English 2121 critical responses, spring 2010

Note that critical response essays have a 200 word minimum and must be typed. Avoid plot summary or straightforward retelling of "what happens" in the work—see nugget 1.

Format your response according to MLA guidelines for margins, spacing, name, date, etc., headers, etc. as outlined on my "simple stuff" page. Works cited pages are unnecessary for critical responses. Even without works cited pages, do still follow the MLA conventions for documenting quotations as explained in QD1-4 on my quotes and documentation page.

4.1 Due at the final exam, Thursday, December 10: Review the list of readings we've done this semester and in two or more paragraphs, offer your opinion on why any four of the works we've read are still valuable reading for contemporary Americans lo these hundreds of years later. That is, say how or why you think these four particular works contain relevance for modern readers beyond the simple fact of their presentation of different times and cultures in British history.

4.2 Due by midnight Sunday, December 13: follow the link and be as helpfully critical as you can: critical feedback.

1.1 Due Thursday, August 20: Discuss three or more specific qualities that establish Beowulf as an heroic person in the first 835 lines of the poem. Go beyond focusing simply on events: concentrate on the personal qualities or attributes of the character that would be considered heroic in modern circumstances as well as in the time of the poem. For each of the three or more qualities you identify, cite specific lines of the text to support your claims.

1.2 Due Tuesday, August 25: Open assignment. Respond to the second installment of Beowulf however you like, so long as your response is analytical and avoids straightforward plot summary (see nugget 1). Comment on any events or aspects of the poem in pp. 48-77 that strike you as interesting or worthy of note. Quote the poem at least twice in illustration of your claims. For the mechanics of citing poetry, see QD4.

If you want specific guidance, you might focus your response on particular passages that still hold especial relevance for you or for modern readers more generally, lo these many twelve-plus centuries after the poem was written.

1.3 Due Thursday, August 27: Quoting from lines 2200-3182 twice or more to illustrate your claims, explore similarities and differences between the Beowulf we see in the final third of the poem and the much younger man we have seen in the first two days' reading. How is Beowulf "still Beowulf"? How does fifty years of aging seem to have changed "our hero"?

1.4 Due Tuesday, September 1: The Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf presents ideals of heroic tribal behavior as recalled and recorded in the 8th century. Consider how Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a medieval romance written in the late 14th century, suggests different ideals of noble (or chivalrous or knightly) behavior. If Beowulf presents the code of the "heroic pagan warrior," what code of behavior does the first half of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight seem to recommend as admirable? Quote the poem at least twice in your response. For the mechanics of citing poetry, see QD4.

1.5 Due Thursday, September 3: Open assignment: respond to the second half of Gawain in whatever analytical fashion you like, so long as you avoid plot summary (see nugget 1). What strikes you as interesting or noteworthy in the last two parts of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight? Quote the poem at least twice in your response, following the mechanics of citing poetry set forth in QD4.

If you prefer a more specific approach, consider whether there may be some moral message for the reader in Gawain's performance on the "test" the Green Knight provides for him. Does Gawain live up to his chivalric, "courtly" ideals? Are his ideals responsible for his ultimate predicament (and/or fate) in different ways beyond the simple fact of his accepting the Green Knight's challenge? Explain.

1.6 Due Tuesday, September 8: Purely open assignment. Respond with analytical commentary on anything you find important, interesting, or thought-provoking in the "General Prologue" of The Canterbury Tales. Avoid plot summary, and quote the prologue at least three times.

1.7 Due Thursday, September 10 : What significance do you find in "The Miller's Tale" beyond its lewd and vulgar humor? Is Chaucer merely having fun in this story? Is there any serious social commentary about Chaucer's England in this funny, bawdy tale? What in this tale is universal? What statement(s) does this story make about the human condition? About the nature of men and women, together or separately? Explore any of these issues, and any others that suggest significance in the story beyond its obvious humor.

1.8 Due Tuesday, September 15: Comment on Chaucer's depiction of women as suggested by the Wife of Bath's prologue and tale. Is the Wife of Bath something of a prototypical feminist? Is Chaucer's presentation of her "antifeminist"? Explore, quoting the prologue and/or tale at least three times in your discussion.

