 free revision notes

Get unlimited access.

to absolutely everything:

• Downloadable PDFs
• Unlimited Revision Notes
• Topic Questions
• Past Papers
• Model Answers
• Videos (Maths and Science)

Join the 100,000 + Students that ❤️ Save My Exams

the (exam) results speak for themselves:

Did this page help you?

Author: Deb Orrock

Deb is a graduate of Lancaster University and The University of Wolverhampton. After some time travelling and a successful career in the travel industry, she re-trained in education, specialising in literacy. She has over 16 years’ experience of working in education, teaching English Literature, English Language, Functional Skills English, ESOL and on Access to HE courses. She has also held curriculum and quality manager roles, and worked with organisations on embedding literacy and numeracy into vocational curriculums. She most recently managed a post-16 English curriculum as well as writing educational content and resources.

• International
• Education Jobs
• Schools directory
• Resources Education Jobs Schools directory News Search

AQA A Level English Literature A The Handmaid's Tale and Feminine Gospels Exemplar Essays

Subject: English

Age range: 16+

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

23 May 2024

• Share through email
• Share through twitter
• Share through linkedin
• Share through facebook
• Share through pinterest

This resource includes answers to exam-styled questions for AQA A Level English Literature.

One of the best ways to use these exemplar essays is:

To read the essay To reread the essay To assign five different colours to each assessment objective To highlight where you see each assessment objective being addressed To review the essay and see if there are any assessment objectives that need to be addressed in detail To give overall feedback e.g. what went well? what could be done to improve?

Tes paid licence How can I reuse this?

Your rating is required to reflect your happiness.

It's good to leave some feedback.

Something went wrong, please try again later.

This resource hasn't been reviewed yet

To ensure quality for our reviews, only customers who have purchased this resource can review it

Report this resource to let us know if it violates our terms and conditions. Our customer service team will review your report and will be in touch.

Not quite what you were looking for? Search by keyword to find the right resource: