English Literature MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions) - Schoolingaxis.com

English Literature MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions)

 Que- Which ruler's reign marks the approximate beginning and end of the Victorian era ? 

a. King Henry VIII  

b. Queen Elizabeth I  

c. Queen Victoria  

d. King John 


Answer- Queen Victoria


Que- For what do Matthew Arnold's moral investment in nonfiction and Walter Pater's aesthetic investment together pave the way ? 

a. a renewed secularism in the twentieth century  

b. modern literary criticism  

c. late "nineteenth-century and early" twentieth-century satirical drama  

d. the surrealist movement 


Answer- modern literary criticism


Que- What type of writing did Walter Pater define as \the special and opportune art of the modern world ? 

a. the novel  

b. nonfiction prose  

c. the lyric  

d. comic drama 


Answer- nonfiction prose


Que- Which of the following authors promoted versions of socialism ? 

a. William Morris  

b. John Ruskin  

c. Edward FitzGerald  

d. all but c 


Answer- all but c


Que- Which of the following novelists best represents the mid-Victorian period's contentment with the burgeoning economic prosperity and decreased restiveness over social and political change ? 

a. Anthony Trollope  

b. Charles Dickens  

c. John Ruskin  

d. Friedrich Engels 


Answer- Anthony Trollope


Que- Which of the following acts were not passed during the Victorian era ? 

a. a series of Factory Acts  

b. the Custody Act  

c. the Women's Suffrage Act  

d. the Married Women's Property Rights Acts 


Answer- the Women's Suffrage Act


Que- Experimentation in which of the following areas of poetic expression characterize Victorian poetry and allow Victorian poets to represent psychology in a different way ? 

a. the use of pictorial description to construct visual images to represent the emotion or situation of the poem  

b. sound as a means to express meaning  

c. perspective, as in the dramatic monologue  

d. all of the above 


Answer- all of the above


Que- Which of the following discoveries, theories, and events contributed to Victorians feeling less like they were a uniquely special, central species in the universe and more isolated ? 

a. geology  

b. evolution  

c. discoveries in astronomy about stellar distances  

d. all of the above 


Answer- all of the above


Que- Which best describes the minority of Evangelicals in the Church of England ? 

a. A group of unattractive people relegated to the colonies to perform missionary work where they wouldn't tarnish the aesthetics of the Church of England.  

b. Also called Nonconformists or Dissenters, Evangelicals led the missionary movement in the colonies, advocated a Puritan moral code, and were responsible for the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire as early as 1833.  

c. They were part of the High Church or the \Catholic\side of the church.  

d. They were devout \tractarians,\as described by John Henry Newman. 


Answer- Also called Nonconformists or Dissenters, Evangelicals led the missionary movement in the colonies, advocated a Puritan moral code, and were responsible for the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire as early as 1833.


Que- Spenser's Epithalamion is____________? 

a. a narrative poem  

b. a sonnet  

c. an elegy  

d. a wedding hymn 


Answer- a wedding hymn


Que- George Eliot' was the pen-name of______________? 

a. Mary Collins  

b. Marian Evans  

c. Lara Evans  

d. Clare Reeve 


Answer- Marian Evans


Que- What is meant by 'Wessex' ? 

a. The region where Bronte sisters lived  

b. The region in which Hardy's novels are set  

c. The home town of George Eliot  

d. A county in Ireland 


Answer- The region in which Hardy's novels are set


Que- Which of the following best defines Utilitarianism ? 

a. a farming technique aimed at maximizing productivity with the fewest tools  

b. a moral arithmetic, which states that all humans aim to maximize the greatest pleasure to the greatest number  

c. a critical methodology stating that all words have a single meaningful function within a given piece of literature  

d. a philosophy dictating that we should only keep what we use on a daily basis. 


Answer- a moral arithmetic, which states that all humans aim to maximize the greatest pleasure to the greatest number


Que- What did Thomas Carlyle mean by "Close thy Byron; open thy Goethe" ? 

a. Britain's preeminence as a global power will depend on mastery of foreign languages.  

b. Even a foreign author is better than a homegrown scoundrel.  

c. Abandon the introspection of the Romantics and turn to the higher moral purpose found in Goethe.  

d. In a carefully veiled critique of the monarchy, Byron and Goethe stand in symbolically for Queen Victoria and Charles Darwin respectively. 


Answer- In a carefully veiled critique of the monarchy, Byron and Goethe stand in symbolically for Queen Victoria and Charles Darwin respectively.


