Comparative preparation

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 
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EngelsUpper Secondary (Key Stage 4)GCSE

This lesson contains 26 slides, with interactive quiz and text slides.

Items in this lesson

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 

Slide 1 - Slide

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 

Slide 2 - Slide

Concepts we generated: 
Power dynamics, oppression, patriarchy, identity, rebellion 
Concepts HL literature 

Slide 3 - Slide

Act 1
Concepts HL literature 
Concepts we generated: 
Identity, (marriage) relationships, power dynamics, society

Slide 4 - Slide

Which topic, concept or message links these two extracts?

Slide 5 - Open question

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. 

Slide 6 - Slide

Extract analysis table A Doll's House 
Textual reference 
Literary features (techniques) 
Authorial/audience relationship (effect on the reader)

Slide 7 - Slide

Extract analysis table The Handmaid's Tale 
Textual reference 
Literary features (techniques) 
Authorial/audience relationship (effect on the reader 

Slide 8 - Slide

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 

Slide 9 - Slide

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 

Slide 10 - Slide

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

Slide 11 - Slide

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

Slide 12 - Slide

Concepts we generated: 
Power dynamics, oppression, patriarchy, identity, rebellion 
Concepts HL literature 

Slide 13 - Slide

Act 1
Concepts HL literature 
Concepts we generated: 
Identity, (marriage) relationships, power dynamics, society

Slide 14 - Slide

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

Slide 15 - Slide

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 

Slide 16 - Slide

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 

Slide 17 - Slide

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

Slide 18 - Slide

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

Slide 19 - Slide

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 

Slide 20 - Slide

(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 

Slide 21 - Slide

What themes do these texts have in common and what do they not share? 
The Handmaid's Tale 
A Doll's House 

Slide 22 - Slide

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? 

Slide 23 - Slide

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

Slide 24 - Slide



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.

Slide 25 - Slide

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. 

Slide 26 - Slide