English 3700 critical responses, spring 2026

Note that critical response essays have a 250 word minimum and must be typed and turned in printed in hard copy: responses shorter than 250 words will not 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. Note that I will not accept critical responses that have any errors in document formatting: responses submitted with any "simple stuff" errors in formatting will be returned to you ungraded, and you will have to fix the errors and resubmit your work to get credit for it. Works cited pages are unnecessary for critical responses unless you are using an edition of the novel other than the one ordered for the class and listed on the syllabus. Even without works cited pages, do still follow the MLA conventions for documenting quotations as explained in Q1-3 on my quotations page.

1.1 Due tba: choose one, do not address both:
a)Discuss the most striking formal, technical features that "date" Moll Flanders. That is, aside from matters of content and fundamental differences in language between 18th-century English and our American English of the 21st century, 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 credible, believable world peopled by credible, believable characters in the book's first seventy-five pages. Include at least three quotations to illustrate your claims.

1.2 Due tba: 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 our reading (pp. 74-160) 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.