Que- Which city became the perceived center of Western civilization by the middle of the nineteenth century? 

a. Paris  

b. Tokyo  

c. London  

d. Amsterdam 


Answer- London


Que- Queen Victoria succeeded to the throne of England after_____________? 

a. George IV  

b. George III  

c. William IV  

d. Edward VII 


Answer- William IV


Que- The Irish Dramatic Movement was heralded by such figures as____________? 

a. H. Drummond, Edward Irving and John Ervine  

b. W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn  

c. Oscar Wilde and his contemporaries  

d. Jonathan Swift and his contemporaries 


Answer- W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn


Que- To whom did the Reform Bill of 1832 extend the vote on parliamentary representation ? 

a. the working classes  

b. women  

c. the lower middle classes  

d. slaves 


Answer- the lower middle classes


Que- What was the relationship between Victorian poets and the Romantics ? 

a. The Romantics remained largely forgotten until their rediscovery by T. S. Eliot in the 1920s.  

b. The Victorians were disgusted by the immorality and narcissism of the Romantics.  

c. The Romantics were seen as gifted but crude artists belonging to a distant, semi barbarous age.  

d. The Victorians were strongly influenced by the Romantics and experienced a sense of belatedness. 


Answer- The Victorians were strongly influenced by the Romantics and experienced a sense of belatedness.


Que- Which of the following best defines Utilitarianism ? 

a. a farming technique aimed at maximizing productivity with the fewest tools  

b. a moral arithmetic, which states that all humans aim to maximize the greatest pleasure to the greatest number  

c. a critical methodology stating that all words have a single meaningful function within a given piece of literature  

d. a philosophy dictating that we should only keep what we use on a daily basis. 


Answer- a moral arithmetic, which states that all humans aim to maximize the greatest pleasure to the greatest number


Que- Which best describes the general feeling expressed in literature during the last decade of the Victorian era ? 

a. studied melancholy and aestheticism  

b. sincere earnestness and Protestant zeal  

c. raucous celebration mixed with self congratulatory sophistication  

d. paranoid introspection and cryptic dissent 


Answer- studied melancholy and aestheticism


Que- The Oxford Movement was basically a_____________? 

a. Religious Movement  

b. Political Movement  

c. Social Movement  

d. Literary Movement 


Answer- Religious Movement


Que- Dunstan is a character from the novel________________? 

a. Silas Marner  

b. Emma  

c. Hard Times  

d. Adam Bede 


Answer- Silas Marner


Que- Who were the \Two Nations\referred to in the subtitle of Disraeli's Sybil (1845) ? 

a. the rich and the poor  

b. Anglicans and Methodists  

c. England and Ireland  

d. Britain and Germany 


Answer- the rich and the poor


Que- The title Vanity Fair has been taken from_____________? 

a. Paradise Lost  

b. Divine Comedy  

c. Utopia  

d. Pilgrims Progress 


Answer- Pilgrims Progress


Que- In 'In Memorium', Tennyson mourns the death of ________________? 

a. Hugh Clough  

b. Arthur Hallam  

c. Lord Byron  

d. Keats 


Answer- Arthur Hallam


Que- Elizabeth Barrett's poem The Cry of the Children is concerned with which major issue attendant on the Time of Troubles during the 1830s and 1840s ? 

a. women's rights and suffrage  

b. child labor  

c. chartism  

d. the prudishness and old-fashioned ideals of her fellow Victorians 


Answer- child labor


Que- George Eliot's novel Romola is a________________? 

a. Gothic novel  

b. Autobiographical novel  

c. Historical novel  

d. Picaresque novel 


Answer- Historical novel


Que- Experimentation in which of the following areas of poetic expression characterize Victorian poetry and allow Victorian poets to represent psychology in a different way ? 

a. the use of pictorial description to construct visual images to represent the emotion or situation of the poem  

b. sound as a means to express meaning  

c. perspective, as in the dramatic monologue  

d. all of the above 


Answer- all of the above


Que- Which of the following Victorian writers regularly published their work in periodicals ? 

a. Thomas Carlyle  

b. Matthew Arnold  

c. Charles Dickens  

d. all of the above. 


Answer- all of the above.


