ENGLISH LITERATURE

KAVITA’S A-LEVEL REVISION MATERIAL

CONTENTS:
HAMLET…………………………………………………………………………… 2
I. SYNOPSIS………………………………………………………………….……………...5
II. CHARACTER PROFILES……………………………………………………………11
III. QUOTES……………………………………………………………………………………13
IV. CRITICS…………………………………………………………………………………….16

ROSSETTI POETRY…………………………………………………………… 17
I. ANNOTATED POEMS………………………………………………………………19
II. CONTEXT…………………………………………………………………….……………31
III. CRITICS…………………………………………………………………………….………32

DYSTOPIA…………………………………………………………….….………. 33
I. 1984 SYNOPSIS…………………………………………………………………………36
II. 1984 CHARACTER PROFILES………………………………………….….……39
III. 1984 QUOTES………………………………………………………………….……….40
IV. 1984 CRITICS………………………………………………………………...…………42
V. THE HANDMAIDS TALE SYNOPSIS……………………………………….43
VI. THE HANDMAIDS TALE CHARACTER PROFILES………..………49
VII. THE HANDMAIDS TALE QUOTES…………………………………………51
VIII. THE HANDMAIDS TALE CRITICS………………………………….………53
IX. DYSTOPIA SECTION A CONTEXT………………………………..….……54

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 Hamlet (Part A & Part B) – English A-Level Unit H472/1
(Drama and Poetry Pre-1900)

Steps needed

teacher(initi
Checked by
to progress
RAG?
Skill

al)
Knowledge of the play
I have annotated my copy of Hamlet identifying a range
of language, structure and drama features and making
stylistic and thematic links with other scenes
I have read Hamlet independently and built up detailed
annotations on my copy of the text.
I have detailed class notes addressing all AOs, alongside
my own annotated independent study notes,
supplemented by the Further Reading emails.
I can summarise and describe the function of each
character in Hamlet. I can identify and explain how they
link to a range of themes in the play.
I can explain the structural stages of the Aristotelian
Tragedy and the conventions of the Tragic Hero; I can
link each of these features to key scenes in the play
I know a range of key quotes from the play, linked to the
following characters and themes; I can also make links
between pairs of characters:
 The Futility of Life Hamlet & Horatio
 Fate & Religion Gertrude & Ophelia
 Morality Polonius & Claudius
 Vengeance King Hamlet (Ghost)
 Parent – child Laertes & Fortinbras
 Perception vs. Reality Rosencrantz &
 Women Guildenstern
 Madness The Gravedigger

Part A) – Extract Skills

I am aware of the Assessment Objectives required for the
extract passage question, and their weightings.
I have detailed notes on a range of language, structural
and dramatic features found in Hamlet, as well as key
motifs
I have confident knowledge of the play as a whole and
can place any scene’s action and language in its function
within the Aristotelian Tragic Structure
I have annotated at least 8 key passages from Hamlet and
explored in detail how they use language, form, structure
and dramatic effects for exam practice.

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I can create an essay plan that closely links to the
question; my ideas are linked logically and fully address
the AOs with an in-depth focus on the extract.
I am confidently able to explore the effects of dramatic
function and place a scene’s action and language in its
purpose within the Aristotelian Tragic Structure
I can craft a fluent line of argument in response to an
extract from Hamlet, embedding quotations and
frequently linking interpretations together, not just by
connectives but by ideas
I can offer nuanced interpretations of Shakespeare’s use
of language and structure within an extract, exploring
dual meanings with cross references and tentative
phrasing
Part B) – Critical Response
I can define the Assessment Objectives for the critical
response, and understand their weighting.
I can name and explain a range of critics for Hamlet. I can
express my own opinions on these critics and link them
to my own interpretations. I can also link these to the key
themes / characters in the play.
I have seen at least 2 productions of Hamlet; I can identify
directors’ choices in staging / performance and link them
to my ideas about characters and themes.
I have independently researched a range of reviews and
critical interpretations of Hamlet and can use them
effectively to support my interpretations
I understand what a line of argument is and I have
practiced how to create lines of argument out of a range
of critical statements for the exam Q.
I am able to offer multiple interpretations of a critical
statement, supported by my knowledge of the text
I have a strong understanding of Shakespeare’s intentions
behind Hamlet and I am able to connect these intentions
to key characters and scenes to develop my arguments
further.
I can unpick a critical statement and create a 4 point
essay plan which shows logical progression of ideas and
fulfils all Assessment Objectives required for the
comparative essay.
I understand and am able to write an effective
introduction that outlines my line of argument; I can also
develop my argument into an effective conclusion.
I am confident that my written expression is articulate
and that my spelling, punctuation and grammar are
accurate. I use technical terminology with confidence.
I increasingly explore layers of meaning, and the
ambiguities which exist within texts. I also use tentative
phrasing in my essay writing to allow for a range of subtle
interpretations.

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I am not just able to embed critics but to challenge them
in order to create a more original and evaluative line of
argument
I am able to explore how critical perspectives have shifted
and changed through time; I can use these to explore how
interpretations of the statement may be time-specific

Nuance interpretations from the text:

Polonius belittles women –- carries out surveillance both Ophelia and Gertrude in quick succession – lack of
trust

Time delays – between arrangements to carry out tasks – and the performance of tasks – Laertes is the only
one who doesn’t apply

Claudius repeatedly assures Laertes he will get his revenge – directly ‘he’ being Laertes – or third person ‘he’
being himself – or from hamlets perspective leading to his own death

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Hamlet– scene by scene synopsis:
http://hudsonshakespeare.org/Shakespeare%20Library/Character%20Directory/CD_Hamlet.htm

Act I, Scene 1: Guards changing: Barnardo, replaces Francisco -> they see they ghost of
King Hamlet twice and ask Horatio to stay and see for himself ->Horatio attempts to speak
to the ghost-> the three agree that this visitation seems especially ominous in view of an
impending war with Norway ->the Ghost re-enters but disappears again when a cock crows.

Act I, Scene 2: Claudius, the King of Denmark, speaks of the recent death his brother, and
of his marriage to Queen Gertrude ->Claudius sends Cornelius and Voltemand with a letter
to the King of Norway advocating restraint on an attack from young Fortinbras who acts
without telling his Uncle -> Laertes requests permission to return to his studies in France,
which the King grants -> the King and Queen urge Hamlet to cease mourning -> Claudius
denies Hamlet permission to return to his own studies at Wittenberg; the Queen adds her
wish that he stay in Denmark, and Hamlet agrees to do s0.->Horatio, tells Hamlet about
the Ghost and they arrange to meet on the castle wall that night.

Act I, Scene 3: Laertes, leaving for France, Ophelia, about Hamlet's affection for her, which
he says cannot be permanent in view of the prince's royal status -> Polonius arrives and
gives Laertes moralizing advice on his conduct abroad -> Laertes departs with a last word
to Ophelia about Hamlet; triggering a diatribe from Polonius about the suspect morals of
young men, and he forbids Ophelia to see the prince.

Act I, Scene 4: The Ghost appears to Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus, and Hamlet speaks
to it. It beckons, and Hamlet follows.

Act I, Scene 5: The Ghost confirms that it is the spirit of Hamlet's father and orders the
prince to avenge his murder: as the King had poured poison in his ear -> the Ghost departs,
and Hamlet vows to carry out its wishes-> Horatio and Marcellus appear, and Hamlet
swears them to secrecy, about the Ghost and about his own intention to simulate madness.

Act II, Scene 1: Polonius sends his servant Reynaldo to spy on Laertes in Paris ->Ophelia
reports that Hamlet has come to her and behaved as if he were insane -> Polonius concludes
that his separation of Ophelia and Hamlet has driven the prince mad, and he decides to
inform the King of this.

Act II, Scene 2: The King and Queen welcome Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, fellow
students of Hamlet, who have been summoned in the hope that the prince will confide in
them -> they spy on their friend -> Voltemand and Cornelius arrive to report that the King
of Norway has agreed to redirect Fortinbras' invasion to Poland -> Polonius then declares
that Hamlet is lovesick, producing a love letter from the prince that he has confiscated from
Ophelia -> he and Claudius arrange to hide behind a curtain to eavesdrop on an encounter

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between Ophelia and Hamlet -> Hamlet greets them with wild talk, and badgers them into
admitting that they have been sent to observe him -> Players from the city arrive, and
Hamlet welcomes them enthusiastically, asking the First Player to recite a dramatic
monologue describing an episode of revenge from the Trojan War -> Hamlet requests that
the Players perform ‘The Murder of Gonzago’ before the court that night, inserting lines
that he will compose -> He suspects that the spirit may have lied; he will have the Players
enact a killing similar to his father's murder, and if Claudius responds guiltily, he will know
that the Ghost has spoken the truth.

Act III, Scene 1: Polonius instructs Ophelia to meet Hamlet while he and the King
eavesdrop. The two men hide them-selves as Hamlet approaches -> Hamlet passionately
rejects her with a potent reference to misogyny -> Claudius tells Polonius that he has
decided to send Hamlet on a mission to England, accompanied by Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern -> Polonius suggests more surveillance in the meantime, proposing that his
mother summon Hamlet after the performance by the Players; he, Polonius, will spy on
their conversation.

Act III, Scene 2: Hamlet lectures the Players on acting, saying that overacting and
improvisation are distractions from a play's purposes -> the court assembles, and the
Players perform an introductory Dumb Show, in which a murderer kills a king by pouring
poison in his ear as he sleeps. He then takes the king's crown and exits with the king's wife.
The Player King and Player Queen then speak; she asserts that she will never remarry if he
dies, but he insists that she will. He then rests, falling asleep. Another Player, speaks darkly
of the evil powers of poison and pours a potion in the ear of the Player King -> Claudius
becomes distressed and leaves in anger-> Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and then
Polonius, deliver the Queen's summons to Hamlet, and he agrees to go to her, but not
before ridiculing them ->He prepares to meet his mother, feeling great anger but reminding
himself not to use violence against her.

Act III, Scene 3: Polonius tells the King that Hamlet is on his way to the Queen's chamber,
Polonius, will spy on their meeting -> He goes, and the King soliloquizes about his murder
of his brother. He tries to pray for forgiveness-> Hamlet sees the King on his knees, and
contemplates killing him -> He decides to not kill the king while at prayer as he will go to
heaven and instead he will wait until he finds the King engaged in some sin, and then kill
him, ensuring that his soul will go to hell.

Act III, Scene 4: Polonius hides behind a curtain in the Queen's chamber -> when Hamlet
arrives; he attempts to make his mother sit down, and she cries for help, so does Polonius
-> Hamlet stabs him through the drapery -> he expresses regret that his victim was not the
King and offers no remorse-> Hamlet condemns his mother's behaviour and compares the
virtues of his father to the vices of his uncle -> The Ghost appears -> the Queen, unaware
of its presence, thinks Hamlet is mad as he speaks with the spirit -> the Ghost reminds
Hamlet of the vengeance he must exact, urges pity on the Queen -> less violently than

PAGE 6
before, Hamlet urges his mother c and refuse to confesses her sins and abstain from sex
with the King ->He leaves, dragging the body of Polonius with him.

Act IV, Scene 1: The Queen tells the King that Hamlet has killed Polonius -> he sends
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to recover the body.

Act IV, Scene 2: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern confront Hamlet. He mocks them, refusing
to tell them where the body is, but he goes with them to the King.

Act IV, Scene 3: The King tells his Lords that Hamlet has to be exiled to England ->
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern return with Hamlet under guard -> reveals where he has put
Polonius' body -> The King tells Hamlet that he is being sent to England immediately for
his own safety -> Hamlet is escorted to the boat, leaving the King alone to muse on his plot:
he is sending letters to the English that threaten war unless they kill Hamlet immediately.

Act IV, Scene 4: Hamlet, accompanied by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, encounters a

CAPTAIN from Fortinbras' army, on its way to Poland. The Captain speaks of Fortinbras'
war as a fight over a small, insignificant piece of territory -> Hamlet compares himself,
unable to avenge his father's death, with the 20,000 men who will fight and die for an
inconsequential goal.

Act IV, Scene 5: Gertrude is told that Ophelia is insane, only has senseless speech to offer
conveying an unhappy truth -> Ophelia enters, singing a song about a dead lover->
Claudius arrives, and Ophelia sings of seduction and betrayal. -> she leaves, speaking
distractedly about a burial -> Claudius is told Laertes and several followers, moments after
they break down the door and enter -> he demands vengeance for his father's death, and
the King promises that he shall have it ->Ophelia returns, singing about a funeral, and
distributes flowers to the King, the Queen, and Laertes whilst singing again, about an old
man's death, and departs -> Claudius takes Laertes away to plot revenge on Hamlet.

Act IV, Scene 6: A Sailor brings Horatio a letter from Hamlet. It tells of his capture by
pirates who have agreed to release him -> Rosencrantz and Guildenstern continue to sail
to England. Horatio goes with the sailor to meet Hamlet.

