1. The End of Atwood & Orwell
Atwood’s ending is better than Orwell’s.
What do we mean by better?
Elicit ideas of dystopian features, draw upon different views of what ‘better’ means – links to the skill of interpreting the statement in the question in the exam.
LO: To explore a range of comparisons between Orwell and Atwood’s endings
To evaluate how far each author’s ending is ‘effective’

2. (Haunted by ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, Margaret Atwood - 2012)
1984: The Start
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him.
The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats. At one end of it a coloured poster, too large for indoor display, had been tacked to the wall. It depicted simply an enormous face, more than a metre wide: the face of a man of about forty-five, with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome features. Winston made for the stairs. It was no use trying the lift. Even at the best of times it was seldom working, and at present the electric current was cut off during daylight hours. It was part of the economy drive in preparation for Hate Week. The flat was seven flights up, and Winston, who was thirty-nine and had a varicose ulcer above his right ankle, went slowly, resting several times on the way. On each landing, opposite the lift-shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran.
1984: The End
‘He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving beast! 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.’
1984: The Author
“…looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally.”
(Orwell, Why I Write, 1947)
THT: The Start
We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, with stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there; the hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone. A balcony ran around the room, for the spectators, and I thought I could smell, faintly like an afterimage, the pungent scent of sweat, shot through with the sweet taint of chewing gum and perfume from the watching girls, felt-skirted as I knew from pictures, later in miniskirts, then pants, then in one earring, spiky green-streaked hair. Dances would have been held there; the music lingered, a palimpsest of unheard sound, style upon style, an undercurrent of drums, a forlorn wail, garlands made of tissue-paper flowers, cardboard devils, a revolving ball of mirrors, powdering the dancers with a snow of light.
There was old sex in the room and loneliness, and expectation, of something without a shape or name. I remember that yearning, for something that was always about to happen and was never the same as the hands that were on us there and then, in the small of the back, or out back, in the parking lot, or in the television room with the sound turned down and only the pictures flickering over lifting flesh.
We yearned for the future….
THT: The End
The Commander puts his hand to his head. What have I been saying, comma, to whom, and which one of his enemies has found out? Possibly he will be a security risk, now. I am above him, looking down; he is shrinking. There have already been purges among them, there will be more. Serena Joy goes white.
“Bitch”, she says, “After all he did for you”.
Cora and Rita press through from the kitchen. Cora has begun to cry. I was her hope, I failed her. Now she will always be childless.
The van waits in the driveway, its double doors stand open. The two of them, one on either side now, take me by the elbows to help me in. Whether this is my end or new beginning I have no way of knowing: I have given myself over into the hands of strangers, because it cant be helped.
And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light.
THT: The Author
“I was perhaps too optimistic to end the Handmaid's story with an outright failure. Even Nineteen Eighty-Four, that darkest of literary visions, does not end with a boot stamping on a human face for ever, or with a broken Winston Smith feeling a drunken love for Big Brother, but with an essay about the regime written in the past tense and in standard English. Similarly, I allowed my Handmaid a possible escape, via Maine and Canada; and I also permitted an epilogue, from the perspective of which both the Handmaid and the world she lived in have receded into history. When asked whether The Handmaid's Tale is about to "come true", I remind myself that there are two futures in the book, and that if the first one comes true, the second one may do so also.”
(Haunted by ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, Margaret Atwood )
Print on A5 – use as a resource to annotate and explore in discussions – pupils should use a whole double page spread in their books.

3. Atwood’s ending is better than Orwell’s.
The End of 1984:
‘He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving beast! 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.’
The End of The Handmaid’s Tale:
‘The Commander puts his hand to his head. What have I been saying, comma, to whom, and which one of his enemies has found out? Possibly he will be a security risk, now. I am above him, looking down; he is shrinking. There have already been purges among them, there will be more. Serena Joy goes white.
“Bitch”, she says, “After all he did for you”.
Cora and Rita press through from the kitchen. Cora has begun to cry. I was her hope, I failed her. Now she will always be childless.
The van waits in the driveway, its double doors stand open. The two of them, one on either side now, take me by the elbows to help me in. Whether this is my end or new beginning I have no way of knowing: I have given myself over into the hands of strangers, because it cant be helped.
And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light.‘
Discuss initial ideas in pairs first. Give each pair either similarities or differences.
Speed date for feedback with different people on differences and similarities – 5 mins
LO: To explore a range of comparisons between Orwell and Atwood’s endings
To evaluate how far each author’s ending is ‘effective’