Que- Who was the leader of Pre-Raphaelite group of artists in England ? 

a. D.G Rossetti  

b. Swinburne  

c. Christina Rossetti  

d. Morris 


Answer- D.G Rossetti


Que- Which of the following authors promoted versions of socialism ? 

a. William Morris  

b. John Ruskin  

c. Edward FitzGerald  

d. all but C 


Answer- all but C


Que- Famous satiric drama,Volpone,is written by ? 

a. Sir Walter Scot  

b. Christopher Marlow  

c. Ben Johnson  

d. George Herbert 


Answer- Ben Johnson


Que- The foremost poet of Jacobean era was ? 

a. John Milton  

b. Charles Bacon  

c. John Donne  

d. Herbert Spencer 


Answer- John Donne


Que- What are the beginning and ending dates of the reign of James I ? 

a. 1592-1608  

b. 1603-1625  

c. 1607-1627  

d. 1608-1639 


Answer- 1603-1625


Que- The Jacobean Era refers to a period of time in the early 17th century in which of the following countries ? 

a. Jordan  

b. England  

c. Malaysia  

d. Tunisia 


Answer- England


Que- the first fire-breathing dragon in English literature occurs in which Old English epic poem ? 

a. Iliad  

b. Odyssey  

c. Beowulf  

d. Canterbury Tales 


Answer- Beowulf


Que- What proceeded Jacobean era ? 

a. Elizabethan Era  

b. Caroline era  

c. Victorian era  

d. Jacobean Era 


Answer- Caroline era


Que- The Jacobean era ended with a severe economic depression in 1620-1626, complicated by a serious outbreak of ____________in London in 1625 ? 

a. Cholera  

b. Tuberculosis  

c. Bubonic plague  

d. Plague (disease) 


Answer- Bubonic plague


Que- The Jacobean era succeeds the ___________and precedes the Caroline era, and specifically denotes a style of architecture, visual arts, decorative arts, and literature that is predominant of that period ? 

a. Elizabethan era  

b. English Reformation  

c. England  

d. Tudor period 


Answer- Elizabethan era


Que- In literature, some of Shakespeare's most powerful plays were written in that period (for example The Tempest, King Lear, and Macbeth), as well as powerful works by John Webster and ______________? 

a. William Shakespeare  

b. Ben Jonson  

c. Ben Jonson folios  

d. English Renaissance theatre 


Answer- Ben Jonson


Que- Jonson was also an important innovator in the specialized literary sub-genre of the….., which went through an intense development in the Jacobean era ? 

a. William Shakespeare  

b. Ben Jonson  

c. Masque  

d. A Midsummer Night's Dream 


Answer- Masque


Que- The word "Jacobean" is derived from the ___________ name Jacob, which is the original form of the English name James? 

a. Samaritan Hebrew language  

b. Biblical Hebrew  

c. Mishnaic Hebrew  

d. Hebrew language 


Answer- Hebrew language


Que- Which social philosophy, dominant during the Industrial Revolution, dictated that only the free operation of economic laws would ensure the general welfare and that the government should not interfere in any person's pursuit of their personal interests ? 

a. economic independence  

b. the Rights of Man  

c. laissez-faire  

d. enclosure 


Answer- laissez-faire


Que- Which of the following periodical publications (reviews and magazines) first appeared in the Romantic era ? 

a. London Magazine  

b. The Spectator  

c. The Edinburgh Review  

d. a and c only 


Answer- a and c only


Que- Which of the following English groups were supportive of the French Revolution during its early years ? 

a. Republicans  

b. Liberals  

c. Radicals  

d. both B and C 


Answer- both B and C


Que- Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto initiated which literary tradition ? 

a. Hunnish epic  

b. Gothic fiction  

c. epistolary novel  

d. meta-novel 


Answer- Gothic fiction


Que- Which of the following factors did not contribute to the growth of the reading public in this period ? 

a. The notoriety of the \Lake School\  

b. Technological developments, such as the steam-driven printing press  

c. Innovations in retailing, such as the cut-price sale of remaindered books  

d. Increased literacy, thanks in large part to Sunday schools 


Answer- The notoriety of the \Lake School\


Que- What did Byron deride with his scathing reference to \'Peddlers,' and 'Boats,' and 'Wagons'!\ ? 

a. the neo-classical influence of Pope and Dryden  

b. the clumsiness of Shakespeare's plots  

c. the Orientalist fantasies of Coleridge  

d. Wordsworth's devotion to the ordinary and everyday 


Answer- Wordsworth's devotion to the ordinary and everyday


Que- Who applied the term \Romantic\to the literary period dating from 1785 to 1830 ? 

a. Wordsworth because he wanted to distinguish his poetry and the poetry of his friends from that of the ancien r´gime, especially satire  

b. English historians half a century after the period ended  

c. The Satanic School\of Byron, Percy Shelley, and their followers  

d. Oliver Goldsmith in The Deserted Village (1770) 


Answer- English historians half a century after the period ended

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