Act IV, Scene 7: The King tells Laertes that he cannot act directly against Hamlet, out of
consideration for the Queen -> Claudius proposes a plot: they shall arrange a fencing match
between Hamlet and Laertes, in which Hamlet will use a blunted sword intended for sport
while Laertes shall secretly have a sharp sword. Laertes agrees and adds that he has a
powerful poison that he will apply to his sword point. The King further suggests a poisoned
glass of wine to be given Hamlet when the sport has made him thirsty -> Gertrude
announces Ophelia has drowned, and Laertes collapses in tears.

Act V, Scene 1: A Gravedigger who is a Clown speaks with his friend the Other clown,
about Ophelia, who has been granted Christian burial although possibly a suicide. He

PAGE 7
comically misconstrues the law on suicide and jokes about grave-digging -> Hamlet and
Horatio arrive, and Hamlet talks with the Grave-digger who displays a skull that had
belonged to Yorick, a court jester whom Hamlet had known. The prince reflects on the
inevitability of death -> Ophelia's funeral procession arrives, accompanied by Laertes and
the King and Queen; the Priest declares her death a suicide -> Hamlet realizes whose
funeral he is witnessing, he rushes forth and tries to fight Laertes, challenging his position
as chief mourner.

Act V, Scene 2: Hamlet tells Horatio how he rewrote the King s letter arranging his death,
substituting Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's names for his own. He assumes that the two
courtiers were killed, but he feels no remorse since they were schemers -> Osric, an
obsequious and mannered courtier, arrives with the King's request that Hamlet fence with
Laertes; the King has wagered that Hamlet can win. Hamlet mocks Osric before sending
word that he will fight-> he tells Horatio that the proposed match makes him uneasy but
says that he's prepared to die -> Claudius pours wine to toast Hamlet's first successful
round, and he places a pearl-a congratulatory token, he says-in Hamlet's cup -> Hamlet
and Laertes fence, but after his first victory Hamlet postpones refreshment and resumes
the match -> Queen dies-> Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned sword, quickly after
Hamlet wounds Laertes -> Laertes dies -> the Queen falls, exclaims that she is poisoned,
and dies. Laertes himself is poisoned by the exchanged sword, reveals the Kings plot->
Hamlet wounds the King with the sword and then forces him to drink the poisoned wine-
> Claudius dies -> Hamlet and Laertes forgive each other, and Laertes dies ->Horatio starts
to drink the poisoned wine, but Hamlet demands that he remain alive to tell his side of the
story Osric announces the return of Fortinbras from Poland- Hamlet declares Fortinbras
his successor -> Hamlet dies ->Fortinbras arrives and takes command, ordering a stately
funeral for Hamlet.

STORY BOARD

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PAGE 9
 Scene by scene quotes
1.1 The Battlements 3.4 The Closet Scene
'This bodes some strange eruption to our state' 'I essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft'

1.2 The Court Scene 4.1 Reactions to Polonius' death

'The funeral baked mean did coldly furnish the 'Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain' 'How small
marriage tables' this bloody deed be answered'

1.3 The Departure Of Laertes 4.2 Fetching Hamlet

'Fear it Ophelia' 'A Navish speech sleeps in a foolish ear'

1.4 Waiting for the Ghost 4.3 The Confrontation

'It will not speak' 'A king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar'

1.5 The Ghost Scene 4.4 Fortinbras' Army

'Revenge is foul and unnatural' 'From this time forth, my thoughts be bloody of
nothing worth'
2.1 Polonius and Reynaldo
'By indirections find directions out' 4.5 The Madness of Ophelia
'They say the owl was a baker;s daughter'
2.2 The Fishmonger Scene
my mind must have gone astray here. 4.6 The Letter
'I will have words to speak in thine ear'
3.1 The Nunnery Scene
'To be or not to be’... Claudius: 'How smart a lash that 4.7 The Persuasion of Laertes
speech doth give my conscience' 'To show yourself in deed your fathers son more than
words'
3.2 The Mousetrap
'The lady doth protest to much methinks' 5.1 The Funeral Scene
'Who is they follow? And with such maimed rights?
3.3 The Prayer Scene
'My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent' 5.2 Poison, Play and Duel
PAGE 10
'Here thou incestuous, murderous, damned dane'
Hamlet Character Profiles
Hamlet – The Prince of Denmark, the protagonist. About thirty years ago at the start of the play,
Hamlet is the son of Gertrude and the Late King Hamlet. Hamlet is melancholy, bitter and cynical,
full of hatred for his uncle’s scheming and disgusted at his mother’s sexual relationships. A reflective
and thoughtful young man who has studied at the University of Wittenberg, Hamlet is often
indecisive and hesitant, but at other times prone to rash and impulsive acts.

Claudius – The King of Denmark, Hamlet’s uncle, and the play’s antagonist. The villain of the play,
Claudius is a calculating, ambitious politician, driven by his sexual appetites and his lust for power,
but he occasionally shows signs of guilt and human feeling – his love for Gertrude, for instance,
seems sincere.

Gertrude – The Queen of Denmark, Hamlet’s mother, recently married to Claudius. Gertrude love
Hamlet deeply, but she is fickle, shallow and weak (irrespective of her maintaining power
throughout the play). She seeks affection and status more urgently than moral rectitude or truth.

Polonius – The Lord Chamberlain of Claudius’ court, a pompous, conniving, old man who is father
to Hamlets lover Ophelia and consequently Hamlets enemy Laertes.

Horatio – Hamlet’s close friend, who studied with him at University. He is loyal and helpful to
Hamlet throughout the play and after Hamlet’s death he remains alive to tell of Hamlet’s story.

Ophelia – Polonius’s daughter, a beautiful young woman with whom Hamlet has been in love. She
is sweet and innocent and obeys her father and brother. Dependent to men to tell her how to behave,
she gives in to Polonius’ schemes to spy on Hamlet. Even in her lapse to madness and death, she
remains maidenly, singing songs about flowers and finally drowns in the river amid the flower
garland that she had gathered.

Laertes – Polonius’ son, a young man who spends much of the play in France. Passionate and quick
to action, Laertes is clearly a foil for the reflective Hamlet.

Fortinbras – The young Prince of Norway, whose father was killed by Hamlets father; consequently,
he seeks to attack Denmark to avenge his father’s death and honour, making him yet again another
foil for Prince Hamlet.

The Ghost – The spectre of Hamlet’s recently deceased father. The ghost, who claims to have been
murdered by Claudius, calls upon Hamlet to avenge him. However, it is not entirely certain whether
the ghost is what it appears to be, or whether it is something else. Hamlet speculates that the ghost

PAGE 11
might be a devil sent to deceive him and tempt him into murder, and the question of what the
ghost is or where it comes from is never definitively answered.

Rosencrantz and Guildernstern – Two slightly bumbling courtiers, former friends of Hamlet from
Writtenberg, who are summoned by Claudius and Gertrude to discover the cause of Hamlet’s
madness

Osric – The foolish courtier who summons Hamlet to his duel with Laertes.

Voltimand and Cornelius – Courtiers whom Claudius sends to Norway to persuade the king to
prevent Fortinbras from attacking.

Marcellus and Bernardo – The officers who first see the ghost walking the ramparts of Elsinore and
who summon Horatio to witness. Marcellus is present when Hamlet first encounters the ghost.

Francisco – A soldier and guardsman at Elsinore.

Reynaldo – Polonius’ servant, who is sent to France by Polonius to check up on Laertes and his
whereabouts.

PAGE 12
Hamlet Quotes
https://www.memrise.com/course/89177/hamlet-quotes-english-a-level/1/

Theme Quotes
Hysteria "unweeded garden"
"your noble son is mad"
"mad for thy love"
"blasted with ecstasy"
"mad by craft"
"though this be madness, there be method in it"
"my much too changed son"
"o'erhasty marriage"
"madness in great ones must not go unwatched"
"this is the very coinage of your brain"
"I here proclaim was madness"
"O, my prophetic soul"
Revenge "revenge his foul and most unnatural murder"
“foul deeds will rise”
"the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king"
"am so I am revenged"
“Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder."
"my thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth"
Women "I shall obey my lord"
"I shall the effect O this good lesson keep"
"get thee to a nunnery"-Hamlet to Ophelia
"think yourself a baby"-Polonius to Ophelia
"we cast away moan"
"passion, hell itself"

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 "sister driven into desperate terms"
"a document in madness"
"you must sing"
"frailty..thy name is women"
"she is a strumpet" - personifying fate as a women
"must like a whore unpack my heart with words"
"like a very drab"
"what monsters you make of them"
"clambering to hang"- Ophelia hanging something on the tree
"your sister's drowned"
Fate/religion/death "this bodes some strange eruption to our state"
"all that lives must die"
"your father lost a father, that father lost, lost his"
"'tis unmanly grief"
"primal eldest curse"-Cain and Able story, one brother killed the other
"the serpent that did sting my fathers life"
"his canon 'gainst self-slaughter"
"by Saint Partick but there is"
Manipulation "your noble son is mad"
"think yourself a baby"
"subject to his birth"
"we may of their encounter frankly judge"
"you'll tender me a fool"
Corruption "something is rotten in the state of Denmark"
"rank and gross in nature"
"it will skin and film the ulcerous place,whilst rank corruption,mining all
within,infects unseen"
"they clepe us drunkards"-claudius has corrupted denmark
"subject to his birth"
“I must be cruel only to be kind; Thus bad begins, and worse remains
behind”
"the serpent that did sting my fathers life"
“Hyperion to a satyr”

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 Love “Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love"
"get thee to a nunnery"
" I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not, with all their
quantity of love, make up my sum"

LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS:

Rosemary: the symbol for remembrance and faithfulness

Rosemary given to Laertes with meaning of remembrance: "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance—
pray you love remember" She wants her brother to help her figure out who killed their father.

Pansy: the symbol for thoughts and faithfulness.

Pansies given to Laertes for thoughts; refers back to his earlier thoughts on Hamlet's love for Ophelia: "And
there is pansies, that's fro thoughts”

Fennel: the symbol of flattery

At this point, Ophelia walks to the King, and while handing him some fennel, says, "There's fennel for you
and columbines." That's a jab to the King! The audience in Shakespeare's time would have understood the
first to mean flattery and the second to mean male adultery and foolishness, because once you pick fennel,
it would wilt so quickly. She knew that the new King loved flattery. An old saying is "Sow fennel, sow
sorrow."

Columbine: the symbol for male adultery, ingratitude, and faithlessness; the emblem
of deceived lovers
Columbine also given to either Gertrude or Claudius (recipient disputed). Symbol of ingratitude, of
"forsaken lovers," and of foolishness. It was kind of an amusing type of thing for men, which was the old
double standard in those days. It was brave of her to first flatter the King and then accuse him of foolish
adultery.

Rue: the symbol for adultery; the symbol for genuine repentance of all transgressions
for women; the symbol for everlasting suffering
Rue is very bitter. Ophelia then walks over to the Queen and says, "There's rue for you; and here's some for
me. We may call it herb of grace a Sunday's. O, you must wear your rue with a difference." Note that rue
was the major cause of abortion in its day, which is also why it was tied in with adultery. So she insults both
the Queen and King to their faces, in front of witnesses.

Daisy: the symbol for innocence

Ophelia then sees a daisy and either gives it to Gertrude, or she picks it up, says "There's a daisy," looks
sadly, and then puts it back. In effect she is saying, "There is no innocence here."

Violet: the symbol for faithfulness or fidelity

Then Ophelia says, "I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died." She is in
effect saying all her faith lied with her father and it was a trait that not even the King and Queen obtain.

