8. Jezebel's

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

Lesson objectives 

We will consider the focus on language in the novel 

We will explore the concepts and topics in Jezebel's 

We will look further at the narrative voice of Offred. 

Using your understanding can you 'guess' the meaning of these words 

One extract from A Doll's House and one from The Handmaid's Tale. 

A global issue that links the two extracts.

You will explore in an essay response (at least 5 paragraphs) how the global issue is shown in the extracts. 

You will explore the techniques (authorial choices) used and their purposes in conveying the global issue. 

11th March comparative summative assessment

Why Scrabble? 

What concepts, ideas, topics and connections to other themes in the novel can you generate on the paper given to you? 

L

Larynx 

Valance

Quince 

Zygote

Limp

Gorge 

Prolix 

Quartz 

Sylph 

Rhythm 

Quandary 

Write down the words that Offred plays. 

Make sure you have a definition for these words and write it in your exercise book. 

How many points did Offred earn?

www.thekatespanos.com

Read the article and then discuss the information in your groups.

Add any additional ideas to your mind map. 

Jezebel is described in the Book of Kings (1 Kings 16:31) as a queen who was the daughter of Ithobaal I of Sidon and the wife of Ahab, King of Israel.[2]​

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According to the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible, Jezebel incited her husband King Ahab to abandon the worship of Yahweh and encourage worship of the deities Baal and Asherah instead. Jezebel persecuted the prophets of Yahweh, and fabricated evidence of blasphemy against an innocent landowner who refused to sell his property to King Ahab, causing the landowner to be put to death. ​

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For these transgressions against the God and people of Israel, Jezebel met a gruesome death—thrown out of a window by members of her own court retinue, and the flesh of her corpse eaten by stray dogs.​

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In the biblical story, Jezebel became associated with false prophets. In some interpretations, her dressing in finery and putting on makeup led to the association of the use of cosmetics with "painted women" or prostitutes.​

​Adapted: Wikipedia 

Jezebel in the Bible 

" Well, he says, what do you think of our little club" ...

" It solves a lot of problems, he says without a twitch." 

Chapter thirty-seven pg 244 - 245

1. What is the hypocrisy at the heart of Gilead’s society? ​

2. What political and satirical comment could Atwood be making about Western society in the 1980s?​

3. How is the concept gender explored in this passage?

In chapter 7,  Offred recalls a women's protest that her mother was involved in and which she witnessed as a child. Here Atwood raises a number of areas of interest that the second wave feminist movement was concerned with. 

Chapter 7 pgs 43 - 44

Pornography, objectification of women, sexualisation of women, 

date rape, 

make-up, inequality. 

Explore in one or two PEEL paragraphs how, and to what purpose, these concerns are explored in chapter thirty-seven. 

This is what she says, whispers, more or less. I can’t remember exactly, because I had no way of writing it down. I’ve filled it out for her as much as I can: we didn’t have much time so she just gave the outlines. Also she told me this in two sessions, we managed a second break together. I’ve tried to make it sound as much like her as I can. It’s a way of keeping her alive. (pg 251)

Chapter thirty-eight  pg 251

Note how Offred draws attention to her role as an unreliable narrator. 

“Moira,” I say. “You don’t mean that.” She is frightening me now, because what I hear in her voice is indifference, a lack of volition. Have they really done it to her then, taken away something – what? – that used to be so central to her? But how can I expect her to go on, with my idea of her courage, live it through, act it out, when I myself do not?​

​    I don’t want her to be like me. Give in, go along, save her skin. That is what it comes down to. I want gallantry from her, swashbuckling, heroism, single-handed combat. Something I lack.​..

​Here is what I’d like to tell. I’d like to tell a story about how Moira escaped, for good this time. Or if I couldn’t tell that, I’d like to say she blew up Jezebel’s, with fifty Commanders inside it. I’d like her to end with something daring and spectacular, some outrage, something that would befit her. But as far as I know that didn’t happen. I don’t know how she ended, or even if she did, because I never saw her again. (257 - 258)

Chapter thirty-eight  pg 257 - 258

Is Moira a foil or a double to Offred? 

Using evidence, write a response to this question in your class notebook. 

Concepts we generated: 

Power dynamics, oppression, patriarchy, identity, rebellion 

Concepts HL literature