A Handmaid's Tale Essay/Study Questions
- Discuss the use of language in Gilead. How could it be dangerous?
- Is this society stable or not? What is a destabilizing influence in it?
- How does this society keep women in check?
- Is Serena Joy in power or out of power?
- Words can limit and can add new connotations. What words are used here
that have new meanings? Why doesn't she explain all of them as they occur?
- What relation does the Sufi proverb (the epigraph) have to the book?
- Does Offred hate the Commander? Explain.
- What does the latin phrase mean? Does it apply to her?
- What does "Context is all" mean?
- Does Offred fight or survive?
- How does Gilead control women? What techniques are used?
- Why were some of the women content to live the life they were living?
- One critic has said that the loosening of the rules that occurred to Offred
(cribbage, daughter’s photo, Nick) in reality bonded her tighter to the
society. Explain.
- What questions does the epilogue answer? What new ones does it pose?
How is the world of the epilogue a "utopia"?
- Is Offred a heroine? Discuss
- There are many ceremonies in Gilead. Why are they so important to the
society?
- Apply to the well-ordered society Aunt Lydia’s dictum: “There is more than
one kind of freedom ... freedom to and freedom from.” In Gilead, what
dividing lines separate freedom from fascism, patriotism from zealotry, duty
from subservience, godliness from fanaticism?
- Contrast the coping mechanisms of Moira and Offred, particularly defiance,
rebellion, escape, assertiveness, sexual indulgence, smoking, drugs,
networking, and withdrawal.
- Study the stratification of female society in Gilead. Note the duties and
significance of Unwomen, Wives, Daughters, Econowives, Handmaids,
Marthas, and Aunts.
- How does The Handmaid’s Tale depict the intersection between politics and
sexual reproduction? How is Gilead’s political order defined by this
intersection, and how does it affect the lives of women?
- How does Gilead create and use a new vocabulary to buttress its
totalitarian order?
- Discuss the role of the Aunts and of Serena Joy in the novel. How do they
relate to other women, and how does this make them fit into the hierarchy of
Gilead?
- Is the Commander a sympathetic character, a monster, or both?
- Is Atwood’s novel ultimately a feminist work of literature, or does it offer a
critique of feminism?
- What role does Moira play in the novel? How does her significance change
as the story progresses?
- Discuss the various ways in which Atwood uses setting and environment to
highlight Gilead’s oppression.
- What extra dimension do the Historical Notes add to the story?
- “From fear to defiance.” Is that a correct characterization of Offred’s
progress in the novel?
- How does the Gilead regime use language, especially Biblical language, to
solidify its power?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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.
- 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 culturespecific." Do you agree? Explain your critique or defense of the Gileadean
rule.
- 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?
- Atwood chose not to follow a strictly chronological pattern in the telling of
Offred's story. Why do you think she did so? What does it add and what are
its disadvantages?
- Aunt Lydia says to the Handmaid-trainees, “We were a society dying of too
much choice.” How does this relate to her distinction between freedom from
and freedom to? What freedoms does Gilead claim to be providing its
citizens? What freedoms are being denied?
- Consider the naming of the Handmaids, ‘Offred’, ;Ofwarren’, and ‘Ofglen’,
for example. What does this reveal about the values and power dynamics of
Gilead? What parallels can be made between the naming system of their
society and the naming of women in our society?
- Each category of women in Gilead is resentful of the others. Explain the
reasons for this resentment and discuss its ultimate effect.
- How does Gilead’s policing of language help to control the thoughts of its
citizens? For example, why is Offred so shocked when her doctor uses the
word ‘sterile’ in reference to men?
- Offred’s narration is made up of a confusing mix of details from the present
tense action of the novel and details from her various memories of the past.
In what ways are her memories connected to what is happening to her at the
Commander’s house? Why has Atwood chosen a narrative style that so
frequently blurs distinctions between present and past?
- Discuss ways in which Gilead demonstrates that it is a patriarchal misogynic
society, and its justification for this.
- Discuss the various ways Gilead turns its people’s anger and frustration
away from the regime and onto some safe target a scapegoat.
- Sexism and misogyny exist when women are not granted the same rights
as men, when women are restricted to the domestic sphere, and when
women are valued primarily for their functionality rather than their
humanness. Consider the way sexism and misogyny share the culture of
Gilead as well as societies that precede and follow it.
- In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood presents a first person narrator
who chronicles her experiences under an extremely oppressive, misogynistic
regime. Explore the development of this character during the course of her
narrative. Does she move from fear and intimidation to the liberation of her
will, or is the character formation more complicated in this text?