View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where is the Commander’s wife’s “territory”?

2. What language does Offred think the message in her room is in Chapter 4?

3. What does the narrator compare “date rape” to?

4. What do the women in the center whisper to each other at night?

5. Where did Moira leave Aunt Elizabeth in Chapter 8?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the Commander act before and during the ceremony in Chapter 6?

2. If Luke is dead in Chapter 7, what happened to him?

3. Why is the narrator in the setting at the opening of the novel?

4. What does Offred’s mother say about her father?

5. Who is the girl in the photograph in Chapter 3, and how does the narrator respond to seeing it?

6. How is Offred’s role different from that of the Commander’s Wife?

7. In what context does Offred see an Econowife?

8. How does the narrator feel about the Commander’s House in Chapter 2? Describe her surroundings as well as her reactions to them.

9. In Chapter 6, how does the Commander pray?

10. What is carved on Offred’s desk at the center? Why is this significant?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Though the novel focuses on Handmaids, other characters, in other roles, also permeate the book. Describe one role in-depth. What are some of the advantages of this role? Disadvantages?

Essay Topic 2

Women and their roles play an overwhelming part in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Is this a feminist work? In what ways might it be considered feminist? Are there indications that it may not be, as well?

Essay Topic 3

Offred seems to be trapped throughout the book, though other characters have different paths. What choices were available to women in Gilead? How do these compare to the choices that men had in determining their fates?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 515 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample