AQA A-Level English Literature A Paper 2: Texts in shared contexts (2B), June 2025: Question 15

Question 15

The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

Examine the significance of the novel’s title, The Handmaid’s Tale.

[25 marks]

Possible content:

Please refer to pages 4 to 7.

AO5 Explore literary texts informed by different interpretations

Focus might be on:

• the idea of a ‘tale’ being a specific kind of oral narrative often associated with women, and

containing ideas about fairy tales and old wives’ tales

• that as the handmaids are forbidden to read and write, and Offred is in fact recording her memories

and impressions of Gilead onto a batch of old cassette tapes, this is an oral narrative in the female

tradition

• that storytelling and the power of stories is a major theme within the text

• the function of the ‘Historical Notes’ as a postscript to Offred’s narrative; the explanation of the

Gileadean system and the reconstruction of Offred’s story by Professor Pieixoto

• the impact of Pieixoto’s revelation that he collated and edited Offred’s story, and then named it

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ in homage to Chaucer

• the importance of the epigraph taken from the Book of Genesis which details the relationships

between sisters Leah and Rachel, the official wives of the patriarch Jacob, and their handmaids

Bilhah and Zilpah, whose children by Jacob are claimed by the wives as their own; the fact that the

Gileadean system of state surrogacy is based on this Old Testament story

• ideas about different types of narrative: the fact that Offred herself states that her narrative is

unreliable – ‘it didn’t happen that way. This is how it happened’

• the idea that the text is a first-person account of the Gileadean regime from the viewpoint of a

typical handmaid

• that in calling the book The Handmaid’s Tale rather than A Handmaid’s Tale, Pieixoto

paradoxically elevates Offred and her status within the text

• possible mention of how the narrative is constructed in Atwood’s sequel to the novel, The

Testaments, in which the narrative is split three ways

• etc.

AO4 Explore connections across literary texts

Focus might be on:

• prose representations of gender, power and patriarchy as seen in modern literature, perhaps with a

focus on the dystopian genre

• etc.

AO3 Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which

literary texts are written and received

Focus might be on:

• the ways in which narrative methods are an integral part of strengthening the novel’s presentation

of gender, power and patriarchy

40• etc.

AO2 Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts

Focus might be on:

• aspects of narrative form and genre

• aspects of the ways in which Atwood has structured the text, eg the narrative stance of Offred and

the privileging of her viewpoint

• language effects eg dialogue and description

• etc.

AO1 Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts, using associated

concepts and terminology, and coherent, accurate written expression

• quality of argument

• organisation of ideas

• use of appropriate concepts and terminology

• technical accuracy.

Accept any valid interpretations, any valid comments on contexts and any valid discussion of

authorial methods.