Working with a novel – The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Before reading and working with the novel, study the text “Enjoying Novels” to learn about literary

analysis.

Read Chapters 1–3 and then stop to consider

these questions

1. How do you think the novel will develop from

here? Is this going to be about rebellion? Will

Offred attempt to escape her confined

environment?

2. What do you make of Offred so far? Write a

brief character analysis of her up to this point.

3. What have you learned so far about the

society Offred lives in?

4. Who are the Angels and what does the way

they position themselves in relation to the

handmaids tell us about Gilead?

Now read the rest of the novel before working further.

Questions about the novel in general

The Handmaid’s Tale has been called a feminist novel. A very simple definition of feminism is “the

advocacy of women’s rights in order to promote the equality of the sexes”.

1. What are the roles women perform in Gilead? Do you think they reflect how at least some

people see the role of women in society today?

2. Did the author manage to hold your attention and succeed in getting you to think about the

main ideas in the book?

3. The novel starts in medias res, which means “in the middle”. How effective a start to the

novel is this? Does it grab your attention or do you find not having enough information at

the start confusing and irritating?

Characters

1. How believable are the characters in the novel? Do you feel you know them well? Explain

and give examples.

2. How do we learn about the characters? Is it through description in the narrative, through

their actions, thoughts, reactions? Is it through the way others react to them? Or is there

another primary way of revealing character in this novel?

3. Choose two of the secondary characters in the novel and explain their function.

4. Does your opinion of Offred change at all the further into the book you come? Give

examples to support your opinion.

5. What is your opinion of the Commander? What ideas do you think Atwood is trying to

convey through this character?

Discussing themes

Below is a list of statements about the novel’s themes. Discuss in groups whether you think each

statement is true or false, and why. Remove any false statements and then list the remaining

statements in their order of importance.

The novel is about …

the control of women’s bodies

a society in decline

the danger of watching pornography

the loss of women’s rights

how language is used as a tool of power

how easily we might accept that our civil rights are taken from us

the importance of human rights

the dangers of religious fanaticism

the position of women in society

the importance of guaranteeing that we ensure the continuation of our species

the effects of birth control

Plot

1. Write a brief plot summary of the novel and the most important events. Work in pairs and

read each other’s summary. Where do you differ? What do you feel you should have

included, and where do you feel you say too much?

2. This story does not have a straightforward chronological plot structure. Rather, it is told in

bits and pieces, in the past and present tense, but always within the flow of the

protagonist’s mind. Because we are in the narrator’s mind, the events are not related to us

in a chronological, retrospective manner. Discuss what the effect of this plot structure is. Do

you find it confusing? Does it add suspense? Does it keep you curious and interested in what

is going on?

Setting and point of view

1. How important is setting in this book? Explain your opinion.

2. There are many indicators of control over Offred in the setting. Choose two examples and

describe what they suggest about the world Offred is living in.

3. Point of view is an important part of telling a story. In this novel, the point of view is first-

person: we are in Offred’s thoughts. The benefit of the first-person point of view is that it

brings us closer to the story (called immediacy). One of the disadvantages is that we are

restricted to only seeing the events from this one person’s perspective. Can we trust Offred

as our narrator? Give reasons for your answer.

4. Write a brief text in which you summarize the story from Serena Joy’s point of view. Share

your texts in pairs or small groups and discuss what this tells us about perspective. Does

your opinion of Serena Joy change in any way?

Language

The title of “Handmaid” can be said to reveal Gilead’s view on women. Other names in the novel are

also suggestive in this way. What is the function of the names and the prefix given below?

Wives

Daughters

Marthas

Aunts

Unwomen

Angels

Eyes

Commander

The use of the prefix “of” at the beginning of each of the Handmaid’s names

Genre

The Handmaid’s Tale belongs to the dystopian fiction genre. Simply put, this type of novel presents a

hostile and repressive society (often claiming that it is the opposite). The purpose of the dystopian

novel is to warn about the direction in which society is headed or could be headed. What aspects of

society do you think Atwood is warning us about?

Discussion topics

For further class or group discussion, choose some of the topic suggestions below.

1. Benjamin Franklin once said: Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little

temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

After the terrorist attacks on 9/11 2001, new government agencies and new laws were

introduced. Many Americans feel these are depriving them of the civil rights and liberties

that once defined the US as a great democracy. Many, however, claim that to protect life

and liberty, measures such as surveillance of citizens, monitoring emails, telephone calls,

etc. is unavoidable. Considering the situation today, do you agree or disagree with Benjamin

Franklin? Give reasons for your opinion.

