'The Handmaid's Tale' and Biblical Allusions Quiz

Answer: Rachel gave her maid, Bilhah, to Jacob so that he could have a child by her.

The quote is from Genesis 30:1-3. Jacob married two sisters: Leah and Rachel. Leah was able to have children with Jacob, which made her sister jealous. Rachel suggested that Bilhah could 'bear upon [her] knees' so that Rachel could have children that way. The society that Offred lived in adopted this strategy for reproduction.

Answer: Angels

The Angels were not allowed into the women's areas unless they were called. They faced outwards and they never looked at the women. In the Bible, angels are messengers, like Gabriel who told Mary that she would give birth to Jesus. They also bring destruction.

In Genesis 19, angels were sent to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. The school was renamed the Rachel and Leah Re-education Center, and was where women learned how to be handmaids.

Answer: Yes

The Marthas that Offred lived with in 'The Handmaid's Tale' were called Rita and Cora. Martha was their job title. In Luke 10, Jesus visited the home of Mary and Martha. Mary sat at Jesus' feet and listened to what he was saying. Martha was busy making preparations around the house, and complained that Mary was not helping.

In 'The Handmaid's Tale', the Marthas were cooks and cleaners. They were women who were infertile and could not be handmaids.

Answer: Gilead

In the Bible, Gilead was a place northeast of the Dead Sea. It was where Jacob and Laban camped for a time in Genesis 31, and is mentioned elsewhere in Genesis, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua.

In 'The Handmaid's Tale', the Republic of Gilead replaced the United States of America. Extremist religious groups assassinated the President, members of Congress, and the Justices of the Supreme Court. After the successful coup, the Sons of Jacob established martial law, took property, employment, and rights away from women, and eliminated protesters.

Answer: A club

Jezebel's was a club that defied the morals and laws of Gilead. The women who worked there were given a choice: entertain men at Jezebel's, or face hard labour in the Colonies. Many of the customers at Jezebel's were foreign diplomats and tourists. Some of the Commanders within Gilead, however, went there, too.

Jezebel was married to King Ahab. According to 1 Kings 18:13, she killed God's prophets and tried to convert the national religion of Israel to her own. She also framed Naboth so that he would be executed, and her husband could take his ancestral land. According to Revelation 2:20, she misled people into sexual immorality. The word 'jezebel' has come to mean a promiscuous or immoral woman, like the women at Jezebel's, though theirs is through no real choice.

Answer: Loaves and Fishes

Loaves and Fishes is a reference to Jesus feeding the 5000 in Matthew 14. Another shop was called Milk and Honey - a reference to Exodus where the Israelites were promised a 'land of milk and honey'.

Even the Aunts at the Rachel and Leah Re-education Center were not allowed to read. The women there listened to a recording of a man reading parts of the Bible, though the passages were altered and certain verses were missed out. The women could never check, because access to books was forbidden.

Answer: Long and covered

In 1 Corinthians 11, it said that a woman who 'prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonours her head' (New International Version). Paul went on to say that if a woman has her head uncovered, she may as well have her head shaved. In 'The Handmaid's Tale', this passage was extended to women all of the time, not just during prayer: the women in Gilead always had their hair covered by a veil.

The handmaids also had wings surrounding their face. These were designed to limit their vision, as well as to prevent them from being seen by others.

Answer: grass

Aunt Lydia quoted the New Testament. In Matthew 26, Jesus returned to his disciples and found that they had fallen asleep when he had asked them to keep watch. He said, 'Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.' The true believers in Gilead thought that men and women talking to each other outside marriage was sinful.

Offred, silently, quoted Isaiah 40:6. That verse compares human life to the frailty of grass. Plants wither and die, but God lasts forever.

All Flesh is also the name of the shop where the handmaids buy meat.

Answer: Blessed be the fruit.

The handmaids went shopping in pairs. They were each other's spies, and were accountable for what happened to each other. Offred had to monitor what she said and how she acted because she could never be sure that her partner was not a true believer. One of the handmaids would say 'Blessed be the fruit', and the other would reply with 'May the Lord open'. Whenever they thought that they must agree with a statement, they said 'Praise be'. 'Under his eye' was used both as 'hello' and 'goodbye'. 'Blessed be the fruit' is a line from the Hail Mary prayer ('Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus.'). 'Blessed be' also mirrors the beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. There is a link to Genesis, too. Adam and Eve were told to 'Be fruitful and increase in number'.

The other three quotes are attributed to William Shakespeare.

Answer: Amazing Grace

Offred explained that some songs were considered too dangerous to sing in public, particularly ones that referred to freedom. The actual line is 'Was blind, but now I see'. Offred also referred to Elvis Presely's 'Heartbreak Hotel', another forbidden song.

Although many of the lyrics in 'Amazing Grace' were not directly taken from the Bible, the hymn is about a believer's salvation through God's grace.