4. Atwood’s ending is better than Orwell’s.
The End of 1984: “…looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally.” (Orwell, Why I Write, 1947) The End of The Handmaid’s Tale: “I was perhaps too optimistic to end the Handmaid's story with an outright failure. Even Nineteen Eighty-Four, that darkest of literary visions, does not end with a boot stamping on a human face for ever, or with a broken Winston Smith feeling a drunken love for Big Brother, but with an essay about the regime written in the past tense and in standard English. Similarly, I allowed my Handmaid a possible escape, via Maine and Canada; and I also permitted an epilogue, from the perspective of which both the Handmaid and the world she lived in have receded into history. When asked whether The Handmaid's Tale is about to "come true", I remind myself that there are two futures in the book, and that if the first one comes true, the second one may do so also.” (Haunted by ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, Margaret Atwood )
– Amazing article if not seen already
Allow for really detailed whole class discussion of comparisons. Which one is ‘better’ based on what each author says they WANT to achieve?
COULD split class - half as Atwood, other as Orwell - and have 2 most able making connections between what people say in their feedback on the board

5. To evaluate how far each author’s ending is ‘effective’
Imagine your study of 1984 & THT has been one big essay. It’s time for you to write your conclusion…here’s a challenging example:
Atwood's and Orwell's works are certainly different in detail and emphasis, yet they propagate two dehumanizing and unbearably pessimistic dystopian visions, two worlds without love, without freedom, without personal integrity, that is two hopeless and desperate worlds. Their nightmarish future consists in nothing but the repetition of the status quo: in neither society there is a real possibility of progress or development. Winston Smith is personally and morally defeated by totalitarian torture whereas Offred obviously is able to escape from the oppressive fundamentalist republic of Gilead. The two novels, then, are cautionary tales which contain impressive warnings for the future. In both works, we find examples of militant irony, which has been called the essence of satire. In both books, public claims destroy the possibilities for private lives. Therefore it is with good reason that THT has been called "a female 1984". One can only hope that the future does not hold in stock a similar fate for mankind. ‘George Orwell's and Margaret Atwood's Visions of Future Societies in Foreign Language Teaching’ by Willi Real
Discuss how they are doing a final tie together / reflection of the texts
LO: To explore a range of comparisons between Orwell and Atwood’s endings
To evaluate how far each author’s ending is ‘effective’

6. The End of Atwood & Orwell
Atwood’s ending is better than Orwell’s.
Thumbs Up: Agree
Thumbs Down: Disagree
Let’s hear some conclusions from each side…
LO: To explore a range of comparisons between Orwell and Atwood’s endings
To evaluate how far each author’s ending is ‘effective’

7. Atwood's theocratic Gilead
Orwell's totalitarian 1984
patchwork novel, told from the limited perspective of the protagonist
traditional novel told chronologically from an omniscient perspective
Gilead is situated on the territory of the former U.S.A., Harvard, Massachusetts
the novel takes place in London, the capital of Oceania
events refer to the immediate future
events refer to 1984 (cf. title)
fundamentalist, scripture-based state; abuse of religion; theocracy; pollution of the environment, such as nuclear and chemical accidents, toxic waste ...; food supply = a real problem
totalitarian state based on systematic supervision by the state and the political ideology of the Inner Party (fanaticism); Nature deprived of its traditional function; intentional poverty caused by permanent wars (cf. below)
individuals suppressed, e.g. handmaids; no privacy, no self-determination; use of uniforms; re-education in the Red Centres
the Proletarians, called the Proles for short, are said to be subhuman; loss of freedom and individuality, use of uniforms, too
informational policy: permanent wars during which only victories are reported in order to maintain the stability of society
wars in order to solve the problem of overproduction and to keep society intact, i.e. to enhance the people’s will to make sacrifices; cf. "war is peace"
control of people: secret police, the Eyes
supervision by the televisor/Big Brother and the thought police, cf. "ignorance is strength"
retreat into the self; cf. Offred's first-person narration is produced secretly
Winston Smith writing his secret diary (his self revealed by omniscient narration)
existence of secret resistance groups such as Mayday
resistance organized by the socalled Brotherhood
action: Offred's different love relationships; love reduced to state-controlled sexuality; officially Puritan morality; clubs like Jezebel's; handmaids = 'slaves' (sexual hypocrisy)
action: love between Winston and Julia; any love relationship officially unacceptable; hypocrisy of double standards; cf. freedom is slavery
emotional pressure for the protagonist: feeling abject, fearing incrimination of others because of possible torture
Winston on the verge of insanity; use of torture as a means of conditioning, manipulation and re-education
language reduced to denotation; no interaction, no communication; isolation of people; no creative use of language allowed; literature suppressed; Offred's recorded report is a palimpsest
manipulation of language, of thought and the past, which is subject to permanent change: Winston is the author of many palimpsests; literary works trivialized
persecution of minorities/dissidents/rebels: hatred aroused against scapegoats in public executions
Emmanuel Goldstein = official hate figure/scapegoat; Winston and Julia are forced to betray their love by means of torture; only the love of the godlike Big Brother is left
Conclusion: a lot of social inequality; few Commanders, many people, mostly women suppressed; ecological catastrophes; satirical nightmarish vision of the future; dystopian novel
Conclusion: Big Brother and the Inner Party in power; Outer Party = followers; the Proles = suppressed; unbearably gloomy, rigid and pessimistic satire; dystopian novel
A useful additional grid from the previous critic you may want to print for pupils or direct them to on the weblink – some really useful comparisons; might be a good home learning? They can find quotes to support each point?