Christoph Greger

English 46B
Spring 2019

Essay #1
The Task:
Write a polished 4-5 page paper on one or more of the texts we’ve read during the first half of this course.

Prompt:
Identify a theme that you’ve noticed present in one or more of the texts we’ve looked at so far this
semester. Identify the theme, show how it is treated in your text, and explain what it tells you about the
text and the times.

Due Date:

Developing a theme-based analysis:

There are lots of ways to do this. One method involves identifying a single theme and tracing the way it
operates in one or more texts. To do this well, you need to keep the theme pretty specific, focus on
specific evidence present in the texts, and be able to answer the “so what” question (why is the theme
significant?). Consult our handout on “Themes, Images and Ideas in the Restoration and 18 th century” for
ideas about this.

o In identifying a theme you want to work with, start with the text (or aspect of several texts) that
you found the most interesting (the most beautiful, the most alien, the most reprehensible, the
most silly, etc).

o Identify two or three places in the text that you see this theme cropping up. Explain, in each
place, what unique idea is being expressed about (or through) this theme.

o If you’re writing a somewhat longer paper, consider exploring how this theme is treated
differently in another text.

o After you’ve gathered your data, consider the significance of how this theme is treated in the text.
What does it tell you about the text, characters, plot and concerns of the text? How and what
does it help us better understand?

Requirements:
It should be between 4 and 5 pages. Your paper should be long enough to answer your focus question in
a thorough, convincing way. It should use ample and specific evidence from the texts you’re looking at. I
can’t see this happening in less than 4 pages.

You don’t need to do outside research. It MUST be based upon close examinations of specific portions of
texts. In a lit class, a short paper like this must by necessity be a “close reading” style paper.

It should be polished, professional, formatted, etc. MLA format, please.

It should be interesting and, if possible, something you have some fun with!
 Some Themes In Restoration and 18th Century
Literature

Women as protected commodities owned by men:

Roxana; Pamela, letter IX, Wycherley throughout

Female sexual desire (or the lack thereof)

Roxana, Pamela letter XIX, Wycherley 43, Rochester (“Platonic Lady”)

A false feminism, or female economic independence:

Rochester, “A Woman’s honour;” Wycherly IV,i: “the women share all;” Roxana; Hogarth (Moll’s
vain enjoyment of newfound economic freedom.

Moments of narrative breakdown, or in which voices other than the narrator’s compete for control…
or Authors and the struggle to control “real” characters as well as reader’s sympathies:
Pamela, Roxana, (Wycherley?)

Not Really a novel, or, Faking out the readers

Defoe, Richardson, even Wycherley (in his intro), Hogarth

Protestant Work ethic:

Roxana (first husband, Dutch merchant); Hogarth (rake’s progress)

Religious piety vs. economic or sexual imperatives

Roxana; Pamela letters XX and XXIV

Vanity, in both senses of the word: pride and futility

Rochester, “The Imperfect Enjoyment;” Wycherley 29; Roxana

Physical attractiveness, or Woman’s beauty on display as a commodity:

Roxana, Pamela, Wycherly

Messed-up family relationships (brought about by economic imperatives?)

Roxana, Hogarth’s Moll, Pinchwife…

Syphilis
(Hogarth, Rochester’s debauchee, Roxana’s make-up)

Doubles or dual personae:

Roxana/Amy, Roxana/Susan, Sparkish/Pinchwife…

Impotence -- sexual, economic and otherwise.

Rochester (everywhere), Wycherley

Beauty as a beguiling, confusing, and even loathsome trait.

Rochester, “Give me Leave;” Wycherley; Roxana; Pamela

Psychological manipulation through sexual desire

Roxana; Pamela
Self-righteousness and Religious Virtue
Rochester, “A Woman’s Honor;” Wycherly; Roxana

Libertines, Public Honor and Sex (as in, maybe it’s not about the sex…)
Rochester, “A Woman’s Honor;” Wycherley; Roxana

Mobility and tension between social/economic classes:

Roxana, Pamela (everywhere)

The hypocrisies of virtue and sexual desire

Wycherley IV:3; Roxana; Pamela

Woman’s honour:
Wycherly, 5 and 15; Rochester; Roxana, Pamela

Disguises
Wycherley III:1; Roxana; Pamela letter XXIV

Masks
Hogarth’s makeup and death masks; Roxana’s Turkish outfit (and others); Mrs. Pinchwife,
Harcourt & Horner; Rochester, “upon nothing.”

Servants: Jervis, Amy, Hogarth’s Moll’s Maid

Sexual Desire & Lust, pure or colored by other things…

Rochester, A Woman’s Honor; Roxana, Pamela

Men, woman, and the authority of language

Pamela’s facility with writing and speech; Roxana’s writing her life; Pinchwife dictating letters to
his wife; Rochester writing about the Platonic Lady’s sexuality; male authors in general writing
about female perspectives.

Marriage or Mistress: economic considerations

Roxana, 170, 172, 187, 190, 244 Wycherley

Public Persona vs. Private Identity

Rochester, “A Woman’s Honor,” “The Mistress: A Song;” Roxana; Pamela letter XXIV; Wycherley
V:1

City vs. Country, Urban vs. Domestic

Wycherley, throughout; Rochester, “A Song…;” Roxana

Dressing Up (Above or below your station)

Roxana as a Turkish Slave; Pamela in her lady’s finery and her self-made humble clothes; Moll in
“A Harlot’s Progress” gaining and then losing her finery

Manipulation for Gain

Roxana; Pamela

The problematics of men writing for women:

where do we see “male” attitudes coming through? Where does the writing ring false?
Temporary Repentence

Different views on Love

Interesting Servants: in Hogarth, Roxana, and, well, Pamela