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Your final essay should be a well-written, substantive essay of 5-7 pages. Choose one of the following topics. If you wish to develop your own topic, you must clear that with me first.
Creative essays will be a little longer (approximately 6-8 pages). Do not use any outside sources for your essay. I am interested in your original thoughts, based on your close reading and analysis of the text(s). Plagiarism will result in a grade of F for the essay, and possibly for the
class.
Creative Essay
1. Swiftian Satire
Swift’s “Modest Proposal” makes the outrageous suggestion of eating Irish babies in order to critique the harsh and abusive poverty imposed on the Irish population by English rule and unfair absentee landlords. Write your own version of “A Modest Proposal,” satirizing or critiquing a current social or political abuse by using Swift’s strategy of an outrageous proposal. Structure your essay as Swift does, sounding serious at first and gradually seeding in the irony. Be sure to suggest possible solutions as Swift does (without seeming to support them) and use at least three of Swift’s ironic rhetorical satiric devices: catalogue, exaggeration, trivialization, false praise (4-5 pages).
Then go on to write a 2-3 page analysis explaining which Swiftian strategies you employed, how you made your decisions, and how you implemented those strategies. (Total: 6-8 pages).
2. Swiftian Fantasy
In Gulliver’s Travels , Gulliver travels to a fantastic land where human beings are satirized as
“Yahoos” who embody the worst and most irrational human traits. For your essay, write an additional journey for Gulliver in which he narrates his travels to our society and observes negative conditions that you wish to satirize. Study Swift’s novel in order to imitate and utilize his style, and use at least three of Swift’s ironic rhetorical satiric devices: catalogue, exaggeration, trivialization, false praise (4-5 pages).
Then go on to write a 2-3 page analysis explaining which Swiftian strategies you employed, how you made your decisions, and how you implemented those strategies. (Total: 6-8 pages).
3. Narrative Closure
Over the years, many readers have been surprised by, or dissatisfied with, the endings of
Fantomina and The Castle of Otranto , contending that both of these narratives end abruptly with a moral or lesson that is imposed on the characters rather than evolving from them. For this assignment, choose one of these narratives and write the ending that seems most appropriate to you. Note that the style of your addition must be congruent with the original text, and the characters’ behavior must be consistent with their actions throughout the novel. Be sure to base your depictions on the characters and their traits as dramatized by their authors (4-5 pages).
Then go on to write a 2-3 page analysis explaining how you made your decisions about character, character development, literary style, and closure, as well as how you implemented those decisions. (Total: 6-8 pages).

Critical Essay
4. Explore the view of love and/or gender in Montagu’s poems “Saturday: The Small Pox,” “The
Lover,” and “Epistle from Mrs. Yonge.” Do you find a consistent view, or does the attitude change from poem to poem? Delineate as clearly as possible how each poem addresses these topics, considering the imagery, style, tone, and specific content. You will need to read each poem attentively to build your case.
5. Different as they are, the protagonists of Oroonoko, Fantomina, and Moll Flanders take on a series of shifting social roles; each character also assumes (or is assigned) different names as he or she journeys through life and enacts a complex narrative. Choose any two of these three characters and compare the theme of identity in each novel. To what extent does each character have a fixed or shifting identity? To what extent do each character’s personality and character traits seem to change based on where s/he is and what s/he is doing? How is each character marginalized or misunderstood by those around him or her? Finally, what seems to be each novel’s view of human identity in general?
6. Both The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano and Oroonoko explore the theme of slavery in relation to Christianity. How does the character Oroonoko view Christianity, and how is it implicated or involved in the Western approach to slaveholding and the institution of slavery? In contrast, how does Equiano, himself a Christian, describe his faith, and how does he employ it to argue against slavery, particularly in the West? In conclusion, what similarities and differences do you find? Note: given that the Equiano excerpt that we read is so much shorter, you may want to use his narrative to introduce the topic, and then offer a longer analysis of Oroonoko .
7. Explore some aspect of gender in our two “gothic” novels, The Castle of Otranto, and the satiric-gothic Northanger Abbey . Consider comparing one of the following topics or themes in both novels: 1) father and mother figures, 2) the role of the heroine, and 3) the view of love. You will need to build an argument about how each novel approaches these themes in different ways.
Your conclusion should sum up differences and similarities in the two texts.
8. To what extent is Moll Flanders’s narrative a serious critique of social institutions, and to what extent is it simply the story of a character who wants to gain power and money for herself, without regard to how social institutions affect others? Build your case for one of these alternatives, using solid evidence drawn from the text. You will need to rely on close textual analysis, including Moll’s experiences in Newgate, her life as a thief, and her struggles with marriage. You need not describe every marriage, only the ones that you think are most important.