1.9 Due Thursday, September 17: In "The Pardoner's Tale" Chaucer delivers a fairly straightforward theme or "moral." Explain how this theme has particular relevance in American life today. Or as an alternative, you might broaden the discussion to include the Pardoner's prologue: how is there relevance today in the character of the Pardoner himself? Include at least two quotations to support your observations.

2.1 Due Thursday, September 24: What relevance might religious people today find in the selections we're reading in either or both Piers Plowman and The Book of Margery Kempe? Include at least three quotations to support your observations.

2.2 Due Tuesday, September 29: Address one option only, not both:
a) Basing your response on quotations from three or more of the different sections of Morte Darthur excerpted in our Norton text, explain your interpretation of Malory's apparent attitude towards Lancelot. Does Malory seem to admire Sir Lancelot? Does he seem to condemn the knight? Does Malory seem saddened by Lancelot's plight or fate? Does his attitude towards Lancelot change or vary between different segments? Explore these questions and any aspects of the reading that strike you as indicating the author's attitude towards his character, Sir Lancelot. Note that the three quotes (at least three) must come from three different segments of the four divisions in the text.

b) Compare and contrast the depiction of Arthur's kingdom in Malory's Morte Darthur and that in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: identify both similarities and differences. Quote Morte Darthur at least three times.

2.3 Due Thursday, October 1: Open assignment: respond to Dr. Faustus in whatever analytical fashion you like. Avoid plot summary and include at least three quotations from the play in your discussion.

2.4 Due Tuesday, October 6: Choose one, not both:
a) Discuss the portrayal of sex, love, and/or gender in the first third of the play, including at least three quotations from different scenes to illustrate your claims.

b) Discuss Shakespeare's humor in this day's reading. Point out what is funny in the play, of course, but also consider why it's funny in each case. Also look for and comment on different types of humor, different methods, different purposes of the comic if you can. Include at least three quotations to illustrate each main point of analysis.

2.5 Due Tuesday, October 13: Choose one, not both:
a) Discuss further the portrayal of sex, love, and/or gender as these concerns unfold in the second third of the play, including at least three quotations from the day's reading (2.4-3.4) to illustrate your observations.

b) Open assignment: respond with analytical observations on anything that strikes you as interesting or significant in Act 2, Scene 4 through Act 3, Scene 4, including at least three quotes for illustration. Avoid plot summary.

2.6 Due Thursday, October 15: Choose one, not both:
a) Discuss ways the conclusion, in terms of plot and/or themes, is either satisfying—or not. That is, how does the working out in the last two acts of all the complications and problems provide satisfying closure to the play? Any ways the wrapping up of complications is not satisfying? Too pat, too simple, too predictable, too far-fetched? Discuss. Regarding themes: how do Acts 4-5 provide further comment on any of the play's central themes, and are these comments effective, satisfying, appropriate? Do they offer significant "final statements" regarding any of the themes explored throughout the play? Explain. . . .

b) Discuss anything that strikes you as significant or interesting with Malvolio or Feste in Acts 4-5. Include at least three quotations to support your claims (see QD4vd).

2.7 Due Tuesday, October 20: Attend the Wesleyan College production of Twelfth Night October 15th, 16th or 17th and comment on how seeing the live performance changed your perception of the play's themes on love, gender, friendship, or madness. You might also consider whether you thought the all-female cast changed your perception of the play or its themes in any respect. Finally, would you recommend seeing this production to a friend who is not currently taking any English classes? Explain. . . .

2.8 Due Tuesday, October 20: How does Shakespeare present the young Henry V, famously a "wild man" in his youth (in 1 Henry IV), as a much wiser and more mature man in the first two acts of Henry V? How is he now very clearly a thoughtful, worthy, and effective ruler? Include at least three quotations to illustrate your observations (see QD4vd).

2.9 Due Thursday, October 22: Address one option only, not both:
a) Focusing specifically on Act 3, Scene 1 and Act 3, Scene 3, explore Shakespeare's commentary on the nature of war through Henry's speeches to his men (3.1) and the enemy (3.3). Probe these two speeches closely, and quote each scene at least twice in your discussion (see QD4vd).

b) Explore Shakespeare's depiction of the burden of leadership in Act 4, Scene 1. Think of the "king vs. man" duality, and quote the scene at least three times in your response (see QD4vd).

