AO4/Academic voice: Within this essay whilst having an antithesis it is IMPERATIVE to compare and judge
whether the author answers the question better, this could be show in all points/ links and conclusions.
THEMES:
● Knowledge PP
● Power and Control
● Science & Misuse PP
● Gender PP
● Distortion of Relationships
● Language
● Justice
● Narrative PP
● Handling of Time
● Use of Setting PP
● Use of Symbolism PP
● Personal Faith PP
● Rebellion and transgression
● The Art of Storytelling
● Love
● Revenge
NOTE: Do not forget to have at least ONE antithetical moment, ensure to Ao4 Ao2 as well as intentions.
Context:
Critics:
Henry James → (19th Century) Idea that life continues and there can be no perceivable ‘end’ , it is the artist's
job to decide what to narrate and what to remove, it is the artist's choice where and how to end, hence he
pioneered for ‘open endings’.
Eaglestone, ideas of ‘closure’
David Punther:
GOTHIC: ‘disruption of accepted notions of the human’.
David Lodge:
‘Names are never neutral’
Can analyse the text based on a Post-colonial, Feminist, historic, presentist, psychoanalytical, genre,
structuralist) critical perspective
Intertextual MOTIFS:
- Language and books
- Biblical Imagery
- The Natural world
- Light vs Dark
- Moon
- Motherhood
The Handmaid’s Tale;
- Red
- Eyes
- Mirrors
Frankenstein:
- Fire
- Spark/rebellion
, - The sublime
Motifs and Symbols → Print and annotate
Critical Ideas:
Moral -> literature only has meaning if it imparts a moral lesson.
Post colonialist -> Preference to literature outside of eurocentric narratives, how are colonial
countries/individuals presented by Western narrations. (links to the other)
Genre -> How does a text rely or conform to the conventions of its genre.
Feminist -> gender ideals are social constructs, how are the power relations between the two represented.
Psychoanalytic-> repressed meanings
Historical -> presentism vs historic readings, how our timeframe and situation affects and shapes the meanings
of texts.
Structuralism: how the form and the structure of the texts shapes and wraps it's meaning.
Textual reductionism: reduces all experiences into one and makes that mainstream, e.g patriarchy
The Handmaid’s Tale
Historical:
- Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)- conservative/ Pro Life
- Phyllis Schafly (voted against Equal Rights Amendment), 1964 book, "A Choice Not an Echo."
- Vietnam War / Cold War - Agent Orange
- Nazi Germany and the 2nd WW
- Romania- Decree 770// restriction of contraception and birth control- lead to secret abortions and
death
- 2nd Wave Feminism- Burning of pornography/ Moira and mother
- Slave Trade - Underground ‘Female Road’ rather than slave ground, ‘save the women’ projects
- The Testaments and the adaptation, suggestion of relevance and media appreciation.
Literary:
- Feminist Theory- ‘Women in Writing’ Helene Cixous and Simone De Beauvoir ‘Women must write
women’
- Dystopia/Utopia / speculative fiction
- George Orwell and 1984 (which is when the Handmaid’s Tale was published), Brave New world, Never
let me go (all linked to what makes us human)
- Metafiction- no one truth/ ambiguous and Post truth contemporary society
- Nomenclature- ‘names are never neutral’
- Subversion- OFFRED- anti-hero, archetypes, every woman.
Frankenstein
Historical:
- Mary WollstoneCraft- first feminist, a ‘Vindication of the Rights of Women’
- William Godwin- political activist
- Summer in Geneva- dark- telling ghost stories- idea of Frankenstein
- Master Scientist (Humphry Davis)
- Came in a dream
- Idea of Galvanism
- Reanimation- suspended animation VS real death (Society of reanimation after perceived death by
drowning)
- After the Enlightenment Era which had many scientific breakthroughs but a preference for objective
fact rather than subjectivity.
- Georgian Era
- Patriarchal society and women
- Christianity in georgian Era
, - Unfair voting system
- French Rev 1789
- Romanticism and changing philosophical through
- Dr. Sergio Canavero (2017), Head transplant, idea of medical conditions, the stereotype of /mad/
scientist.
- Master scientist = Sir Humphrey Davy
Literary
- The Romantics- sublime, considerable impact on the Romantic period- affecting the majority of
romantic writers at the time, Blake, upholder of the Gothic against the classical.