2. In the novel, reasons are given to explain why it was necessary to create the repressive

society of Gilead. What are the arguments presented? Also consider other arguments people

might use, for example unequal distribution of resources, unrest, crime or terrorist threats.

Could these be valid reasons for creating a society like Gilead?

3. Gilead is a theocracy where the government and the church run the country. What view of

religion does the novel present?

4. Some critics have claimed that The Handmaid’s Tale appears to be somewhat ambivalent in

terms of sending a strong feminist message. Read the extract below:

In a recent piece for the New York Times, Margaret Atwood tackled the question of whether or

not her 1985 work The Handmaid’s Tale ought to be considered a feminist novel:

"If you mean an ideological tract in which all women are angels and/or so victimized they are

incapable of moral choice, no. If you mean a novel in which women are human beings — with all

the variety of character and behavior that implies — and are also interesting and important, and

what happens to them is crucial to the theme, structure and plot of the book, then yes."

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv-radio/2017/04/why-handmaids-tale-claimed-feminist-when-

its-deeply-ambivalent-about

Discuss whether you think The Handmaid’s Tale is a feminist novel. Does it succeed in making

you think about important issues concerning gender equality?

5. Discuss the following statement:

Atwood is criticizing the objectification of women which is prevalent in all societies.

Objectification in this context means: the action of degrading someone to the status of a

mere object.

Then discuss whether it is possible for men to be objectified.

6. It could be argued that Atwood is warning women about the dangers of rollbacks, a process

that involves the undoing or dismantling of rights that have been won over the last decades.

Discuss whether you think the position of women in Western society today is under threat.

7. What about the commander? Go back to your character description of him and use this in a

discussion of the male role in Gilead. Could the commander be viewed with sympathy?

Essay topics

Write an analytical essay on one of the topics below.

1. Discuss the ways in which the notion of social control is developed in the novel.

2. Discuss the role Offred is forced to play in Gilead.

3. Discuss the way the story is told. Why do you think the author chooses to tell the story of

Gilead through the narrator’s non-chronological point of view?

4. Discuss the theme of the novel and relate this to recent developments in the English-

speaking world when it comes to revelations of sexual abuse and harassment of women, e.g.

in the entertainment world.

5. Write a text in which you explain the social issues Margaret Atwood is warning us about in

The Handmaid’s Tale.

6. Using The Handmaid’s Tale as your point of departure, write a text about the position of

women in Western society today.

Quick research

As mentioned above, the dystopian novel is a particular genre of fiction. A more detailed definition

of the term is:

Dystopian literature is a genre of fictional writing used to explore social and political structures in “a

dark, nightmare world”. The term dystopia is defined as a society characterized by poverty, squalor

or oppression and the theme is most commonly used in science fiction and speculative fiction

genres.

The most popular definition of dystopian literature is that it is anti-Utopian. The genre challenges

utopia's fundamental assumption of human perfectibility, arguing humanity's inherent flaws negate

the possibility of constructing perfect societies. Dystopian literature is deliberately written to

frighten the reader. Works of dystopian literature must walk a fine line between evoking the

sensations of fear and inducing a sense of futility. By proving a completely perfect society is not

possible – showing the awful results of what happens if the goal is social perfection rather than

incremental social improvement – dystopia shocks the reader into accepting humanity's flaws as

ineradicable and thereby working toward a better society rather than an ideal one.

https://www.questia.com/library/literature/literary-themes-and-topics/dystopian-literature

Below is a very brief list of some other dystopian novels, most from the last five decades, and some

more dystopian than others. Read about one of the novels and present it in class as a suggestion for

reading.

Other Atwood novels:

Oryx and Crake (2003)

The Year of the Flood (2009)

Other authors:

Erewhon by Samuel Butler (1872) (Note that Erewhon is “Nowhere” spelled backwards)

The Circle by Dave Eggers (2013)

The Maze Runner by James Dashner (2009)

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008)

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (2004)

The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006)

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde (2009)

The Stand by Stephen King (1978)

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (1968) (The cult movie Blade Runner is based

on this book)

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962) (A famous Stanley Kubrick film with the same title is

based on this book.)

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut (1961)