Ophelia’s garland: "of crowflowers, nettles, daisies and long purples"

Crow flowers=buttercups=ungratefulness

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 Flowering nettles=sharp and stinging
Daisies=Ophelia's innocence/virginity
Long purples (orchids)=sexual love/testicles
Hamlet Critics:
"[Ophelia] provides an essential pivot
in the hero's progress toward his mortal
rendezvous with his act - an act that he
carries out, in some sense, in spite of
himself" - Lacan (1959)
"The play is built up on Hamlet’s
hesitations over fulfilling the task of
revenge that is assigned to him; but its
text offers no reasons or motives for
these hesitations and an immense
variety of attempts at interpreting them
have failed to produce a result." - Freud
(1900)
"[Shakespeare] utilizes the popular
conception to render objective what is
in the minds of his characters. The
ghosts or witches that appeared to
Macbeth […] revealed his inner
thoughts to the audience […]. In the
same way, the ghost in Hamlet discloses
to us the suspicions already in the
minds of Hamlet and his friends.” –
Crawford (1916)
Psychology knows no rigid defining line
between the sane and insane." -
Chambers (1895)
"Whatever may be our present
difficulties with the play or the
character, there is no evidence that
either presented any great problems to
the play-goers in the days of Elizabeth.
There is abundant evidence
that Hamlet was one of the most
popular of Shakespeare's plays in the
dramatist's own day" - Crawford (1916)
"[The ghost] leaves us where all living
men must stand in relation to that
country: weighted with its awe and
terror and its uncertainties buffeted by
conflicting theories". – West (1955)
"To me it is clear that Shakespeare
meant, in the present case, to represent
the effects of a great action laid upon a
soul unfit for the performance of it." -
Goethe (1795)
"[...] touching devotion shown by
Hamlet to Horatio [...] is the overflow of
gratitude for the comfort and refuge he
finds with his friend after the recent
proof of incapacity and want of integrity
in the woman he had loved. " - Jacox
(1877)
"Now the theme of Hamlet is death. Life
that is bound for the disintegration of
the grave, love that does not survive the
loved one's life— both, in their
insistence on death as the primary fact
of nature, are branded on the mind of
Hamlet, burned into it, searing it with
agony." - Knight (1930)
"[...] a character so delicately outlined,
and shaded in with touches so fine,
should be often gravely misunderstood"
- Martin (1888)
"Ophelia -- poor Ophelia! Oh, far too
soft, too good, too fair, to be cast among
the briers of this working-day world,
and fall and bleed upon the thorns of
life!" - Jameson (1889)
"Ambiguous as they are, the questions
raised by the spirit in these scenes are
integral to the resulting action" –
Griffiths (2008)
"The most tragic, the most affecting
thing in the world is the ruin of a high
soul. This is the theme of Hamlet; it is a
tragedy of failure, of a great nature
confronted with a low environment,
and so, by the perversity of things,
made ineffective and disastrous through
its own greatness." - Chambers (1895)
"This play has a prophetic truth, which
is above that of history [...] whoever has
bome about with him the clouded brow
of reflection, and thought himself 'too
much i' th' sun'; whoever has seen the
golden lamp of day dimmed by envious
mists rising in his own breast, and could
find in the world before him only a dull
blank with nothing left remarkable in it;
whoever has known 'the pangs of
despised love, the insolence of office
[...] whose powers of action have been
eaten up by thought,[...] and who goes
to a play as his best resource to shove
off, to a second remove, the evils of life
by a mock representation of them - this
is the true Hamlet...." - Hazlitt (1817)
"Since Laertes calls Ophelia a
"document in madness", does she
represent the textual archetype of
women as madness or madness as
women?" - Showalter (1985)
PAGE 16
 "Of the feigned madness of Hamlet
"The command [of the ghost] to murder there appears no adequate cause, for he
is as malign as we sense it to be, and does nothing which he might not have
Hamlet is responsible for his descent done with the reputation of sanity." -
into savagery". – Prosser (1971) Johnson (1765)

Rossetti Revision – English A-Level Unit H472/1

(Drama and Poetry Pre-1900)

Checked by
needed to

(date and
progress

teacher

initial)
RAG?

Steps
Skill

I can define all of the Assessment Objectives for

H472/1 Drama and Poetry Pre-1900, as well as their
weightings.
I have read all the Rossetti poems study at least once
independently.
I have clear, detailed and complete class notes,
which are filed in my folder. I have photocopied
notes for any lessons I have missed and added my
own notes where I need more detail.
I can summarise the narrative of each poem studied
for Rossetti and remember key quotes for each
poem.
I can identify 6 key themes in Rossetti, and link
them to specific poems. I have a bank of thematic
quotes to support my understanding of this.
I understand 6 different areas of Rossetti’s social,
cultural and historical context (e.g. Anglicanism, the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the work of one other
Victorian poet)
I can name and quote at least four different
criticisms for Rossetti’s poetry and explain their
interpretations. I also understand 2-3 schools of
critical thought and how they would interpret each
of Rossetti’s poems
I have a good understanding of how audiences from
different time periods have responded to Rossetti’s
poetry.
I can create an essay plan which shows logical
progression of ideas and fulfils all Assessment

PAGE 17
Objectives. I am able to deconstruct a statement in
an exam Q and create 3-4 key points that link
together
I can successfully make and explain a point in a
developed paragraph which fulfils all 4 AO’s. I can
also write an effective introduction and conclusion.
I am confident that my written expression is
articulate and that my spelling, punctuation and
grammar are accurate.
I can confidently connect Rossetti’s poetry within
the same paragraph, making detailed links between
the poems and how they support / contradict the
essay Q.
I have undertaken independent study into at least 3
alternative contextual areas of Rossetti’s poetry and
have made annotated notes on my own
interpretations of these areas of interest.
I can craft a clear line of argument in my essay,
creating a thread of ideas in response to a statement
that is driven by subtle links and distinctions
between poems
I have a confident understanding of subtle
contextual factors affecting Rossetti’s poetry and I
can effectively use this to develop my line of
argument
I have a detailed understanding of critical responses
to Rossetti through time and I can use these to
develop a range of alternative interpretations in my
essays

Pursuing Excellence: Sources found during independent study:

PAGE 18
Rossetti Annotated Poems
Goblin Market
Morning and evening
Pricking up her golden head:
Maids heard the goblins cry:
“We must not look at goblin men,
“Come buy our orchard fruits,
We must not buy their fruits:
Come buy, come buy:
Who knows upon what soil they fed
Apples and quinces,
Their hungry thirsty roots?”
Lemons and oranges,
“Come buy,” call the goblins
Plump unpeck’d cherries,
Hobbling down the glen.
Melons and raspberries,
Bloom-down-cheek’d peaches,
“Oh,” cried Lizzie, “Laura, Laura,
Swart-headed mulberries,
You should not peep at goblin men.”
Wild free-born cranberries,
Lizzie cover’d up her eyes,
Crab-apples, dewberries,
Cover’d close lest they should look;
Pine-apples, blackberries,
Laura rear’d her glossy head,
Apricots, strawberries;—
And whisper’d like the restless brook:
All ripe together
“Look, Lizzie, look, Lizzie,
In summer weather,—
Down the glen tramp little men.
Morns that pass by,
One hauls a basket,
Fair eves that fly;
One bears a plate,
Come buy, come buy:
One lugs a golden dish
Our grapes fresh from the vine,
Of many pounds weight.
Pomegranates full and fine,
How fair the vine must grow
Dates and sharp bullaces,
Whose grapes are so luscious;
Rare pears and greengages,
How warm the wind must blow
Damsons and bilberries,
Through those fruit bushes.”
Taste them and try:
“No,” said Lizzie, “No, no, no;
Currants and gooseberries,
Their offers should not charm us,
Bright-fire-like barberries,
Their evil gifts would harm us.”
Figs to fill your mouth,
She thrust a dimpled finger
Citrons from the South,
In each ear, shut eyes and ran:
Sweet to tongue and sound to eye;
Curious Laura chose to linger
Wondering at each merchant man.
One had a cat’s face,
One whisk’d a tail, PAGE 19
One tramp’d at a rat’s pace,
One crawl’d like a snail,
Come buy, come buy.”
Evening by evening
Among the brookside rushes,
Laura bow’d her head to hear,
Lizzie veil’d her blushes:
Crouching close together
In the cooling weather,
With clasping arms and cautioning lips,
With tingling cheeks and finger tips.
“Lie close,” Laura said,
Laura stretch’d her gleaming neck
Like a rush-imbedded swan,
Like a lily from the beck,
Like a moonlit poplar branch,
Like a vessel at the launch
When its last restraint is gone.
Backwards up the mossy glen
Turn’d and troop’d the goblin men,
With their shrill repeated cry,
“Come buy, come buy.”
When they reach’d where Laura was
They stood stock still upon the moss,
Leering at each other,
Brother with queer brother;
Signalling each other,
Brother with sly brother.
One set his basket down,
One rear’d his plate;
One began to weave a crown
Of tendrils, leaves, and rough nuts brown
(Men sell not such in any town);
One heav’d the golden weight
Of dish and fruit to offer her:
“Come buy, come buy,” was still their cry.
Laura stared but did not stir,
Long’d but had no money:
The whisk-tail’d merchant bade her taste
In tones as smooth as honey,
The cat-faced purr’d,
The rat-faced spoke a word
Of welcome, and the snail-paced even was heard;
One parrot-voiced and jolly
Cried “Pretty Goblin” still for “Pretty Polly;”—
One whistled like a bird.
But sweet-tooth Laura spoke in haste:
“Good folk, I have no coin;
Then suck’d their fruit globes fair or red:
Sweeter than honey from the rock,
Stronger than man-rejoicing wine,
Clearer than water flow’d that juice;
She never tasted such before,
How should it cloy with length of use?
She suck’d and suck’d and suck’d the more
Fruits which that unknown orchard bore;
She suck’d until her lips were sore;
Then flung the emptied rinds away
But gather’d up one kernel stone,
And knew not was it night or day
As she turn’d home alone.
Lizzie met her at the gate
Full of wise upbraidings:
“Dear, you should not stay so late,
Twilight is not good for maidens;
Should not loiter in the glen
In the haunts of goblin men.
Do you not remember Jeanie,
How she met them in the moonlight,
Took their gifts both choice and many,
Ate their fruits and wore their flowers
Pluck’d from bowers
Where summer ripens at all hours?
But ever in the noonlight
She pined and pined away;
Sought them by night and day,
Found them no more, but dwindled and grew grey;
Then fell with the first snow,
While to this day no grass will grow
Where she lies low:
I planted daisies there a year ago
That never blow.
You should not loiter so.”
“Nay, hush,” said Laura:
“Nay, hush, my sister:
I ate and ate my fill,
PAGE 20
Yet my mouth waters still;
To-morrow night I will
Buy more;” and kiss’d her:
To take were to purloin:
I have no copper in my purse,
I have no silver either,
And all my gold is on the furze
That shakes in windy weather
Above the rusty heather.”
“You have much gold upon your head,”
They answer’d all together:
“Buy from us with a golden curl.”
She clipp’d a precious golden lock,
She dropp’d a tear more rare than pearl,
What melons icy-cold
Piled on a dish of gold
Too huge for me to hold,
What peaches with a velvet nap,
Pellucid grapes without one seed:
Odorous indeed must be the mead
Whereon they grow, and pure the wave they drink
With lilies at the brink,
And sugar-sweet their sap.”
Golden head by golden head,
Like two pigeons in one nest
Folded in each other’s wings,
They lay down in their curtain’d bed:
Like two blossoms on one stem,
Like two flakes of new-fall’n snow,
Like two wands of ivory
Tipp’d with gold for awful kings.
Moon and stars gaz’d in at them,
Wind sang to them lullaby,
Lumbering owls forbore to fly,
Not a bat flapp’d to and fro
Round their rest:
Cheek to cheek and breast to breast
Lock’d together in one nest.
Early in the morning
When the first cock crow’d his warning,
Neat like bees, as sweet and busy,
Laura rose with Lizzie:
Fetch’d in honey, milk’d the cows,
Air’d and set to rights the house,
Kneaded cakes of whitest wheat,
Cakes for dainty mouths to eat,
Next churn’d butter, whipp’d up cream,
Fed their poultry, sat and sew’d;
Talk’d as modest maidens should:
Lizzie pluck’d purple and rich golden flags,
Then turning homeward said: “The sunset flushes
Those furthest loftiest crags;
Come, Laura, not another maiden lags.
No wilful squirrel wags,
The beasts and birds are fast asleep.”
But Laura loiter’d still among the rushes
And said the bank was steep.
And said the hour was early still
The dew not fall’n, the wind not chill;
Listening ever, but not catching
The customary cry,
“Come buy, come buy,”
With its iterated jingle
Of sugar-baited words:
Not for all her watching
Once discerning even one goblin
Racing, whisking, tumbling, hobbling;
Let alone the herds
That used to tramp along the glen,
In groups or single,
Of brisk fruit-merchant men.
Till Lizzie urged, “O Laura, come;
I hear the fruit-call but I dare not look:
You should not loiter longer at this brook:
Come with me home.
The stars rise, the moon bends her arc,
Each glowworm winks her spark,
Let us get home before the night grows dark:
For clouds may gather
Though this is summer weather,
Put out the lights and drench us through;
Then if we lost our way what should we do?”
Laura turn’d cold as stone
To find her sister heard that cry alone,
That goblin cry,
“Come buy our fruits, come buy.” PAGE 21
Must she then buy no more such dainty fruit?
Must she no more such succous pasture find,
Lizzie with an open heart,
Laura in an absent dream,
One content, one sick in part;
One warbling for the mere bright day’s delight,
One longing for the night.

