The conclusion of The French Lieutenant's Woman is one of the most discussed in modern fiction, and it makes for a rich essay prompt. Fowles offers more than one resolution to the relationship between Charles and Sarah, and the narrator even appears to decide among them in a manner that draws attention to its arbitrariness. Students are usually eager to argue for a favorite, but eagerness does not guarantee a strong essay.

The grading problem is that the prompt invites opinion, and teachers do not want to reward or penalize students for agreeing with them. What you are really assessing is the quality of the reasoning, the use of the text, and the student's grasp of why Fowles chose to withhold a single answer. A rubric should make this explicit so that a well-defended unpopular reading earns the same credit as a conventional one.

Begin by deciding what the assignment is truly testing. If the goal is close reading, the rubric should weight textual evidence heavily. If the goal is thematic argument, it should reward the student who ties the endings to the novel's concerns with freedom, choice, and the artificiality of narrative closure.

Criteria That Reward Reasoning Over Preference

A useful criterion is whether the student acknowledges the strongest case against their own position. An essay arguing that the final ending is the most honest should engage with why another ending might seem more satisfying to readers, and then explain why that satisfaction is what Fowles wants us to question. Essays that ignore the alternatives usually read as assertions rather than arguments.

• A clear claim about what the endings collectively accomplish, not just which one the student likes
• Close attention to the language of at least two of the endings
• Explanation of the narrator's role in presenting and framing the options
• Connection to the novel's treatment of freedom for both Charles and Sarah
• Fair handling of readings that differ from the student's own

Scoring Levels That Teachers Can Actually Apply

For the top level, describe an essay that makes a specific claim about the function of the multiple endings and supports it with evidence from the final chapters and the narrator's commentary. For the middle level, describe an essay that summarizes the endings accurately and states a preference but only loosely connects it to the rest of the novel. For the lowest level, describe an essay that retells the plot with little analysis.

These descriptors give students a path to improvement because each level points to the next. A student stuck at the middle level can see that the missing piece is a stronger link between their preference and the novel's larger concerns. That clarity reduces the number of grade disputes teachers have to handle.

Avoiding Bias When You Have a Favorite Ending

Every teacher who has taught this book has an opinion about the ending, and that opinion can leak into grading. One way to counter this is to grade against the rubric first and only then reflect on whether your own view influenced the score. Another is to have a colleague or a grading tool apply the same criteria to a sample set and compare results.

Using consistent written criteria is especially valuable here because it keeps attention on the quality of the argument. When a student defends a reading you disagree with, the rubric reminds you to ask whether the evidence supports it, not whether it matches yours. That discipline is part of teaching students that literary interpretation is about reasons.

Making the Prompt Itself Better

The prompt wording shapes the essays you receive. Asking "Which ending is best?" tends to produce opinion pieces, while asking "What does Fowles accomplish by offering multiple endings?" pushes students toward analysis of technique and theme. Small changes like this one make grading easier because the responses are already pointed at what you want to assess.

After the first round, review where students struggled and adjust the prompt or add a scaffold, such as a short pre-writing exercise comparing two endings line by line. Over time you will collect a prompt, a rubric, and a set of samples that work well together. That bundle makes each year's grading faster and the feedback more useful.