30 pages 1 hour read

Daniel Defoe

A Journal Of The Plague Year

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1722

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Essay Topics

1.

What superstitions do Londoners begin to believe in during the plague? How are these beliefs portrayed in the novel? How do these beliefs contrast with or compare to Christian belief?

2.

How does the narrator evaluate the practice of shutting up houses? How does his opinion change or evolve over the course of the plague, and of the novel? What would he recommend for future generations?

3.

The narrator shares many anecdotes of misery and death, including those that focus on the relationships between children and parents. Choose two such anecdotes and consider what this reveals about parents’ responsibility to their child and about the spread of the plague.