At length slow evening came:

They went with pitchers to the reedy brook;
Lizzie most placid in her look,
Laura most like a leaping flame.
They drew the gurgling water from its deep;
Silent till Lizzie slept; Poor Laura could not hear;
Then sat up in a passionate yearning, Long’d to buy fruit to comfort her,
And gnash’d her teeth for baulk’d desire, and wept But fear’d to pay too dear.
As if her heart would break. She thought of Jeanie in her grave,
Who should have been a bride;
Day after day, night after night, But who for joys brides hope to have
Laura kept watch in vain Fell sick and died
In sullen silence of exceeding pain. In her gay prime,
She never caught again the goblin cry: In earliest winter time
“Come buy, come buy;”— With the first glazing rime,
She never spied the goblin men With the first snow-fall of crisp winter time.
Hawking their fruits along the glen:
But when the noon wax’d bright Till Laura dwindling
Her hair grew thin and grey; Seem’d knocking at Death’s door:
She dwindled, as the fair full moon doth turn Then Lizzie weigh’d no more
To swift decay and burn Better and worse;
Her fire away. But put a silver penny in her purse,
Kiss’d Laura, cross’d the heath with clumps of furze
One day remembering her kernel-stone At twilight, halted by the brook:
She set it by a wall that faced the south; And for the first time in her life
Dew’d it with tears, hoped for a root, Began to listen and look.
Watch’d for a waxing shoot,
But there came none; Laugh’d every goblin
It never saw the sun, When they spied her peeping:
It never felt the trickling moisture run: Came towards her hobbling,
While with sunk eyes and faded mouth Flying, running, leaping,
She dream’d of melons, as a traveller sees Puffing and blowing,
False waves in desert drouth Chuckling, clapping, crowing,
With shade of leaf-crown’d trees, Clucking and gobbling,
And burns the thirstier in the sandful breeze. Mopping and mowing,
Full of airs and graces,
She no more swept the house, Pulling wry faces,
Tended the fowls or cows, Demure grimaces,
Fetch’d honey, kneaded cakes of wheat, Cat-like and rat-like,
Brought water from the brook: Ratel- and wombat-like,
But sat down listless in the chimney-nook Snail-paced in a hurry,
And would not eat. Parrot-voiced and whistler,
Helter skelter, hurry skurry,
Chattering like magpies,
Fluttering like pigeons, PAGE 22
Gliding like fishes,—
Hugg’d her and kiss’d her:
Tender Lizzie could not bear
To watch her sister’s cankerous care
Yet not to share.
She night and morning
Caught the goblins’ cry:
“Come buy our orchard fruits,
Come buy, come buy;”—
Beside the brook, along the glen,
She heard the tramp of goblin men,
The yoke and stir
Poor Laura could not hear; Bite at our peaches,
Long’d to buy fruit to comfort her, Citrons and dates,
But fear’d to pay too dear. Grapes for the asking,
She thought of Jeanie in her grave, Pears red with basking
Who should have been a bride; Out in the sun,
But who for joys brides hope to have Plums on their twigs;
Fell sick and died Pluck them and suck them,
In her gay prime, Pomegranates, figs.”—
In earliest winter time
With the first glazing rime, “Good folk,” said Lizzie,
With the first snow-fall of crisp winter time. Mindful of Jeanie:
“Give me much and many: —
Till Laura dwindling Held out her apron,
Seem’d knocking at Death’s door: Toss’d them her penny.
Then Lizzie weigh’d no more “Nay, take a seat with us,
Better and worse; Honour and eat with us,”
But put a silver penny in her purse, They answer’d grinning:
Kiss’d Laura, cross’d the heath with clumps of furze “Our feast is but beginning.
At twilight, halted by the brook: Night yet is early,
And for the first time in her life Warm and dew-pearly,
Began to listen and look. Wakeful and starry:
Such fruits as these
Laugh’d every goblin No man can carry:
When they spied her peeping: Half their bloom would fly,
Came towards her hobbling, Half their dew would dry,
Flying, running, leaping, Half their flavour would pass by.
Puffing and blowing, Sit down and feast with us,
Chuckling, clapping, crowing, Be welcome guest with us,
Clucking and gobbling, Cheer you and rest with us.”—
Mopping and mowing, “Thank you,” said Lizzie: “But one waits
Full of airs and graces, At home alone for me:
Pulling wry faces, So without further parleying,
Demure grimaces, If you will not sell me any
Cat-like and rat-like, Of your fruits though much and many,
Ratel- and wombat-like, Give me back my silver penny
Snail-paced in a hurry, I toss’d you for a fee.”—
Parrot-voiced and whistler, They began to scratch their pates,
No longer wagging, purring,
But visibly demurring,
Grunting and snarling. PAGE 23
One call’d her proud,
Cross-grain’d, uncivil;
Helter skelter, hurry skurry,
Chattering like magpies,
Fluttering like pigeons,
Gliding like fishes,—
Hugg’d her and kiss’d her:
Squeez’d and caress’d her:
Stretch’d up their dishes,
Panniers, and plates:
“Look at our apples
Russet and dun,
Bob at our cherries,
Barking, mewing, hissing, mocking,
Tore her gown and soil’d her stocking,
Twitch’d her hair out by the roots,
Stamp’d upon her tender feet,
Held her hands and squeez’d their fruits
Against her mouth to make her eat.
White and golden Lizzie stood,
Like a lily in a flood,—
Like a rock of blue-vein’d stone
Lash’d by tides obstreperously,—
Like a beacon left alone
In a hoary roaring sea,
Sending up a golden fire,—
Like a fruit-crown’d orange-tree
White with blossoms honey-sweet
Sore beset by wasp and bee,—
Like a royal virgin town
Topp’d with gilded dome and spire
Close beleaguer’d by a fleet
Mad to tug her standard down.
One may lead a horse to water,
Twenty cannot make him drink.
Though the goblins cuff’d and caught her,
Coax’d and fought her,
Bullied and besought her,
Scratch’d her, pinch’d her black as ink,
Kick’d and knock’d her,
Maul’d and mock’d her,
Lizzie utter’d not a word;
Would not open lip from lip
Lest they should cram a mouthful in:
But laugh’d in heart to feel the drip
Of juice that syrupp’d all her face,
And lodg’d in dimples of her chin,
And streak’d her neck which quaked like curd.
In a smart, ache, tingle,
Lizzie went her way;
Knew not was it night or day;
Sprang up the bank, tore thro’ the furze,
Threaded copse and dingle,
And heard her penny jingle
Bouncing in her purse,—
Its bounce was music to her ear.
She ran and ran
As if she fear’d some goblin man
Dogg’d her with gibe or curse
Or something worse:
But not one goblin scurried after,
Nor was she prick’d by fear;
The kind heart made her windy-paced
That urged her home quite out of breath with haste
And inward laughter.
She cried, “Laura,” up the garden,
“Did you miss me?
Come and kiss me.
Never mind my bruises,
Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices
Squeez’d from goblin fruits for you,
Goblin pulp and goblin dew.
Eat me, drink me, love me;
Laura, make much of me;
For your sake I have braved the glen
And had to do with goblin merchant men.”
Laura started from her chair,
Flung her arms up in the air,
Clutch’d her hair:
“Lizzie, Lizzie, have you tasted
For my sake the fruit forbidden?
Must your light like mine be hidden,
Your young life like mine be wasted,
Undone in mine undoing,
And ruin’d in my ruin,
Thirsty, canker’d, goblin-ridden?”—PAGE 24
She clung about her sister,
Kiss’d and kiss’d and kiss’d her:
At last the evil people,
Worn out by her resistance,
Flung back her penny, kick’d their fruit
Along whichever road they took,
Not leaving root or stone or shoot;
Some writh’d into the ground,
Some div’d into the brook
With ring and ripple,
Some scudded on the gale without a sound,
Some vanish’d in the distance.

Her lips began to scorch, Laugh’d in the innocent old way,

That juice was wormwood to her tongue, Hugg’d Lizzie but not twice or thrice;
She loath’d the feast: Her gleaming locks show’d not one thread of grey,
Writhing as one possess’d she leap’d and sung, Her breath was sweet as May
Rent all her robe, and wrung And light danced in her eyes.
Her hands in lamentable haste,
And beat her breast. Days, weeks, months, years
Her locks stream’d like the torch Afterwards, when both were wives
Borne by a racer at full speed, With children of their own;
Or like the mane of horses in their flight, Their mother-hearts beset with fears,
Or like an eagle when she stems the light Their lives bound up in tender lives;
Straight toward the sun, Laura would call the little ones
Or like a caged thing freed, And tell them of her early prime,
Or like a flying flag when armies run. Those pleasant days long gone
Of not-returning time:
Swift fire spread through her veins, knock’d at her heart, Would talk about the haunted glen,
Met the fire smouldering there The wicked, quaint fruit-merchant men,
And overbore its lesser flame; Their fruits like honey to the throat
She gorged on bitterness without a name: But poison in the blood;
Ah! fool, to choose such part (Men sell not such in any town):
Of soul-consuming care! Would tell them how her sister stood
Sense fail’d in the mortal strife: In deadly peril to do her good,
Like the watch-tower of a town And win the fiery antidote:
Which an earthquake shatters down, Then joining hands to little hands
Like a lightning-stricken mast, Would bid them cling together,
Like a wind-uprooted tree “For there is no friend like a sister
Spun about, In calm or stormy weather;
Like a foam-topp’d waterspout To cheer one on the tedious way,
Cast down headlong in the sea, To fetch one if one goes astray,
She fell at last; To lift one if one totters down,
Pleasure past and anguish past, To strengthen whilst one stands.”
Is it death or is it life?

Life out of death.

That night long Lizzie watch’d by her,
Counted her pulse’s flagging stir,

PAGE 25
Felt for her breath,
Held water to her lips, and cool’d her face
With tears and fanning leaves:
But when the first birds chirp’d about their eaves,
And early reapers plodded to the place
Of golden sheaves,
And dew-wet grass
Bow’d in the morning winds so brisk to pass,
And new buds with new day
Open’d of cup-like lilies on the stream,
Laura awoke as from a dream,

PAGE 26
 A Birthday
My heart is like a singing bird

Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;

My heart is like an apple-tree

Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;

My heart is like a rainbow shell

That paddles in a halcyon sea;

My heart is gladder than all these

Because my love is come to me.

Raise me a dais of silk and down;

Hang it with vair and purple dyes;

Carve it in doves and pomegranates,

And peacocks with a hundred eyes;

Work it in gold and silver grapes,

In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;

Because the birthday of my life

Is come, my love is come to me.

Good Friday
Am I a stone, and not a sheep, PAGE 27

That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,

Echo
Come to me in the silence of the night;
PAGE 28
Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
PAGE 29
No, Thank You John
I never said I loved you, John:
Why will you tease me day by day,
And wax a weariness to think upon
With always "do" and "pray"?

You Know I never loved you, John;

No fault of mine made me your toast:
Why will you haunt me with a face as wan
As shows an hour-old ghost?

I dare say Meg or Moll would take

Pity upon you, if you'd ask:
And pray don't remain single for my sake
Who can't perform the task.

I have no heart?-Perhaps I have not;

But then you're mad to take offence
That don't give you what I have not got:
Use your common sense.

Let bygones be bygones:

Don't call me false, who owed not to be true:
I'd rather answer "No" to fifty Johns
Than answer "Yes" to you.

Let's mar our plesant days no more,

Song-birds of passage, days of youth:
Catch at today, forget the days before:
I'll wink at your untruth.

Let us strike hands as hearty friends;

No more, no less; and friendship's good:
Only don't keep in veiw ulterior ends, And points not understood

In open treaty. Rise above

Quibbles and shuffling off and on:
Here's friendship for you if you like; but love,-
No, thank you, John. PAGE 30
PAGE 31
 Remember
Remember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land;

When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

You tell me of our future that you plann'd:

Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.

