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English 3700 critical response topics, spring 2026

Recall from the syllabus that you are required to address five critical responses over the term, so you need not do every topic assigned.

Critical responses have a 250 word minimum (in the body of the response, excluding name, date, header, etc.): responses shorter than 200 words cannot pass. 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, although do still follow the MLA conventions for documenting quotations as explained on my quotations page.

1.4 Due Friday, February 6th: Address one, not more than one:  
a) Discuss two specific moments of "crisis" or "dramatic complication," points where we might say "the plot thickens dramatically," in Pride and Prejudice's chapters 35-61. Describe exactly what the complication is and explain how it pulls the reader deeper into the story. Include at least two quotations from each situation to illustrate your observations.

b) Discuss Elizabeth's and/or Darcy's maturation or growth following Darcy's rejected proposal of marriage. What important lessons does either or both learn, and how are these lessons likely to change their characters? You might also discuss growth or significant positive change in other characters as well. Include quotations from at least three different chapters to illustrate your claims.

c) Point out and discuss any two passages of a paragraph or more in length from the novel's last fifteen chapters that are particularly significant in illuminating or illustrating important aspects of the personality of any two of the following: any member(s) of the Bennet family (other than Lizzie), Lady Catherine, or any of the Bingley bunch. Explain what important insights into each character the different passages reveal.

On deck:

1.5 Due Saturday, February 14th: TBA

Previous critical response topics—no longer valid for submission:

1.1 Due Saturday, January 24th: choose one, do not address both:  
a) Discuss the most striking formal, technical features that "date" Moll Flanders. That is, focusing on the first half of the novel, and aside from matters of content and fundamental differences in language between 18th-century English and our American English today, how is Moll Flanders different from most contemporary fiction?  Include at least three quotations to illustrate your observations.

b) Analyze Defoe's portrayal of a convincingly credible world peopled by believable characters in the first half of the book. Include at least three quotations to illustrate your claims.

1.2 Due Saturday, January 24th: address one, not both:
a) Some fiction is concerned primarily with external description of characters, places, events, etc. (action and adventure novels, for instance); at the other extreme is fiction dealing more exclusively with the internal psychology of the main character(s). Is Moll Flanders more internal or external in orientation? Quote three or more passages from the book's second half to support your claims.

b) Consider Moll's resolution at the end of the novel, that she and her husband will spend the rest of their lives in "Sincere Penitence, for the wicked Lives we have lived." Do you believe Moll's contrition is genuine? Why, or why not?  Further, does Defoe seem ultimately more concerned with moral instruction truly, or with tantalizing sensationalism that may help book sales?  Explain.

1.3 Due Saturday, January 31st: choose one, do not address both:
a) Which character or characters do you find most interesting in the opening 15-20 chapters of Pride and Prejudice? Do you care about Austen's character(s) more or less than you did Defoe's Moll Flanders? Why? How is Austen different from Defoe in presenting and developing characters? Explain, quoting from at least three separate chapters to illustrate your claims.

b) Focusing only on chapters 1-34, discuss Austen's satire or mockery of specific situations, characters, or character-types. Quote from at least three different chapters (with one between 20 and 30) to illustrate your claims.