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119 free The Handmaid's Tale trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
50 free The Handmaid's Tale trivia questions with answers. Are you a devoted fan of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale? Put your knowledge to the test with our comprehensive trivia quiz covering characters, storylines, and unforgettable moments from the novel and acclaimed TV adaptation. Whether you're familiar with Gilead from the books or the Hulu series, discover how well you really know this dystopian masterpiece.
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Q 01Who wrote the dystopian novel 'The Handmaid's Tale'?
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood, the Canadian poet and novelist born in 1939, wrote The Handmaid's Tale in 1984-85; it became her best-known work and has never been out of print.
Q 02In what fictional republic is 'The Handmaid's Tale' primarily set?
Gilead
Gilead is a totalitarian religious state that has overthrown the United States government.
Q 03What is the primary color of the uniform worn by Handmaids in Gilead?
Red
Handmaids are distinguished by their ankle-length red dresses and white headgear, which symbolizes fertility and makes them conspicuous.
Q 04Which name whispered in The Handmaid's Tale's prologue do many readers infer to be Offred's real one?
June
June is the one whispered name that never reappears attached to another character, and the TV adaptation made it official.
Q 05What job do Gilead's brown-clad 'Aunts' perform?
To train and indoctrinate Handmaids
To train and indoctrinate Handmaids is the Aunts' role, which is why they are the only women in Gilead permitted to read and write.
Q 06What activity does the Commander secretly engage in with Offred that is forbidden for women?
Playing Scrabble
Playing Scrabble is the forbidden pastime: women in Gilead may not read, so the word games in the Commander's study are a real transgression, rewarded with old magazines and hand lotion.
Q 07What does Gilead call the infertile or disobedient women it ships to the Colonies?
Unwomen
Nuns who refuse to convert are given the label too, because they will not marry or bear children.
Q 08In The Handmaid's Tale, Offred's shopping partner Ofglen belongs to which underground resistance network working to overthrow Gilead?
Mayday
Mayday is the underground network Ofglen reveals herself to be part of, working to overthrow Gilead's government.
Q 09Before the formation of Gilead, what was Serena Joy's public role?
A televangelist
A televangelist: in the novel Serena Joy sang lead soprano on the Growing Souls Gospel Hour, then toured making speeches about women staying home, a rule Gilead later imposed on her.
Q 10What is the meaning of the Latin phrase 'Nolite te bastardes carborundorum' found by Offred?
Don't let them grind you down
Don't let them grind you down: the mock Latin means 'don't let the bastards grind you down', a schoolboy joke scratched in Offred's cupboard by the previous Handmaid, who learned it from the Commander.
Q 11What year was Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' first published?
1985
1985 is the year McClelland and Stewart published The Handmaid's Tale in Canada; the Houghton Mifflin US edition followed in 1986.
Q 12What does Gilead call the women who cook and clean in Commanders' households?
Marthas
Marthas are older, infertile and compliant women with domestic skills: the profile Gilead deems suitable for a Commander's home.
Q 13Which biblical story is often cited to justify the role of Handmaids in Gilead?
Rachel and Bilhah
Leah follows suit with her own handmaid Zilpah, and Gilead reads both Genesis stories as licence for the arrangement.
Q 21What is the role of 'Econowives' in Gilead?
Wives of lower-ranking, non-elite men
Wives of lower-ranking, non-elite men: Econowives are married to Gilead's poorer men and must be Wife, Martha and Handmaid at once, with no servants of their own.
Q 22In The Handmaid's Tale, which character, the Commander's driver, does Serena Joy push Offred towards when she suspects her husband is sterile?
Nick
Nick is the Commander's personal driver; Serena arranges for Offred to sleep with him, and at the end he tells her to trust him and get into the van.
Q 23Announced in 2018 and published in 2019, what is Margaret Atwood's sequel to The Handmaid's Tale called?
Q 14What color uniform do the 'Wives' of Commanders wear?
Blue
Blue is the Wives' colour, a nod to the Virgin Mary's traditional blue robes in Christian art; Serena Joy wears it throughout the novel.
Q 15What is the name of Offred's best friend from before Gilead?
Moira
She escapes the indoctrination centre by stealing an Aunt's pass and clothes, and Offred later finds her working in a state-run brothel.
Q 16What is the primary reason for the strict social stratification and control over women in Gilead?
To combat mass infertility
To combat mass infertility: Gilead's birth rate has collapsed, which Atwood ties to radiation, chemical pollution and sexually transmitted disease, so fertile women are conscripted as Handmaids.
Q 17What does Gilead call the ritual in which Handmaids are incited to beat a condemned man to death?
Particicution
Particicution closes the Women's Salvaging: Aunt Lydia blows a whistle and the Handmaids tear the man apart; Ofglen whispers that he was no rapist but a Mayday political.
Q 18What colour do the cooks and maids in Commanders' households wear?
Green
Green is the Marthas' colour, the dull green of a surgeon's gown; the name comes from Luke's Gospel, where Martha busies herself with housework while Mary listens to Jesus.
Q 19In The Handmaid's Tale, Aunt Lydia runs which facility, where women are re-educated for life as Handmaids?
The Red Center
The Red Center is where Aunt Lydia, whose pithy pronouncements punctuate the whole narrative, instructs women for a life as a Handmaid.
Q 20What does the phrase 'Under His Eye' signify in Gilead?
A warning that all is watched
A warning that all is watched: 'Under His Eye' is Gilead's standard farewell, a reminder that God and the Eyes see everything, so citizens police themselves.
The Testaments
The Testaments reveals that Aunt Lydia had been quietly aiding the resistance all along.
Q 24Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is best known for exploring which theme?
Women's subjugation and lost autonomy
Women's subjugation and lost autonomy under a patriarchal regime is the novel's core; Atwood has called it a study of power and how it deforms the people living inside it.
Q 25In the book, what is the fate of the first Ofglen encountered by Offred?
She kills herself before arrest
She kills herself before arrest: the new Ofglen tells Offred her predecessor hanged herself when she saw the black van coming for her, rather than be taken and interrogated.
Q 26What is the primary function of the 'Eyes of the Lord' in Gilead?
To act as secret police and spies
To act as secret police and spies: the Eyes of the Lord are Gilead's plain-clothes intelligence agency, hauling suspects away in black vans marked with a winged-eye emblem.
Q 27What are the women forced to work in Gilead's secret, state-sanctioned brothels called?
Jezebels
Jezebels is Gilead's name for the women staffing its clandestine club and brothel, where Commanders entertain foreign trade delegations; unlike other women they may drink and wear make-up.
Q 28The novel is set in the former Harvard Square area of which Massachusetts city?
Cambridge
Cambridge: Offred's shopping walks pass Harvard Yard and the old Harvard Square shops, streets Atwood knew from her own graduate years at Harvard.
Q 29What is the term for a public display of executed individuals in Gilead?
The Wall
The Wall, the old Harvard wall, is where bodies are hung with bags over their heads and placards naming the crime, from abortion doctors to priests who would not convert.
Q 30In the Hulu series, what is the name of June's daughter, taken from her when the family is caught fleeing?
Hannah
Hannah is the name the Hulu series gives June and Luke's daughter, seized when the family is caught fleeing for the Canadian border; in the novel the child is never named.