Comparative preparation

• Engels
• Upper Secondary (Key Stage 4)
• GCSE

Lesson objectives 

Choosing our next literary work 

Revisiting influencing contexts for The Handmaid's Tale 

Developing linking topic, message or concepts for two extracts 

Exploring the extracts and the two works 

Add events or quotes 

Add events and quotes to your influencing context mind map 

1. Biblical references and the Old Testament 

2.Dystopian fiction and 1984

3. Puritan New England 

4.The rise of the Christian right in the USA

5.Environmental issues & ecofeminism 

Concepts we generated: 

Power dynamics, oppression, patriarchy, identity, rebellion 

Concepts HL literature 

Act 1

Concepts HL literature 

Concepts we generated: 

Identity, (marriage) relationships, power dynamics, society

Which topic, concept or message links these two extracts?

Global Issue: In a patriarchal society, societal expectations regarding how women should dress and present themselves can be used restrict women’s freedom of expression. 

Extract analysis table A Doll's House 

Textual reference 

Literary features (techniques) 

Authorial/audience relationship (effect on the reader)

Extract analysis table The Handmaid's Tale 

Textual reference 

Literary features (techniques) 

Authorial/audience relationship (effect on the reader 

Lesson objectives 

You will complete your MPO (multiple paragraph outline) 

You will collect some comparative information for the two works 

You will construct an introduction and a body paragraph for this essay 

Rate the word 1 to 4

1. I do not know the word, and I have never seen it before. 

2. I've heard or seen the word before, but I'm not sure what it means. 

3. I know the word and can recognise and understand it while reading, but I probably wouldn't feel comfortable using it in writing or speech. 

4. I know the word well and can use it correctly in writing or speech. 

Malefactor 

Word of the day

Malefactor (n) - a criminal; a person who violates the law. 

Can you write down three synonyms for malefactor 

He was a well-known criminal lawyer who had saved many a malefactor from going to jail. 

criminal, scoundrel, knave, cad, reprobate, desperado, scalawag

Word of the day

If you divide the word malefactor into three parts, it can help you to remember this word: 

mal - ("evil"), fac - ("make or do"), + or (suffix showing agency - to do something) combining these gives malefactor = someone who does evil 

Benefactor 

Malignant

Concepts we generated: 

Power dynamics, oppression, patriarchy, identity, rebellion 

Concepts HL literature 

Act 1

Concepts HL literature 

Concepts we generated: 

Identity, (marriage) relationships, power dynamics, society

Structure of the essay 

Introduction 

1st paragraph discusses the global issue as seen in one extract 

2nd paragraph discusses the global issue as seen in the second extract 

3rd paragraph discusses how and when the global issue is seen elsewhere in both works. 

Conclusion 

Write an introduction for this essay

Planning the essay 

Complete your MPO in your group. Add evidence and the effect of that evidence on the reader for the body paragraphs. 

Do not complete the introduction or the conclusion 

Lesson objectives 

Complete the feedback form in Teams general 

Example essay third paragraph in Teams content library 

LessonUp slides in MB files on the right (links)

We will collect information on both works 

We will find a key passage 

Characters 

Offred​

Serena Joy​

The Commander​

Ofglen​

Nick​

Moira​

Offred’s mother​

Professor Pieixoto​

Janine​

The Handmaid's Tale 

A Doll's House 

Make links similarities 

Consider differences

Setting 

The Republic of Gilead ​

Offred’s room​

The Commander’s study​

The bedroom​

Serena Joy’s garden​

The shops, the streets and the wall​

The Red Centre​

The Colonies​

Jezabel’s​

The University of Denay, Nunavit​

The Handmaid's Tale 

A Doll's House 

Make links similarities 

Consider differences

Keep a note of what events are grouped together under what titles. 

 

The titles of the groups of chapters 

Night 

Shopping

Waiting Room

Household

Birth Day 

Soul Scrolls 

Jezebel's 

Salvaging 

(Narrative) structure 

Often non-linear and fragmented. Lots of flashbacks.​

Offred as single narrator for most of the novel.​

Offred’s testimony as an oral account.​

Use of intertextual references and allusions to other works of literature

Short chapters and recurring “Night” sections.​

‘Historical notes’ section at the end.​

Lack of closure: ambiguous fate of Offred and mysterious nature of Offred’s document.​

The Handmaid's Tale 

A Doll's House 

What themes do these texts have in common and what do they not share? 

The Handmaid's Tale 

A Doll's House 

Find 3 key passages 

Work together in your group 

Find three key passages in The Handmaid's Tale 

Can you link them to 3 key passages in A Doll's House? 

Introduction for the essay 

Hook (you can also add it when you have finished) 

Titles of the works (underlined) 

Text types of the works 

Authors of the works

Dates of the works - publication and first performance

Summary of the works as a whole

Summary of the extract 

The link between the two extracts with a focus on the global issue

The global issue (thesis statement) 

Write an introduction for this essay

Most people know the proverb “the clothes maketh the man”, but what about the woman? A Doll’s House, a play written by Henrik Ibsen first performed in 1879, and The Handmaid’s Tale, a novel written by Margaret Atwood and first published in 1985, are both literary works that comment on the position of women in society. A Doll’s House is a play that considers the struggle of a middle-class wife and mother, Nora, as she tries to free herself from Victorian societal norms. Through this character, Ibsen highlights how these norms restrict Nora in her fight to be considered a human being rather than being defined by her husband and society. This extract from A Doll’s House is taken from from Act 2 when Nora attempts to manipulate Dr Rank into paying her debt to Krogstad. The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian, speculative novel that imagines an alternative America called Gilead in which women are restricted by a totalitarian state. In this society, some women are required to act as surrogate mothers for the ruling classes. In this extract Offred, the narrator, is preparing to visit, with her Commander, an illegal club in which women are objectified and sexualised. Both extracts consider the global issue that in a patriarchal society, societal expectations regarding how women should dress and present themselves can be used restrict women’s freedom of expression.

Planning the essay 

Consider an example body paragraph. 

Use the example to write a body paragraph which focuses on A Doll's House

Write your paragraph individually and upload it to your class notebook.