Final Project

Long Essay – Option 5

She Stoops to Conquer: Conspicuous Consumption and Its Relation to Gender and Courtship

In Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer, the author addresses conspicuous consumption through Mrs. Dorothy Hardcastle and Miss Kate Hardcastle. Therefore, I will argue that the women’s gender determines the ways they conspicuously consume, express, and leisure via close readings of Mrs. Hardcastle’s desire to travel and her want of fashion, as well as Miss Hardcastle’s decision to put aside her class to achieve her three goals with Mr. Marlow.

Long Essay – Option 3

The History of Mary Prince: The Literarily Constructed Role of the Body and Its Relation to Gender, Possession, and Permissibility 

In Mary Prince’s The History of Mary Prince, the body functions as an exploitable tool that Mary is constantly attempting to reappropriate. Therefore, I will argue that in her narrative, Mary’s body is constructed as a tool which is restricted by her gender, that she is accessed and possessed more frequently by others than herself, and that her story represents actions thought to be permissible; furthermore, via an analysis of the format and publication of her narrative, I will show how her narrative has been literarily constructed in a somewhat misleading way.

Short Essay – Option 3

Prompt

Please consider the following question regarding Olaudah Equiano and/or Mary Prince: Did s/he lose her/his original spirituality, or did Equiano/Prince adopt a Christian religion?  In order to answer this question please choose one specific example to structure your answer around.

 

Short Essay – Option 2

Prompt

What is the significance of Tobias Smollet naming his book after a character that appears to be as insignificant as Humphry Clinker? What point, if any, is Smollet trying to get across by doing so? Please be sure to consider the following terms as you construct your answer: Epistolary form, representation, mediation, consumption, etc.

 

Short Essay – Option 1

Prompt

Swift’s “The Lady’s Dressing Room” concludes: “Such order from confusion sprung/ Such gaudy tulips from such dung.” Please make an argument regarding the nature of this final couplet. What conclusions and/or arguments can you draw to the larger poem?