- Gothic Genre (series of motifs; Gothic castles, persecuted/pursued Maidan, ghosts, vampires,
creatures ( ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’), terror/horror. WHY: Social- response to
anxieties that ancient feudal order may be unsettled, marxism, uncertainties of revolution -Dr Sade’s
theory- French Revolution. Psychological- unconscious as the place in the mind from which nothing
ever goes away. Feminist- struggle between the genders, displacement of characters.
Scientific/technological- tests the limits of the human, overstep the boundaries of creation- also a
gendered notion, science against human feeling. Passion- did not entertain Enlightenment ideas of
reason Gothic is rebellious in the sense that it reminds us that we are mainly driven by our passions.
To summarise, literary contradiction.) - David Punther
- Paradise Lost (retelling of the story of Adam and Eve, from the biblical book of Genesis, which
describes the creation of Heaven and Earth and Ada, and Eve, within which SATAN is a sympathetic
figure)
- Prometheus (The first rebel, Greek Myth)
- Archetypes in literature, villains → gothic, i.e mad scientist, pursued females and ideas of Victor being
a tragic hero in the text.
- Rousseau and ideas of the social contract- “man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains”/
“People in their natural state are basically good”
(Ao2) Key Form features:
The Hand Maid’s Tale:
- Offred’s narrative voice
- The epigraph
- Analepsis (memories)
- Sections and chronology
- Historical notes
- Retrospective narration
- The entire novel is a reconstruction, tapes renumbered and ordered by Pixoto as he saw fit.
Frankenstein:
- 3 narrative voices (Walton, Victor, Creature, embedded elizabeth)
- Epistolary - use of letters in a text
- Frame narrative
- Alternate title, The modern Prometheus
- Retrospective narrative
- Analepsis
- Volumes (I,II,III)
Compare the ways in which the writers of your two chosen texts present loneliness. In your answer you must
consider the following:
, • the writers’ methods
• links between the texts
• relevant contextual factor
Thesis:
Indeed, although both present loneliness through the mental decline of the titular characters in the texts, it is
arguably more interesting to look at how both novels present loneliness through the absence of an active
listener and how storytelling can override this predicament.
→ Side note: this is unnecessarily complex and flowery
Point 1 [THMT]: Both novels establish loneliness through the inability to share thoughts.
Ao2: “I stand on the corner, pretending I am a tree” “I would like to believe this is a story I am telling” (ch 7)
“it’s the lack of love we die from (...) I too am I missing person” “I am so alone”
Ao3: Nazi Germany, the idea of a dictatorship- with forced command words ‘Heil Hitler’
Ao3: Idea of dystopia and metafiction- she has a narrator
Ao3: Women in writing- Helene Cixoux // Simone De beauvoir
Point 1 [FRANKENSTEIN] Similarly, in Frankenstein, Shelley presents the creatures condemning loneliness
through his inability to communicate with others successfully.
“The uncouth and articulate sounds which broke from me frightened me into silence again” (ch 3) “What was
I?” “I distinguished several other words without being able to apply or understand them” “conciliating words”
“win their love” “but when I looked upon him”
Ao3: Idea of literature, Paradise Lost, and the power of it.
Ao3: idea of
Point 2 [THMT]: Moreover, both novels centre their loneliness through the lack of human relationships.
Point 2 [FRANKENSTEIN]: Similarly, in Frankenstein, the creature's lack of relationships ultimately condemns
him to a villainous life.
Compare the ways in which the writers of your two chosen texts present characters responding to adversity. In
your answer you must consider the following:
• the writers’ methods
• links between the texts
• relevant contextual factors.
BLURT: Struggles/difficulties. Idea of strength within the common individual through Offred, idea of strength of
humanity against science.
Intro:
Adversity acts within novels as a catalyst for character development, providing the platform to test the integrity
and internal strengths of the characters. Within Frankenstein, Shelley structures her text to open with the
consequences of adversity through a physically and mentally drained Frankenstein, she further explores this
notion prominently depicting the creature as mentally distraught as he struggles with isolation. The social
experiment of Gilead targets Offred with an excess of adversity, leading to coping mechanisms of dissociation.
Ultimately, it is arguably more interesting to focus on how both authors present their characters' strength or
lack thereof in these situations to expose the humanity within both characters.