Rossetti Poetry Context

PAGE 32
Money and Commerce
People try to sell their goods at the
highest possible price because greed
increases as consumerism is on the
rise. Technological Developments in
the free economy lead to corruption in
consumers. This is clearly
demonstrated in ‘Goblin Market’ as her
involvement in the modern market
removes her old culture and purity.
Equality
Men and women were not equal in
status and women’s opportunities were
limited Rossetti published work in the
PRB and wrote for The Germ under the
pseudonym “Ellen Alleyn,” because of
stigmas against it. Women Began to
fight against this inequality regarding
rights and economic independence.
Graves Disease
Autoimmune disease causes shortness
of breath and physical suffering.
Rossetti had this disease after
conquering depression in her earlier
years which may have led to anxieties.
This leads to the deterioration of the
certain features which heightened her
insecurities.
Charles Darwin
Explored the theory of evolution which
went against theological beliefs
endorsing, ‘Gods creation of man’. This
questioning of God is reflected
throughout her poetry. This is
illustrated in ‘Uphill’ where questions
directly address Gods existence and
ideas of salvation.
A Pilgrim’s Progress
A book published by John Bunyan
which is a known Christian allegory. It
features a lot of female pilgrims and
shows that they can be strong. Rossetti
wanted to escape the original sin
which was the fall of Eve, which has
led to the condemnation of women
thereafter.
Victorian Gender Expectations
Women were expected to be ‘Angels of
the house’, seen not heard. Whilst men
were considered the breadwinners. Her
mother was a very powerful woman
that worked as a teacher after the
retirement of her husband; this
ensured all of her children were well
educated.
Romantic Movement
A group of poets and writers who
discussed how a lot of their ideas come
from the natural world and inner
spirituality. This goes against ideas
enforced by institutions and the
monarchy. The modern world is in a
sense, seen as restricted which is
especially depicted through Shut Out
and A Birthday.
The Oxford Movement
Rossetti was an Anglican Christian.
The Oxford Movement was the return
to some practices of Catholicism. Some
methods that were returned were
confessions and literal readings of the
Bible. Rossetti’s poetry is therefore
symbolic of religion and it can be
described that ‘poetry is the vehicle for
divine truth’.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
He is one of the founders of the Pre -
Raphaelite Brotherhood. He painted a
picture of Virgin Mary and this
imposed a persona on her as it reveals
how pure he believed her to be. Dante
Gabriel had a mental breakdown
leading to her becoming a more
religious Christian.
House of Charity – Highgate
Rossetti in 1895 volunteered at the
Mary Magdalene convent. It has a
twofold purpose: to reform penitent
women into "reliable domestic
servants" and to make them into active
members of the Church of England.
This was home to fallen women, which
emphasises that she promotes
sisterhood, opposed to the
condemnation of women. If she is
impure she will aim to project purity in
the form of redemption.
Pre – Raphaelite Brotherhood
Rossetti was a poet and she believed
that if literature didn’t survive she
would turn to art. The Brotherhood
saw women as virtuous and as being
repressed (unkempt hair). In a
Birthday Rossetti could either desire to
confide in the PRB or in God which
draws parallels in regards of status and
power.
James Collinson
Rossetti was in love with him and he
reverted to her religion whilst they
were together. He was part of the PRB
and was very religious. But he had a
crisis in faith and returned to
Catholicism so they broke up. William
Rossetti says that it was a ‘blow from
which she did not fully recover’
meaning the breakup had a profound
impact on her. She also rejected
Charles Kalley – lesbian? Scared to
love? Feared sex? Not in love?
PAGE 33
Rossetti Critical Quotes

Simon Mold – “Rossetti wrote poems that give a vibrant voice to the female experience despite
Rossetti living the life of a Victorian lady, who were denied the social and economic freedoms
enjoyed by men”

Leighton carter – “‘Good Friday’ Rossetti sets a double image that reflects the contradictions of her
emotional limitations. The final stanza foreshadows an emotional breakthrough. Rossetti uses the
two images of sheep and rocks to represent Christ. He is the Shepard of the flock and he is like
Moses made water spring from rock during the israelitesõ journey out of Egypt.”

Carol Rumens – “The tale invites a metaphorical or symbolic reading. Lizzie warnings reiterate the
fate of Jeanie, a young bride to be who died because she tasted the fruit prematurely.”

Simon Avery - No, Thank You John – “a woman’s choice for independence. By rejecting a potential
suitor, the speaker asserts the right to say ‘no’. We ‘hear’ some of his thoughts but the suitor isn’t
given a voice showing the power dynamic as she turns his argument against him with un-flawed
logic.”

Germaine Greer has suggested that Rossetti's frustrated sexuality and feelings of guilt may have
resulted from her longing for closeness with her brother Gabriel.

The Madwoman in the Attic, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gilbar recognise the factors that prevented
a Victorian woman from standing on equal terms to their male contemporaries. They suggest that
Rossetti is among the ‘singers of renunciation' of her time and argue that she willingly accepts the
state of destitution into which she is cast (p.564). They emphasise how the culture of patriarchy
curbed her passions and meant that she was not the powerful female role model that she had the
potential to become.

PAGE 34
 Personalised Learning Checklist – Dystopia
(Comparative and Contextual Study) H472/02

teacher (date
Steps needed

Checked by

and initial)
to progress
RAG?
Skill

Section A: Unseen passage

I am aware of the Assessment Objectives required for
the unseen passage question, and their weightings.
I have detailed notes on a range of language and
structural features found in dystopian writing.
I have detailed notes on a range of typical themes and
tropes found in dystopian literature.
I have annotated at least 5 passages in my Dystopian
anthology, identifying a range of dystopian features
and making stylistic and thematic links with other
texts.
I can create an essay plan that closely links to the
question; my ideas are linked logically and fully
address the AOs with an in-depth focus on the
extract.
I can analyse language and structural features well,
closely unpicking their effects and making creative
links to dystopian themes / tropes
I can embed quotes into my essay in order to unpick a
deeper meaning and link them to the extract’s story
I have widened my understanding of the dystopian
genre by reading independently at least one other full
dystopian novel. I can connect extracts to other
dystopian texts
I am confident that I understand the key historical
events that inspired Dystopian fiction from the late
C19th to the C21st and can talk about different
audience responses.
I can thread my argument together through
discourse markers and connections of ideas, using the
extract as a structure for my argument
I recognise subtle patterns and nuances in the
language, form and structure of dystopian extracts
and I can write about these in a developed way
I am able to frequently range throughout the extract
and seamlessly embed quotations into my analysis,
supporting alternative interpretations with cross-

PAGE 35
references where needed.

I have a strong understanding of the social, cultural

and historical events inspiring Dystopian fiction. I can
use this to develop my analysis of an extract, by
making subtle comments on contexts written and
received.

I have a strong knowledge of Dystopian fiction and

can confidently link extracts to other Dystopian
fiction in a subtle and interesting way, recognising
ways that the extract may be unique compared to
other texts

Section B: Comparative essay

I can define the Assessment Objectives for the
comparative essay, and understand their weighting.
I have read 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale
independently, and have detailed notes on significant
episodes in each text.
I have clear, detailed and complete class notes, which
are filed in my folder. I have supplemented my notes
with further reading from Firefly and other sources.
I can summarise the plot of both 1984 and The
Handmaid’s Tale and describe the key characters, and
make links to the texts’ central themes.
I have made a mind map of key themes, with quotes
from each text and notes on how they compare in
their presentation of that theme.
I have independently researched key areas of context
relating to 1984 including: Stalin, Communism, Hitler
and Orwell’s biography. I can link these areas of
context to the text.
I have independently researched key areas of context
relating to The Handmaid’s Tale including: 1980s
America (feminism and the religious right), Atwood’s
biography and the surveillance society. I can link
these areas of context to the text.
I understand the literary context of dystopian fiction,
its relationship to Thomas More’s Utopia and how
typically texts reflect contemporary concerns.
I can name and quote a range of different critics each
for Orwell and Atwood, and explain their views. I
understand how Atwood was influenced by Orwell.
I can identify and explain the significance of a key
quotation for the following characters:
Offred Winston

PAGE 36
 Ofglen Julia
Moira O’Brien
Martha Syme
Luke Katherine
Nick Parsons
The Commander Goldstein
I can create an essay plan which shows logical
progression of ideas and fulfils all Assessment
Objectives required for the comparative essay.
I can successfully explain my ideas in a PCQA
paragraph which fulfils all 4 AOs. I can make an
argument connecting paragraphs through ideas, not
connectives.
I increasingly explore layers of meaning, and the
ambiguities which exist within texts.
I am confident that my written expression is highly
articulate and that my spelling, punctuation and
grammar are accurate. I use technical terminology
well.
I have undertaken independent study into at least 3
alternative contextual areas for 1984 & THT and made
annotated notes on my own interpretations of these.
I can craft a clear line of argument in my essay,
moving ‘deftly’ between texts. My arguments are sign-
posted by ‘tentative’ phrases to for alternative
interpretations.
I have a detailed understanding of critical responses
to both authors through time and I can use these to
develop a range of alternative interpretations in my
essays

PAGE 37
1984 Chapter Summaries
Book 1

Chapter One: The novel's first chapter introduces the reader to the novel's protagonist, Winston
Smith of Airstrip One, Oceania. Winston is an unimportant member of INGSOC, the controlling
party of Oceania. As he labors up the stairs to his apartment, he passes several posters of Big
Brother, the embodiment of party leadership, who in reality represents oppression, but to citizens
represents all that is good. Winston commits thoughtcrime by writing DOWN WITH BIG
BROTHER in his diary, the possession of which constitutes thoughtcrime.

Chapter Two: Winston hears a knock at the door and fears it's the thought police. It's actually his
neighbor whose sink he unplugs and whose children are junior spies for the party.

Chapter Three: Winston dreams of his mother, of a naked girl running toward him, and of
Shakespeare, all three of which represent thoughtcrime. He awakens to the telescreen's shrill cry
of exercise time.

Chapter Four: Winston goes to work at The Ministry of Truth. His job is to falsify past records to
make them conform to current reality.

Chapter Five: Winston eats lunch with Syme, an expert on Newspeak, the official language of the
party, whose purpose is to reduce the number of words and to render thoughtcrime impossible.

Chapter Six: Winston records his most recent sex act in his diary, a disgusting affair with a Prole
prostitute with no teeth. He longs for a meaningful love affair, what he considers the ultimate
rebellion against the party.

Chapter Seven: Winston writes in his diary that the only hope is in the Proles, the working class.
He longs for a sense of the past, picks up a children's history book, and realizes any record of the
past is controlled by the party and has been falsified.

Chapter Eight: Winston wanders into the Prole district and buys a paperweight at the same store
he bought the diary. He notices a woman from the Ministry of Truth and fears he is being
followed. He contemplates smashing her face in with a cobblestone.

Book Two

Chapter One: The girl who earlier Winston wanted to strike in the face with a cobblestone passes
him a note that says "I love you." It takes several attempts, but the two are able to converse and
schedule a meeting at Victory Square. Winston feels he has a reason to live.

Chapter Two: The two meet in the country and engage in romantic love acts.

PAGE 38
Chapter Three: The two return to normal party lives and manage to meet only for short amounts
of time. They rendezvous at an abandoned church. Winston realizes that Julia is not interested in
a wide rebellion. She is only interested in outsmarting the party and having intercourse.

Chapter Four: Winston rents a room above Mr Charrington's shop, where he purchased the diary
and the paper weight. He realizes it's a huge risk but he feels it's worth it.

Chapter Five: Syme disappears (as WInston predicted earlier). Winston constantly thinks about
the room above Charrington's shop, considering what goes on there, I think we understand.

Chapter Six: O'Brien stops Winston in the hall and gives him his address. Winston is not sure if
this is a sign from the underground or if he's one step closer to his doom.

Chapter Seven: Winston and Julia visit their rented room frequently. They know they will
eventually be captured and tortured and that renting the room is stupid. They continue to rent it
anyhow and promise each other they will remain loyal.

Chapter Eight: Winston and Julia visit O'Brien and discuss the underground with him. He
promises Winston that he will deliver a book containing the secrets of the underground.

Chapter Nine: Oceania is no longer at war with East Asia. It's at war with Eurasia. This forces
Winston and his Ministry of Truth coworkers to log 96 hours during the next few weeks. Finally,
Winston is able to escape to his rented room where he reads the book given him by O'Brien. The
book explains the significance and meaning of War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength, and Freedom
is Slavery.

Chapter ten: As it turns out, Mr. Charrington is a member of the Thought Police and there's a
telescreen behind the picture in the room above his shop. Winston and Julia are arrested.

Book Three

Chapter One: Winston awaits his punishment in a cell with other prisoners, victims of starvation
and beatings. His coworker Ampleforth has been arrested, as has his neighbor Parsons. O'Brien
enters and reveals himself as an agent of the Ministry of Truth. A security guard smashes
Winston's elbow with a club. It hurts. Bad.

Chapter Two: O'Brien tries to "cure" Winston's "insanity" with torture. Winston agrees to
anything O'Brien tells him and begins to love O'Brien because he can stop the pain. O'Brien
explains that the party has perfected a system that will keep them in power forever. They do not
kill any prisoners until they are "cured."

Chapter Three: O'Brien tortures Winston more. He tells Winston that the party's true aim is to
remain in power forever by controlling all things. Winston argues that the party cannot control
external events. O'Brien thinks otherwise, explaining that as long as the party controls the mind,
anything is possible. O'Brien admits that Winston has yet to betray Julia, but doesn't seem too
upset by it, knowing that eventually everyone is cured.

PAGE 39
Chapter Four: Winston is taken to a more comfortable room, is fed regularly, and is no longer
tortured. He still hates Big Brother and wants to die hating Big Brother as a last act of rebellion.
He wakes up from a dream and shouts Julia's name several times. O'Brien arrives and orders
Winston to room 101.

Chapter Five: Winston's face is strapped to a cage that contains starving rats. Just before O'Brien
pulls the lever to release them, Winston asks that Julia take his place. With the final betrayal
complete, the torture stops.

Chapter Six: Winston sits at the Chestnut Tree Cafe drinking Victory Gin and accepting
everything Big Brother says. He has met with Julia once since being released but neither had any
interest in continuing their relationship. After news of a great war victory, Winston acknowledges
he loves Big Brother.

