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Trotter’s works are acknowledged for often having a sense of moral seriousness. During the 1960’s Trotter’s first play somewhat sexual for the time period, which would have been considered scandalous. In her writings, Trotter often questioned the religious, social, and sexual restrictions of society, which leads modern day feminist research to further study Trotter and her impact on the social culture of the time period. It is said that Trotter is best known for her anonymously published philosophical response, A Defense of the “Essay of Human Understanding”. Within this response, Trotter highly favors and supports John Locke’s theory of knowledge. Within Locke’s letter to Trotter regarding her response, he states “but reduced me also absolutely under your power, and left no desires more strong in me, than those of meeting with some opportunity, to assure you, with what respect and submission I am, Madam, your most humble, and most obedient servant.” Locke was highly fond of Trotter and he even presented her with money and gifts. He apologized within his letter because he “pulled off [her] mask by force” and exposed her authorship of the publication. Trotter’s publication of the philosophical response garnered much attention from her peers such as Elizabeth Burnet, who wrote that she was both “satisfied and pleased” with Trotter’s work and even thanked Trotter for sending her a copy.

Trotter also was negatively viewed by her peer Delarivier Manley. Manley portrays this through the novella The Adventures of Rivella. Within the story, Manley includes Catharine Trotter through the character Calista. Manley writes that “Calista who was the most of a prude in her outward professions, and the least of it in her inward practice” and continues to portray Calista in a negative light because Rivella and Calista love the same man. However, Delarivier did not stop there with her character assassination of Trotter. Delarivier also wrote The New Atlantis in which she portrayed Trotter as a hypocrite through the character Daphne. Granted, this backlash could quite possibly have been provoked by Trotter’s disapproval of Manley’s writings and her immoral actions.

Although Trotter had her fair share of criticism, she was also highly favored by many, including Thomas Birch. Birch wrote Life of Mrs. Catharine Cockburn and within this writing he emphasizes Trotter’s character and morality by stating her “her conversation was always innocent, useful, and agreeable, without the least affection of being thought a wit.” The use of the word “wit ” is said to be a redeeming comment, referring to The Female Wits. This emphasizes the impact the satire had on Trotter’s image, from someone in the 18th century who admired her so much and knew a large amount about her.

A notable piece of Trotter's works that are currently acknowledged as being apart of early feminism is her use of portraying the female thought and conscious within her plays. It was unusual during the time to value the thoughts and conscious of females and Trotter even gave her audience "a glimpse of a powerful subjectivity" by giving her characters a strong expression of identity. Trotter's introduction of the concept of of "conscious worth" was a new subject position within literature. Many of Trotter's plays also considered the limited roles that women had in the eighteenth century society and Trotter often focused heavily on female's roles within marriage. Trotter's questioning of the religious, social, and sexual restrictions of society has caused her to be included as an early feminist writer. Trotter has been researched as such since the feminism movement began in the 1960s by many notable women whom study literature such as Paula R. Backscheider, Mihoko Suzuki, and Laurie A. Finke. Suzuki states that Trotter used political female characters and praises her for the use of women's involvement in politics, even though Trotter was warned that using such a narrative could harm the success of the play. Suzuki classifies Trotter as a politically influential female writer of the eighteenth century. All of the previously mentioned aspects of questioning societal female roles and portraying her female characters in a unique way cause for Trotter to be currently considered a strong pro-feminist writer of the eighteenth century.