Comparative Point 1:
Both authors present strength against adversity through reforming identity through storytelling. This is
prevalent throughout THMT and prevalent through the creature.
whether the author answers the question better, this could be show in all points/ links and conclusions.
THEMES:
● Knowledge PP
● Power and Control
● Science & Misuse PP
● Gender PP
● Distortion of Relationships
● Language
● Justice
● Narrative PP
● Handling of Time
● Use of Setting PP
● Use of Symbolism PP
● Personal Faith PP
● Rebellion and transgression
● The Art of Storytelling
● Love
● Revenge
NOTE: Do not forget to have at least ONE antithetical moment, ensure to Ao4 Ao2 as well as intentions.
Context:
Critics:
Henry James → (19th Century) Idea that life continues and there can be no perceivable ‘end’ , it is the artist's
job to decide what to narrate and what to remove, it is the artist's choice where and how to end, hence he
pioneered for ‘open endings’.
Eaglestone, ideas of ‘closure’
David Punther:
GOTHIC: ‘disruption of accepted notions of the human’.
David Lodge:
‘Names are never neutral’
Can analyse the text based on a Post-colonial, Feminist, historic, presentist, psychoanalytical, genre,
structuralist) critical perspective
Intertextual MOTIFS:
- Language and books
- Biblical Imagery
- The Natural world
- Light vs Dark
- Moon
- Motherhood
The Handmaid’s Tale;
- Red
- Eyes
- Mirrors
Frankenstein:
- Fire
- Spark/rebellion
, - The sublime
Motifs and Symbols → Print and annotate
Critical Ideas:
Moral -> literature only has meaning if it imparts a moral lesson.
Post colonialist -> Preference to literature outside of eurocentric narratives, how are colonial
countries/individuals presented by Western narrations. (links to the other)
Genre -> How does a text rely or conform to the conventions of its genre.
Feminist -> gender ideals are social constructs, how are the power relations between the two represented.
Psychoanalytic-> repressed meanings
Historical -> presentism vs historic readings, how our timeframe and situation affects and shapes the meanings
of texts.
Structuralism: how the form and the structure of the texts shapes and wraps it's meaning.
Textual reductionism: reduces all experiences into one and makes that mainstream, e.g patriarchy
The Handmaid’s Tale
Historical:
- Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)- conservative/ Pro Life
- Phyllis Schafly (voted against Equal Rights Amendment), 1964 book, "A Choice Not an Echo."
- Vietnam War / Cold War - Agent Orange
- Nazi Germany and the 2nd WW
- Romania- Decree 770// restriction of contraception and birth control- lead to secret abortions and
death
- 2nd Wave Feminism- Burning of pornography/ Moira and mother
- Slave Trade - Underground ‘Female Road’ rather than slave ground, ‘save the women’ projects
- The Testaments and the adaptation, suggestion of relevance and media appreciation.
Literary:
- Feminist Theory- ‘Women in Writing’ Helene Cixous and Simone De Beauvoir ‘Women must write
women’
- Dystopia/Utopia / speculative fiction
- George Orwell and 1984 (which is when the Handmaid’s Tale was published), Brave New world, Never
let me go (all linked to what makes us human)
- Metafiction- no one truth/ ambiguous and Post truth contemporary society
- Nomenclature- ‘names are never neutral’
- Subversion- OFFRED- anti-hero, archetypes, every woman.
Frankenstein
Historical:
- Mary WollstoneCraft- first feminist, a ‘Vindication of the Rights of Women’
- William Godwin- political activist
- Summer in Geneva- dark- telling ghost stories- idea of Frankenstein
- Master Scientist (Humphry Davis)
- Came in a dream
- Idea of Galvanism
- Reanimation- suspended animation VS real death (Society of reanimation after perceived death by
drowning)
- After the Enlightenment Era which had many scientific breakthroughs but a preference for objective
fact rather than subjectivity.
- Georgian Era
- Patriarchal society and women
- Christianity in georgian Era
, - Unfair voting system
- French Rev 1789
- Romanticism and changing philosophical through
- Dr. Sergio Canavero (2017), Head transplant, idea of medical conditions, the stereotype of /mad/
scientist.
- Master scientist = Sir Humphrey Davy
Literary
- The Romantics- sublime, considerable impact on the Romantic period- affecting the majority of
romantic writers at the time, Blake, upholder of the Gothic against the classical.