PAGE 40
1984 Character List
Character Description
Winston  Protagonist
 Rebellious against Big Brother
 Julia's lover
 His job is to rewrite the news; works in the Ministry of Truth
Julia  Winston's lover
 Works in the ministry of Truth as a mechanic
 Expresses her rebellion by sleeping with members of the party
O’Brien  Member of the Inner Party
 Tricks Winston into confessing his rebellion toward the party
 Works in the Ministry of Love
 Tortures Winston
Parsons  -Winston's neighbour and friend
 -Husband of Mrs. Parsons
 -Has two children
 -Turned in by his daughter
 -Works in the Ministry of Truth
Emanuel Goldstein  Fictional figure that depicts the brotherhood
 Source of hope

Charington  Shop owner

 Pretends to support Winston and his affair with Julia
 Turns Winston into the party
 Member of the thought police
Ampleforth  Friend of Winston
 Poet
 Works in the Ministry of Truth
 Ends up in jail for talking about God
Katherine  Winston's wife
 Winston is unaware of what happened to her
 Winston often expresses how he wanted to kill her
 Thought of sex as "her duty to the party"
Syme  Works with Winston in the Ministry of Truth
 Rewriting the Newspeak dictionary (11th edition)
 Was vaporized because he was too smart for his own good
Big Brother  Figure of the party
 Symbol of power and control
Rutherford, Jones,  Members of the party that were caught rebelling
Aaronson  Example of what happened if you cross the party
 Foreshadow to what will later happen to Winston

PAGE 41
1984 Quotes
 O'Brien articulating Big Brother's ability to strip Winston of his very humanity: “Never
again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you.
Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or
curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty and
then we shall fill you with ourselves."
 The ending - Winston is deprived of everything - even the hope that he could die hating Big
Brother - the destruction of his humanity is now absolute. “O cruel, needless
misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented
tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the
struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”
 Foreshadowing in the Ministry of Love. Another prisoner’s terrified response to Room 101
lends it a very sinister feeling. “I don't care who it is or what you do to them. I've got a wife
and three children. The biggest of them isn't six years old. You can take the whole lot of
them and cut their throats in front of my eyes, and I'll stand by and watch it. But not Room
101”
 The one true Crime - Big Brother's oppression is so absolute that the suspicion of any anti-
establishment thought is a crime subject to torture, forced labour and death. 'Thoughtcrime
does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death.'
 The power of Big Brothers propaganda - it can re-write the historical record at will, altering
the past to influence the party members’ admiration of Big Brother “Who controls the past
controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
 The paradox of the Proles - they are about 85% of the population - but will never be aware
enough of their oppression to unite and rebel. “Until they become conscious, they will never
rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”
 Winston's desire to keep freedom of thought - to have fact as unalterable. The party destroys
this within him. “Freedom is the freedom to say two plus two makes four. If that is granted,
all else follows”
 INGSOC's slogans. “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength”
 Syme’s on to why Big Brother creates Newspeak. "'Don't you see that the whole aim of
Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?" In the end, we shall make thoughtcrime
literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.'"
 Power is maintained by a state of fear - you must always assume you are under surveillance,
must always appear content and orthodox. “Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen.
It was safer, though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing.”
 The 2 minutes Hate - a means of uniting the party members by directing their pent-up
emotions at a scapegoat - Goldstein.
 In its second minute the Hate rose to a frenzy. People were leaping up and down in their
places and shouting at the tops of their voices in an effort to drown the maddening bleating
voice that came from the screen.

PAGE 42
 Another means of maintaining power - breaking down family bonds by indoctrinating
children. ‘Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by
means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable
little savages’
 O'Brien explaining the fundamental value of INGSOC. "The Party seeks power entirely for
its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power.
Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power.”
 Room 101 causes you to break entirely - here Winston utterly betrays Julia. "Do it to Julia!
Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don't care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to
the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!"
 Julia recounts her experience in Room 101 and how it changed her feelings for Winston
irrevocably. "Sometimes," she said, "they threaten you with something you can't stand up
to, can't even think about. And then you say, 'Don't do it to me, do it to somebody else …
You don't give a damn what they suffer. All you care about is yourself."
 O'Brien paints an image of the future of Oceania - the only values and desires BB wishes to
retain in party members. “Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the
sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future,
imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever."
 Why Winston, and those like him are not simply killed. “When finally, you surrender to us,
it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us; so long
as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we
reshape him. We burn all evil and all illusion out of him”

PAGE 43
1984 Critical Quotes

In the excesses of satire one may take a certain comfort. They provide a distance from the human
condition as we meet it in our daily life that preserves our habitual refuge in sloth or blindness or
self-righteousness. Mr. Orwell’s earlier book, Animal Farm, is such a work. Its characters are
animals, and its content is therefore fabulous, and its horror, shading into comedy, remains in the
generalized realm of intellect, from which our feelings need fear no onslaught. But” Nineteen
Eighty-four” is a work of pure horror, and its horror is crushingly immediate. (New York Times,
1949 – early newspaper review)

''1984'' is a political statement. It contains no prophetic declaration, only a simple warning to

mankind. Orwell did not believe that 35 years after the publication of his book, the world would
be ruled by Big Brother, but he often proclaimed that 1984 could happen if man did not become
aware of the assaults on his personal freedom and did not defend his most precious right, the
right to have his own thoughts. Van Den Bossche, 1984

Mr Orwell’s book is a satirical pamphlet. Some critics have said that his prophecy is not
probable… Probability is not a necessary condition of satire, which, in pretending to draw the
future, scourges the present. The purges in Russia and its satellites, the seediness of London in the
worst days of the war, the pockets of 19th-century life in decaying England, the bad flats, bad
food, the whining streak of domestic sluttishness which have sickened English satirists since
Smollett, all these have given Mr Orwell his material. VS Pritchett, 1949

There is no reason to read into the blackness of Orwell’s literary vision the denial of any real-life
alternative. The novel, indeed, can be seen as an account of the forces that endanger liberty and of
the need to resist them. Most of these forces can be summed up in a single word: lies. The author
offers a political choice – between the protection of truth, and a slide into the expedient falsehood
for the benefit of rulers and the exploitation of the ruled, in whom genuine feeling and ultimate
hope reside. Ben Pimlott

1984, therefore, came to stand not for Stalinism, or even for dictatorship in general - but merely
for government. Even governmental paternalism seemed '1984ish' and the catch phrase 'Big
Brother is watching you' came to mean everything that was too big for the individual to control. It
was not only big government and big business that was a symptom of 1984 but big science, big
labour, big anything. Isaac Asimov

PAGE 44
The Handmaids Tale Chapter
Summaries
Chapter 1 -Offred describes an old gymnasium. Offred describes her time in the Red Centre and
recalls nostalgic memories of life before Gilead. The reader is introduced to the world of Gilead -
Aunts, Angels etc.

Chapter 2 - Offred describes her room at the Commander's house. Offred describes the daily
routines of the Handmaids. We learn about the Colonies where Unwomen are sent.

Chapter 3 - Offred recalls her arrival at the Commanders house. Offred has been at the
Commander's house for five weeks. Offred receives a hostile reception from his wife (Serena Joy)
who she remembers as a TV personality from the past.

Chapter 4 - Offred goes shopping with Ofglen. Offred meets Glen. Offred flirts with the guards -
first small gesture of defiance.

Chapter 5 - Out shopping, Offred and Ofglen see the pregnant Ofwarren. We learn that she's in a
former University town, now the capital of Gilead. Offred remembers Luke and their young child.
They have encounters with Ofwarren and some Japanese tourists.

Chapter 6 - Offred and Ofglen visit the Wall. They stop at the Wall where hooded bodies of the
dead hang. Offred responds with resistance to Gilead's value system.

Chapter 7 - Offred uses her memories as an escape. Offred lies on her bed and and 'side steps' into
her private memories. She recalls her college friend Moira, her mother taking her to a xxx book
burning and her child being taken away.

Chapter 8 - Ofglen uses the word 'Mayday' and the Commander breaks the rules. While visiting the
Wall, Ofglen uses the word Mayday - Offred contemplates its significance. The Commander tries
to look at her face.

Chapter 9 - Offred claims a room of her own. Offred recalls happier times with Luke, before they
were married. She thinks of her unknown predecessor in the room and reads the secret message in
the closet.

Chapter 10 - Offred thinks about her college days and sees Nick from her window. Offred sings
hymns and old pop songs to herself. She is nostalgic about her time with Moira at college.

Chapter 11 - Offred visits the doctor. Whilst visiting the doctor for her monthly check-up he offers
to help her by getting her pregnant.

Chapter 12 - Offred takes a bath and remembers her daughter. Offred takes her bath to prepare for
her first 'ceremony' with the Commander. Offred is overwhelmed with memories of her lost
daughter.

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Chapter 13 - Waiting for the ceremony, Offred recalls her failed attempt to escape. Offred has two
recurring nightmares - fear of Luke being dead and recall of the events at the Canadian border.

Chapter 14 - The household assembles for prayer. The members of the house watch TV news and
we learn that Gilead is a war zone. Offred thinks about her former name.

Chapter 15 - The Commander enters and prayers are said. Offred describes the Commander for the
first time. Offred does not prayer, she just recites the message from her closet and recalls trying to
escape from the Red Centre.

Chapter 16 - The Ceremony Offred describes the Ceremony in a deliberately detached way. Offred
and Serena are on the same bed and hold hands while the Commander uses the lower part of her
body.

Chapter 17 - Offred steals a flower and embraces Nick. Lying in her bed 'buttered' after the
Ceremony, Offred thinks of Luke. First acts of rebellion - she steals a daffodil and then receives a
message from Nick from the Commander before embracing Nick.

Chapter 18 - Offred contemplates Luke's death or survival. Offred recalls lying in bed with Luke and
compares it to her present solitary state. She wonders if Luke is dead, alive and in prison or whether
he escaped.

Chapter 19 - The Handmaids go to the birth of Ofwarren's baby. Offred dreams of being somewhere
else with her daughter or mother. She travels with the other Handmaids, in the Birthmobile, to
watch Ofwarren give birth. All births take place at home with only women present.

Chapter 20 - Offred remembers her own mother. At the birth, Offred's mind slips away to when she
was shown a programme at the Red Centre which her mother appeared in. She recalls her mother's
feminism.

Chapter 21 - Offred attends the birth of Ofwarren's baby. Offred notices the heat and smell. The
baby is named Angela and given to the Wife. Offred contemplates the term, 'a women's culture'.

Chapter 22 - Offred recalls Moira's escape from the Red Centre. Offred returns home exhausted.
Offred recalls how Moira ties up Aunt Elizabeth, exchanges clothing and uses her pass to escape.

Chapter 23 - Offred's first secret meeting with the Commander. Offred goes to the Commander's
study - she knows his request is illegal but she is unable to refuse. His study is like what used to be
normal life. She plays Scrabble with the Commander and realises he is as isolated as her.

Chapter 24 - Offred's psychological situation changes. Offred realises just how absurd everything is
and on returning to her room goes into the closet and laughs hysterically.

Chapter 25 - Offred walks with Serena Joy in the garden. Cora finds Offred sleeping on the floor.
She is beginning to enjoy her meetings with the Commander. Offred asks the Commander for hand-
lotion.

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Chapter 26 - Offred attends another Ceremony. Offred is now emotionally involved with the
Ceremony. She realises she is now the Commander's mistress and Handmaid.

Chapter 27 - Offred and Ofglen reveal their dissent to each other. Ofglen questions the Soul Scrolls
and they both confess they are unbelievers. Offred discovers that Ofglen is a member of Mayday, a
resistance movement. They see a man being brutally beaten.

Chapter 28 - Offred recalls how Gilead started. Offred makes comparisons between her relationship
with the Commander and her one with Luke. She recalls how the Gilead regime came to power -
violent coup and then stripped citizens of their rights.

Chapter 29 - Offred plays Scrabble in the Commander’s office, she finds the Commander father-
like, and maybe even friendlier than Luke. Still, she wonders the goal of his kindness. He allows her
to read magazines and even books, but tonight she wants to talk to him about himself. Offred
daringly asks him what “Nolite te bastardes carborundorum” means, and writes it for him. The
Commander says it’s only joke Latin, from his schoolboy days; the phrase means “Don’t let the
bastards grind you down.” Offred understands that the previous Handmaid must have learned the
phrase from the Commander who hanged herself. Cora found her, and so Offred understands Cora’s
overreaction when Offred fell asleep in the closet. Offred realizes that the Commander has been
spending time with her to raise her spirits, so she won’t do the same as the previous Handmaid.
Offred says that maybe she shouldn’t come to his office anymore. She realizes that his own guilt is
motivating this kindness. To discourage her leaving, he asks what she wants, and she says she wants
to know what’s happening.

