This document provides an overview of dystopian fiction and analyzes two classic dystopian novels: George Orwell's 1984 and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. It discusses how both authors drew from real aspects of their contemporary societies to critique and satirize them. The context and key elements of the plots, settings, and characters of 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale are summarized.

1. Dystopian fiction

2. Dystopian novels
• Often set in an imaginary future.
• Aim is to criticise real aspects of current
society
• Satire or warning
• Can be disturbing

3. Wider reading: Dystopian Novels
1. The Chrysalids – John Wyndham
2. A Clockwork Orange- Anthony Burgess
3. The Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins
4. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
5. The Time Machine – H.G. Wells
6. The Running Man – Richard Bachman (Stephen
King)
7. The Children of Men – P.D. James
8. Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
9. A Scanner Darkly; Do Androids Dream of Electric
Sheep- Philip K Dick
10. Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishigura

4. Margaret Atwood
on ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
“One of the tasks I set myself when writing the
novel was to avoid including any practices
which had not already happened somewhere,
at some time. One of the functions of the
Historical Notes is to indicate the origins of
some of the practices described in the novel.
But it is vital to understand that every single
one of the practices described in the novel is
drawn from the historical record.”

5. George Orwell
1984 was written
‘to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society
they should strive after’

6. Social critique
• What aspects of society do Orwell and
Atwood criticise in 1984 and The Handmaid’s
Tale?

7. Fiction and reality
What historical/ contemporary parallels can you think of for the
following elements of The Handmaid’s Tale / 1984?
1) Uniforms denoting your social position?
2) Public execution?
3) Torture?
4) Religious wars?
5) Propaganda and censorship?
6) Resistance movements?
7) An underground railroad?
8) ‘Re-education’?
9) Testifying?
10) Enforced religious conversion?
11) Surveillance and spying?
12) Enforced attendance at certain rituals and ceremonies?
13) Rewriting the past

8. 1984: The Author
• George Orwell, 1903-
1950
• Politically motivated
writer (socialist)
• As well as novels, wrote
numerous articles and
non-fiction pieces.
• Wrote 1984 in 1948.
© 2002 www.teachit.co.uk

9. Context of 1984
• Written in ’48, 3 years after the end of WW2.
• World still in state of uncertainty after the
traumas of war.
• Huge divide emerging between Communist
USSR and capitalist West. Beginning of the
‘Cold War’.
© 2002 www.teachit.co.uk

10. Setting
• The novel is set in a future British society, years after
a nuclear war has occurred.
• Society is split into two groups- Party members and
Proles.
• Every aspect of a Party member’s life is controlled by
the Party- individual freedom does not exist.
• Party members are constantly watched for signs of
disagreement with the party.
© 2002 www.teachit.co.uk

11. Characters
• Winston Smith: the protagonist in the story, a
party member who resents the control the
party exerts.
• Big Brother: the semi-mythical leader of the
Party. Images of his face are omnipresent in
society.
© 2002 www.teachit.co.uk

12. Margaret Atwood
• 1939 – Present
• Canadian novelist and poet
• The Handmaid’s Tale – started writing in 1984
and first published 1985
• Influenced by Orwell
http://
www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jan/18/my-hero-

13. Context of The Handmaid’s Tale
• Strongly feminist vision of dystopia.
• Written shortly after the elections of Ronald
Reagan in the United States and Margaret
Thatcher in Great Britain
• A reaction to religious conservatives who
criticized the excesses of the “sexual
revolution” of the 1960s and 1970s.
• Feminists feared that the gains women had
made in previous decades would be reversed.

14. Setting
• Future society in which birth rates are falling
• Characters are segregated by categories and
dressed according to their social functions.
• Women are categorised hierarchically
according to class status and reproductive
capacity

15. Characters
• Narrator: Offred, a ‘handmaid’ who is illegally
telling her story
• The Eyes : a shadowy figure/organisation of
control

16. Writing Dystopia in 2014
What current issues might be addressed in a
modern dystopian text? Write down as many as
you can think of
•Freedom of information
•Designer babies
•Cloning
•Genetic modification