2.10 Due Tuesday, October 27: Two parts: do both. In separate paragraphs, quoting from the text at least twice in each part, a) Respond to the king's speech urging his men to battle in Act 4, Scene 3, lines 18-67: how does he encourage them? If you were a soldier serving under such a leader, would you find his argument persuasive? Explain. b) Consider the king's wooing of Princess Katharine in Act 5, Scene 2: how does he show the mixture of "ruler" and "man" in this scene? Do you think he is personally sincere, as a man, in his "winning" of the French princess? Explain (see QD4vd).

2.11 Due Thursday, October 29: Choose one, not both:
a) Give a close, line-by-line (or nearly so) explication of any two poems from this week's reading. You may examine only one poem if it's longer than thirty lines. Translate or paraphrase the substance of the lines into your own language, and explain the essential message of the poem.

b) After reading all the poems assigned for this unit, pick the two that strike you as most powerful or effective in communicating their essential "point" or "message" and explain what makes them so powerful or effective. Quote from each poem at least twice to illustrate your claims.

3.1 Due Thursday, November 5: Choose one, not both:
a) Whether or not we are Christian, whether or not we believe in hell, we are all quite familiar with the concepts of Lucifer/Satan and hell. How does Milton's opening description in Paradise Lost of Satan, hell, and its first occupants resemble and/or differ from your own conception of them (or from how you think Christian believers generally conceive them)? Quote from Book 1 at least twice to illustrate your claims.

b) Open assignment: respond analytically to anything that strikes you as interesting or noteworthy in Books 1 and 2 of Paradise Lost. Avoid plot summary, and quote from both Book 1 at least twice each in your discussion.

3.2 Due Tuesday, November 10: Discuss the primary arguments of at least two of the different speakers in the council debate in Book 2 on how the devils should proceed against God. Include the views of at least two of the following: Moloch, Belial, Mammon, Beelzebub, and Satan. Offer at least one quote from each speaker you discuss (see QD4, and especially QD4mp).

3.3 Due Thursday, November 12: Choose one—do not address both:
a) Discuss Adam's responsibility for his own fall from Paradise in Book 9 of Paradise Lost . The bible and two thousand years of tradition blame woman for the fall, but in what different ways is Milton's Adam just as much to blame as Eve? Quote Book 9 at least three times in your discussion (see QD4, and especially QD4mp).

b) Open assignment on Book 9: respond analytically to anything that strikes you as interesting or noteworthy in Book 9 of Paradise Lost. Avoid plot summary, and quote from Book 9 at least three times in your discussion (see QD4, and especially QD4mp).

3.4 Due Tuesday, November 17: Choose one—do not address both:
a) Compare and contrast the two halves of the novel: how do the parts set in Africa and Surinam seem to be two separate stories entirely, especially in the tone or atmosphere pervading each? On the other hand, how do the two halves of the novel work together very effectively in one cohesive whole?

b) Discuss different ways Oroonoko both resembles and seems strikingly different from more modern novels (as a genre, not necessarily specific novels). Offer at least three quotations from Oroonoko to substantiate your claims.

3.5 Due Thursday, November 19: From its first publication, Gulliver's Travels has delighted readers of all ages. Two things (address both):a) Explain why Part I of Gulliver might be so appealing to children, quoting the text at least twice in illustration of your claims; and b) Adult audiences have found Swift's satire of human behavior through the Lilliputians highly entertaining as well. Quoting the text at least twice to illustrate your claims, explain how Swift uses the Lilliputians to mock and criticize his own English society (or humankind more generally) in more sophisticated or "adult" fashion. For the second part especially, you might consider how the Lilliputians' size is important to Swift's satirical message.

3.6 Due Tuesday, November 24: In Part II of Gulliver's Travels, the Brobdingnag king says, after hearing Gulliver's description of various European customs, "I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth." Respond to the king's assessment of "enlightened" European life: how is Swift harshly critical of British and/or European nations and peoples in Part II of Gulliver? Include at least three quotations in your discussion.

3.7 Due Tuesday, December 1: Open assignment: avoiding plot summary, respond in whatever analytical fashion you like to the excerpts of Part III of Gulliver's Travels included in our Norton text. Include at least three quotations from the day's reading.

3.8 Due Thursday, December 3: Discuss Swift's scathing commentary on the human race in Part IV of Gulliver's Travels: identify specific targets of Swift's disgust, and offer at least four quotes to illustrate your claims.