Chapter 30 - At night-time, Offred sits in her bedroom window and looks out over the garden. She
sees Nick and senses her desire for him, not as a substitute for Luke, but as a different individual.
She remembers how she and Luke prepared to escape but someone must have noticed and given
them away; the Eyes were waiting for them. The sense of betrayal is horrific. Offred realises that
she is beginning to forget what Luke and their daughter looked like. Offred decides to pray - not
kneeling on the hard floor, as Aunt Lydia made the Handmaids do, but sitting on the window-seat.
Offred creates her own version of the Lord's Prayer. She wonders whether she can bear to go on
living.

Chapter 31 - It is still summer. Nothing seems to have changed. Offred goes shopping with Ofglen,
and they pass the Wall where two bodies are hanging – both from religious sects disapproved of in
Gilead. As they go past what used to be the University, Ofglen tells Offred that those who are
opposed to the régime in Gilead have a password: ‘Mayday'.When Offred returns to the house, Nick
signals that the Commander wants to see her. Serena Joy is in the garden and suggests to Offred
that, in case the Commander is infertile, Offred should have sexual intercourse with Nick. Although
this would be a capital offence, both Serena Joy and Offred want Offred to conceive a child. Once
Offred has agreed, Serena Joy then says she may be able to get a photograph of Offred's lost
child.Offred is torn between delight at the hope of this and outrage because it means that Serena
Joy has known all the time the whereabouts of Offred's child. As Offred goes into the house, Serena
Joy gives her a cigarette (a forbidden luxury) and tells her to ask Rita for a match.

PAGE 47
Chapter 32 - Offred goes into the kitchen and asks Rita for a match. Then she goes up to her room
to smoke the cigarette - but realises that hiding the match instead of using it would give her a
certain power: she could set fire to the house if she wished. She decides to hide the match in her
mattress. She lies on her bed thinking about conversations with the Commander. He talks to her
about the regime, telling her that the growth of feminism meant that men felt insignificant and also
lost the power to feel. Although he asks her opinion, she knows it is pointless for her to give one.
Lying on her bed, Offred looks up at the circle on the ceiling where the chandelier used to hang,
and thinks about the former Offred who hanged herself. Offred feels she herself is no longer really
living.

Chapter 33 - Offred and Ofglen walk to a women's meeting - a Prayvaganza. They kneel down in an
area reserved for Handmaidens, from where they can see others come in. Janine (Ofwarren) arrives
looking unwell, and with a new partner. Ofglen tells Offred that Janine has been moved to a new
place; her baby was, after all, a ‘shredder', an imperfect child. Offred remembers an incident at the
Red Centre where Janine seemed to be in a trance, and spoke as if she was still a waitress. Moira
slapped her face to bring her round before the Aunts saw her.

Chapter 34 - A Commander comes onto the platform where the Prayvaganza is being held and
speaks to the crowd about thanksgiving for Gilead's victories. Then twenty Angels (members of
Gilead's army) and twenty young girls go through the ceremony of an arranged marriage. Offred
remembers her Commander arguing that young women are better off under such a system in Gilead,
scorning the necessity of love. Offred thinks about another ceremony that sometimes takes place
at a Prayvaganza, in which a former nun, after being tortured, might give up her vows and become
a Handmaid. As this current Prayvaganza continues, the Commander leading it reads words from
the Bible about the need for modesty in women and their subservient role. In contrast, Offred
remembers Moira's deliberately outrageous attitude to the Aunts and feels that only by such
derision can the powers-that-be in Gilead be deflated (mentally if not actively). As they leave the
Prayvaganza, Ofglen tells Offred that it is known to the anti-Gilead rebels that Offred makes secret
visits to the Commander, and tells Offred to use the occasions to glean any information.

Chapter 35 - Offred is back in her room. She remembers the day that she, Luke and their child tried
to cross the border with false passports, which were spotted, so they tried – unsuccessfully – to
escape. Offred then thinks about the Commander's cynical comments about love and its
importance in young women's lives pre-Gilead. Serena Joy knocks and enters with a photograph of
Offred's child which she can look at briefly. She is now three years older than when Offred last saw
her, and wearing a white dress. Offred feels distraught to sense from the picture that the little girl
seems quite contented, as if she has forgotten her mother.

Chapter 36 - It is evening and time for Offred to go to the Commander's study. When she gets there,
he has clearly been drinking and is excited about something. He produces a brief, revealing costume
with feathers decorating it, and asks Offred to put it on. He tells her that he is taking her out, gives
her an old lipstick to use and wraps Serena Joy's blue cloak around her. Nick then drives them past
checkouts to an alleyway where the Commander takes Offred in through a locked doorway to which
he has a key.

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Chapter 37 - The Commander takes Offred into a building which she recognises as having once
been a hotel where she used to go with Luke, when they were having an affair before they were
married. It is full of women in provocative costumes and their male clients. The men choose women
and then go up to the bedrooms to have sex. The Commander calls the place a ‘club' for officers
and senior officials of the Gilead regime, and also for members of visiting trade delegations. He
explains that the women are a mixture of prostitutes from pre-Gilead days and also women who
were professional career-women in, for example, law or commerce, who have been made to work
at Jezebel's to avoid ‘alternatives' – such as ‘The Colonies'. Suddenly Offred sees Moira, who is
wearing a ‘bunny-girl' costume. Eventually Moira notices and recognises Offred, and gives her a
signal to meet in the washroom in five minutes' time.

Chapter 38 - Offred goes to the ‘ladies' room' to meet Moira, who tells her how she escaped from
the Red Centre dressed in Aunt Elizabeth's uniform. Moira describes how she had walked for many
miles, wondering where to go. She then remembered the address of a Quaker couple from her days
with an underground press, and they took her in. They arranged for her to be smuggled north, but
on the final stage of her escape route to Canada she was caught, and taken to an interrogation
centre where she was tortured. Finally she was given the choice of being sent to the Colonies, where
she would die from sorting toxic waste, or to Jezebel's, as a sex worker. She seems resigned to her
situation at Jezebel's, and this attitude from the formerly rebellious Moira shocks and saddens
Offred, who had looked to Moira as an example of someone daring and resistant to the régime.

Chapter 39 - The Commander takes Offred up to one of the bedrooms in the former hotel which
she recognises from her previous visits with Luke. Offred goes into the bathroom and recalls Moira
saying that she saw Offred's mother in a film about life in the Colonies. Offred goes and lies on the
bed alongside the Commander, but she cannot summon up even a pretence of enthusiasm for
having sex with him.

Chapter 40 - After returning with the Commander, Offred waits in her room. At midnight, Serena
Joy arrives to take her to a secret assignation with Nick, as they had arranged. Offred goes up to
Nick's room above the garage and they make love - or at least have sexual intercourse; Offred gives
two different versions of this encounter, and then tells us that neither is accurate.

Chapter 41 - Offred thinks about her relationship with Nick. Instead of just going to his room once,
she now slips out regularly at night to make love with Nick. She thinks she may be expecting his
child. Meanwhile, Ofglen keeps urging her to spy on the Commander and to search his study at
night. However, because of Nick, Offred now feels she no longer wishes to have anything to do with
the resistance group or to escape.

Chapter 42 - A bell tolls to call the women of the area to a district ‘Salvaging' - that is, a public
execution. They arrive at what was the University, where the buildings are now the Headquarters
of the Eyes. The Handmaids have to kneel on red cushions, with a rope on the ground winding past
them, which they must all grasp, to indicate their participation. There are three women to be
executed: two Handmaids and a Wife. Offred wonders what their ‘crimes' were. Aunt Lydia arrives
to conduct the proceedings. As the first of the two Handmaids is hanged, Offred leans forward to
touch the rope, but does not want to look at the actual death.

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Chapter 43 - After all three prisoners have been executed, Aunt Lydia announces that there is to be
a special event in which the Handmaids are to take part. It is a ‘particicution' - an execution in
which they are to participate. A young man, who has clearly been tortured, is dragged in. Aunt
Lydia says that he and an accomplice have raped two Handmaids, one of whom was pregnant and
whose baby died as a result. As the Handmaids surge forward to tear him to pieces, Ofglen kicks
him in the head. She whispers to Offred that he was not a rapist but a member of the underground
resistance whom she has deliberately kicked unconscious to try to spare him some of his terrible
fate. Offred sees other Handmaids, including Janine, smeared with his blood. Back at the house,
Offred feels sick, but also strangely hungry.

Chapter 44 - Later that same day, Offred goes to meet Ofglen, to go shopping, However, the person
she meets is a new Ofglen who has replaced the other. Offred is uncertain about whether she can
trust this new Ofglen, but risks introducing the word ‘Mayday' into their conversation. The new
Ofglen responds by warning Offred to avoid such words, in a way that shows she knows about, but
is not part of, the resistance movement. Offred is terrified to think that she may have betrayed
herself. Just before they part, the new Ofglen whispers to Offred that the old Ofglen hanged herself
that morning, after realising she was to be arrested for kicking unconscious the particicution victim.

Chapter 45 - As Offred reaches the Commander's house, Serena Joy comes out, holding the
sequinned costume and Serena's cloak in which the Commander took Offred to Jezebel's. Serena
has seen lipstick on the cloak and has realised what has happened. She calls Offred a slut and sends
her to her room.

Chapter 46 - Offred sits in her room, wondering what horrible punishment Serena Joy has in mind
for her, and whether she will be handed over to the Eyes. She wonders whether she should try to
escape, or to commit suicide.

Suddenly she hears a black van arrive. Nick comes into her room, followed by two other men. Nick
whispers to her that this is a plan organised by Mayday, and that she can confidently go with the
men. However, she has no way of knowing whether this is true or whether Nick himself is an Eye.

As she is led downstairs, Serena Joy and the Commander are there waiting, wondering why Offred
is being arrested. The men say that Offred has violated state secrets. Offred realises that Serena Joy
has not summoned the Eyes for her, and that the Commander's career will be ruined, and possibly
his life put at risk: If the men are really Eyes, he has allowed his Handmaid to contact a subversive
group. If the men are from Mayday, he will be found to have let his Handmaid escape. Offred goes
out and gets into the black van, not knowing whether she is being arrested or if she is escaping.

The Handmaids Tale Character List

PAGE 50
Offred - The narrator and protagonist of The Handmaid’s Tale. Offred belongs to the class of
Handmaids, fertile women forced to bear children for elite, barren couples. Handmaids show
which Commander owns them by adopting their Commanders’ names, such as Fred, and
preceding them with “Of.” Offred remembers her real name but never reveals it. She no longer
has family or friends, though she has flashbacks to a time in which she had a daughter and a
husband named Luke. The cruel physical and psychological burdens of her daily life in Gilead
torment her and pervade her narrative.

The Commander - The Commander is the head of the household where Offred works as a
Handmaid. He initiates an unorthodox relationship with Offred, secretly playing Scrabble with
her in his study at night. He often seems a decent, well-meaning man, and Offred sometimes
finds that she likes him in spite of herself. He almost seems a victim of Gilead, making the best of
a society he opposes. However, we learn from various clues and from the epilogue that the
Commander was actually involved in designing and establishing Gilead.

Serena Joy - The Commander’s Wife, Serena worked in pre-Gilead days as a gospel singer, then as
an anti-feminist activist and crusader for “traditional values.” In Gilead, she sits at the top of the
female social ladder, yet she is desperately unhappy. Serena’s unhappiness shows that her
restrictive, male-dominated society cannot bring happiness even to its most pampered and
powerful women. Serena jealously guards her claims to status and behaves cruelly toward the
Handmaids in her household.

Moira - Offred’s best friend from college, Moira is a lesbian and a staunch feminist; she embodies
female resourcefulness and independence. Her defiant nature contrasts starkly with the behavior
of the other women in the novel. Rather than passively accept her fate as a Handmaid, she makes
several escape attempts and finally manages to get away from the Red Center. However, she is
caught before she can get out of Gilead. Later, Offred encounters Moira working as a prostitute in
a club for the Commanders. At the club, Moira seems resigned to her fate, which suggests that a
totalitarian society can grind down and crush even the most resourceful and independent people.

Aunt Lydia - The Aunts are the class of women assigned to indoctrinate the Handmaids with the
beliefs of the new society and make them accept their fates. Aunt Lydia works at the “Red Center,”
the re‑education center where Offred and other women go for instruction before becoming
Handmaids. Although she appears only in Offred’s flashbacks, Aunt Lydia and her instructions
haunt Offred in her daily life. Aunt Lydia’s slogans and maxims drum the ideology of the new
society into heads of the women, until even those like Offred, women who do not truly believe in
the ideology, hear Gilead’s words echoing in their heads.