- Gothic Genre (series of motifs; Gothic castles, persecuted/pursued Maidan, ghosts, vampires,
creatures ( ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’), terror/horror. WHY: Social- response to
anxieties that ancient feudal order may be unsettled, marxism, uncertainties of revolution -Dr Sade’s
theory- French Revolution. Psychological- unconscious as the place in the mind from which nothing
ever goes away. Feminist- struggle between the genders, displacement of characters.
Scientific/technological- tests the limits of the human, overstep the boundaries of creation- also a
gendered notion, science against human feeling. Passion- did not entertain Enlightenment ideas of
reason Gothic is rebellious in the sense that it reminds us that we are mainly driven by our passions.
To summarise, literary contradiction.) - David Punther
- Paradise Lost (retelling of the story of Adam and Eve, from the biblical book of Genesis, which
describes the creation of Heaven and Earth and Ada, and Eve, within which SATAN is a sympathetic
figure)
- Prometheus (The first rebel, Greek Myth)
- Archetypes in literature, villains → gothic, i.e mad scientist, pursued females and ideas of Victor being
a tragic hero in the text.
- Rousseau and ideas of the social contract- “man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains”/
“People in their natural state are basically good”
(Ao2) Key Form features:
The Hand Maid’s Tale:
- Offred’s narrative voice
- The epigraph
- Analepsis (memories)
- Sections and chronology
- Historical notes
- Retrospective narration
- The entire novel is a reconstruction, tapes renumbered and ordered by Pixoto as he saw fit.
Frankenstein:
- 3 narrative voices (Walton, Victor, Creature, embedded elizabeth)
- Epistolary - use of letters in a text
- Frame narrative
- Alternate title, The modern Prometheus
- Retrospective narrative
- Analepsis
- Volumes (I,II,III)
Compare the ways in which the writers of your two chosen texts present loneliness. In your answer you must
consider the following:
, • the writers’ methods
• links between the texts
• relevant contextual factor
Thesis:
Indeed, although both present loneliness through the mental decline of the titular characters in the texts, it is
arguably more interesting to look at how both novels present loneliness through the absence of an active
listener and how storytelling can override this predicament.
→ Side note: this is unnecessarily complex and flowery
Point 1 [THMT]: Both novels establish loneliness through the inability to share thoughts.
Ao2: “I stand on the corner, pretending I am a tree” “I would like to believe this is a story I am telling” (ch 7)
“it’s the lack of love we die from (...) I too am I missing person” “I am so alone”
Ao3: Nazi Germany, the idea of a dictatorship- with forced command words ‘Heil Hitler’
Ao3: Idea of dystopia and metafiction- she has a narrator
Ao3: Women in writing- Helene Cixoux // Simone De beauvoir
Point 1 [FRANKENSTEIN] Similarly, in Frankenstein, Shelley presents the creatures condemning loneliness
through his inability to communicate with others successfully.
“The uncouth and articulate sounds which broke from me frightened me into silence again” (ch 3) “What was
I?” “I distinguished several other words without being able to apply or understand them” “conciliating words”
“win their love” “but when I looked upon him”
Ao3: Idea of literature, Paradise Lost, and the power of it.
Ao3: idea of
Point 2 [THMT]: Moreover, both novels centre their loneliness through the lack of human relationships.
Point 2 [FRANKENSTEIN]: Similarly, in Frankenstein, the creature's lack of relationships ultimately condemns
him to a villainous life.
Compare the ways in which the writers of your two chosen texts present characters responding to adversity. In
your answer you must consider the following:
• the writers’ methods
• links between the texts
• relevant contextual factors.
BLURT: Struggles/difficulties. Idea of strength within the common individual through Offred, idea of strength of
humanity against science.
Intro:
Adversity acts within novels as a catalyst for character development, providing the platform to test the integrity
and internal strengths of the characters. Within Frankenstein, Shelley structures her text to open with the
consequences of adversity through a physically and mentally drained Frankenstein, she further explores this
notion prominently depicting the creature as mentally distraught as he struggles with isolation. The social
experiment of Gilead targets Offred with an excess of adversity, leading to coping mechanisms of dissociation.
Ultimately, it is arguably more interesting to focus on how both authors present their characters' strength or
lack thereof in these situations to expose the humanity within both characters.
Comparative Point 1:
Both authors present strength against adversity through reforming identity through storytelling. This is
prevalent throughout THMT and prevalent through the creature.