Nick - Nick is a Guardian, a low-level officer of Gilead assigned to the Commander’s home, where
he works as a gardener and chauffeur. He and Offred have a sexual chemistry that they get to
satisfy when Serena Joy orchestrates an encounter between them in an effort to get Offred
pregnant. After sleeping together once, they begin a covert sexual affair. Nick is not just a
Guardian; he may work either as a member of the Eyes, Gilead’s secret police, or as a member of
the underground Mayday resistance, or both. At the end of the novel, Nick orchestrates Offred’s

PAGE 51
escape from the Commander’s home, but we do not know whether he puts her into the hands of
the Eyes or the resistance.

Ofglen - Another Handmaid who is Offred’s shopping partner and a member of the subversive
“Mayday” underground. At the end of the novel, Ofglen is found out, and she hangs herself rather
than face torture and reveal the names of her co-conspirators.

Cora - Cora works as a servant in the Commander’s household. She belongs to the class of
Marthas, infertile women who do not qualify for the high status of Wives and so work in domestic
roles. Cora seems more content with her role than her fellow Martha, Rita. She hopes that Offred
will be able to conceive, because then she will have a hand in raising a child.

Janine - Offred knows Janine from their time at the Red Center. After Janine becomes a
Handmaid, she takes the name Ofwarren. She has a baby, which makes her the envy of all the
other Handmaids in the area, but the baby later turns out to be deformed—an “Unbaby”—and
there are rumors that her doctor fathered the child. Janine is a conformist, always ready to go
along with what Gilead demands of her, and so she endears herself to the Aunts and to all
authority figures. Offred holds Janine in contempt for taking the easy way out.

Luke - In the days before Gilead, Luke had an affair with Offred while he was married to another
woman, then got a divorce and became Offred’s husband. When Gilead comes to power, he
attempts to escape to Canada with Offred and their daughter, but they are captured. He is
separated from Offred, and the couple never see one another again. The kind of love they shared
is prohibited in Gilead, and Offred’s memories of Luke contrast with the regimented, passionless
state of male-female relations in the new society.

Offred’s mother - Offred remembers her mother in flashbacks to her pre-Gilead world—she was a
single parent and a feminist activist. One day during her education at the Red Center, Offred sees
a video of her mother as a young woman, yelling and carrying a banner in an anti-rape march
called Take Back the Night. She embodies everything the architects of Gilead want to stamp out.

Aunt Elizabeth - Aunt Elizabeth is one of the Aunts at the Red Center. Moira attacks her and
steals her Aunt’s uniform during her escape from the Red Center.

Rita - A Martha, or domestic servant, in the Commander’s household. She seems less content
with her lot than Cora, the other Martha working there.

Professor Pieixoto - The guest speaker at the symposium that takes place in the epilogue to The
Handmaid’s Tale. He and another academic, working at a university in the year 2195, transcribed
Offred’s recorded narrative; his lecture details the historical significance of the story that we have
just read.

The Handmaids Tale Quotes

PAGE 52
 "My name isn't Offred, I have another name, which nobody knows because it's forbidden" -
Offred- Characterisation
 "I am 33 years old. I have brown hair. I stand 5'7 with shoes. I find it hard to remember what I
used to look like. I have viable ovaries, I have one more chance." - Offred- Characterisation
 "But what else do we know about her, apart from age some physical characteristics. That could
be anyone." - Offred- Characterisation
 "It's an event, a small defiance of rule, but such moments are the rewards I hold for myself, like
the candy I hoarded as a child." - Offred- Characterisation
 "I think about the laundromat. What I used to wear to them, shorts, jeans, jogging pant. I put
into them my own clothes, my own soap, my own money." - Offred- Characterisation
 "I have been obliterated for her. You can see it in her eyes, I'm not there. I can't bear it to be
erased like this." - Offred- Characterisation
 "She's frightening me now, because what I hear in her voice is indifference, a lack of violation.
Have they really done it to her...taken away something. What? Something that was so central
to her. - Moira-Characterisation
 "I want her to end with something daring, and spectacular, some outrage that would befit her.
But as far as I know that didn't happen." - Moira-Characterisation
 "Think of it from their point of view she said, her hand clasped and wrung together, her nervous
pleading smile." - Aunty Lydia-Characterisation
 "This one is a little plumper than I am. Her eyes are brown. Her name is Ofglen but that's about
all I know about her. She walks demurely, head down, red glove hands clasped in front, with
short little step like a trained pig." - Ofglen-Characterisation
 "When she used to cry about it at night, like the rest of us only more noisily." - Janine/Ofwaren-
Characterisation
 "Her speeches were about how women should stay at home." - Serena Joy- Characterisation
 "She was stuck at home-in a kind of poetic justice." - Serena Joy- Characterisation
 "Behind my back she says, "you could have left me something," Does she love him after all?" -
Serena Joy- Characterisation
 "I feel I was an intruder in a territory that ought to be hers." - Serena Joy- Characterisation
 "Looks like a midwestern bank president." - Commander- Characterisation
 "Make her life bearable to her." - Commander- Characterisation
 "His wife doesn't understand him...It was too banal to be true." - Commander- Characterisation
 "He's too casual, he's not servile enough. It may be stupidity, but I don't think so. Smell fishy
the say, or I smell a rat." - Nick-Characterisation
 "it's the Montreal Satellite station, being block." - Dystopian fiction
 "Up for a little excitement?" - Dysfunctional society- Dystopian Fiction
 "Red, a dark crimson towards the stem, as if they had been cut and are beginning to heal there."
-Imagery and motifs-Flowers
 "I looked at one red smile. The red of the smile is the same as the red of tulips of Serena Joy's
gardens. The red is the same but there is no connection." - Imagery and motifs-Flowers

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 "A shape like mine." - Doubles
 "Doubled, I walk the street" - Doubles
 "She's like my own reflection in a mirror from which I am moving away." - Doubles
 "I see the two of us, a blue shape, a red shape." - Doubles
 "All I can hear is my own heart opening and closing, opening and closing and opening." -
Commander and Offred
 "Aunts using cattle prods and steel cable." "Angels" - Language and power
 "I enjoy the power, the power of a dog bone. passive but there." - Power
 "Established an Identity for her." - Identity
 "The night is mine...the night is my time out" - Identity
 "My name isn't Offred..." she adds, "I tell myself it doesn't matter, but what I tell myself is
wrong." - Identity
 "I want to be held and told my name." - Identity
 "I feel therefore I am known." - Identity
 "One and one and one and one doesn't equal four, each remains unique." - Identity
 "Their heads are zeros...If you look and look, you can see the owner of the features under the
cloth." - Identity
 "I don't want to look at something that determines me so completely." - Gender Roles
 "He doesn't mind this I thought. He doesn't mind it all. Maybe he even likes it. We weren't
each other's anymore. Instead, I am more his." - Gender Roles
 "We are two legged wombs, that's all: sacred vessel." - Gender Roles

The Handmaids Tale Critical

Quotes

PAGE 54
In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood’s pessimism comes to the fore as she attempts to frighten us
into an awareness of our destiny before it’s too late.’ (Globe and Mail, 1985 – early newspaper
review of THT)

"Like George Eliot, she [Atwood] connects women's lives to injustice and to politics generally;
because being a very, very intelligent woman, or being any good sort of woman in our time, did
give you a good sense of the underdog; that is unavoidable for our generation." Carmen Callil,
publisher, 2003

The open-endedness of much of her [Atwood’s] fiction is also a quietly political gesture: she
emphasises moments when people have a choice, and, having sketched out the factors involved in
such choices, and what might be at stake, she suspends the moment of decision. Guardian Profile,
2003

Offred’s storytelling helps her to survive the psychological oppression of Gilead and she even
manages to twist the masculine genre of dystopia into a feminine romance plot by falling in love,
but her narrative ends poised on the edge of the unknown as she steps up into the Black Van.
Carol Ann Howells 2006

The Handmaid’s Tale is ‘an imaginative writer’s response to contemporary situations of cultural
crisis as they suppose what may happen at what Atwood has called ‘definitive moments’ after
which ‘things were never the same again’. Carol Ann Howells 2006

The Handmaid’s Tale ‘explores the consequences which ignoring acts of political expression can
have…the changes that led to the establishment of the Republic of Gilead are subtle put
progressive, and thus ignored by most people. Pilar Somacarrera 2006

SECTION A: CONTEXT
1859 Evolutionary theory (survival of the fittest) presented by Darwin in The Origins of the
Species is published.

1868 The first use of the term dystopia by John Stuart Mill in a parliamentary speech.

PAGE 55
1879 Thomas Edison, an American inventor, introduces the electric bulb, and this
technological development will serve as inspiration for dystopian and utopian writers.

1880 The electric chair is introduced in USA.

This time period also saw the rise of Socialism in Britain

1895 Guglielmo Marconi introduces the telegraph. It represents an important landmark

in the evolution of communication and information technology.

1897 Radioactivity is discovered by Henri Becquerel.

1898 The publication of H. G. Well's novel War of The World, the first novel on an alien
invasion on Earth.

1899 The first modern dystopias, The Story of The Days to Come and When The
Sleepers Wakes by H. G. Well's are published.

1903 The first successful flight in an aeroplane is performed by the Wright brothers.

1909 A manifesto of Filipo Tommaso Marinetti, the Italian poet, introduces Futurism,
controversial art movement.

1914 The European powers engage in the Great War, the first industrialized war.

1915 For the first time, the German army uses chemical weapons in the battle.

1917 A revolution in Russia.

1919 The Bauhaus school, that will influence art and design in a futuristic direction, is
founded in Germany.

1924 The publication of Yevgeni Zamyatin's We, the first totalitarian dystopia.

1925 The Fascists seize power in Italy, implementing the first truly totalitarian system
that USSR will follow.

1926 The first successful television transmission, that will introduce the most effective
mean of mass propaganda and mass marketing, is conducted by John Baird.

Premire of the first serious science fiction and dystopian movie Metropolis, directed by
Fritz Lang.

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1932 Aldous Huxley's Brave New World was published. This novel introduces themes of
scientific concepts: designer drugs, cloning and conditioning.

1936 The Spanish Civil War. The introduction of barbarian war methods by Fascists,
such as air raids against civilian targets in Guernica, where more than one million
people die.

The beginning of Stalin's terror era in USSR, which lasts until 1953.

1938 Radio adaptation of The War of the World by Orson Welles.

1939 World War II starts (ends in 1945)

1942 The Holocaust, The first industrial genocide in human history, is outlined in the
Wanzee conference.

USA constructs the first nuclear reactor for military purposes.

1945 For the first time, USA uses nuclear weapons against human populations in
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Atomic bomb dropped.

1946 The foundation of the United Nations, the first truly global piece organization.

ENIAC, the first official electronic computation machine, is completed in USA. EDSAC,
the first real computer, is completed in Great Britain in 1949.

1949 The publication of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

1950 The philosophical foundation of artificial intelligence is defined by Alan Turing,

called Turing Test.

Also in the 1950’s, Senator Joseph McCarthy leads highly public anti-communist crusade in
the USA

1952 The introduction of the heart pacemaker.

1953 The structure of DNA is unraveled by Watson and Crick

Ray Bradbury's dystopian satire Fahrenheit 451 is published.

1957 Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite, is launched by USSR .

1960s – This era sees the start of the ‘permissive society’ and youth culture (pop music,
fashion, milk bars, drugs, Teddy Boys and juvenile violence).

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1966 The publication of Harry Harrison's over population dystopia Make room, make
room

1967 The performance of the first heart transplant operation.

1968 Stanley Kubrick's and Arthur C. Clark's 2001: A Space Odyssey, that advances the
artificial intelligence.

The publication of Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.

1969 The first expedition on the moon, Apollo 11 is implemented by USA.

The construction of the first primitive computer network in USA, this will entail the
internet, the first global computer network.

1971 Stanley Kubrick's movie A Clockwork Orange is released.

The construction of the Soviet Salyut 1, the first space station.

1975 The first personal computer, Altar 800 is produced. That will influence the
cyberpunk movement.

1979 A fundamentalist revolution in Iran.

Ridley Scott's horror movie Alien is released.

1980s – This era saw the growth of the political ‘Religious Right’ in the United States, which
challenged feminist beliefs.

1981 A new disease, AIDS (although yet not knew by this name)is recognized in USA.

1982 The release of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.

1984 The publication of William Gibson's Neuromancer.

James Cameron's The Terminator is released.

1987 Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is published.

1989 The fall of the Berlin Wall.

1990s – This era saw the rise of reality TV and “TV celebrity” culture (e.g. Big
Brother, Survivor)

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1993 Internet is practically accessible to the public thanks to graphical user interfaces.

1996 - Scientists successfully clone a sheep, Dolly, using somatic cell nuclear transfer
(SCNT)

1999 The Matrix by the Wachowski brothers is released.

2001 The largest terrorist attack in New York.

2003 The first Taikonaut (Chinese Astronaut) is sent into space. Possibly, the event will
mark the beginning of a new space race in future history books.

The publication of Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, a radical renewal of the bio-
engineering horror concept.

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