English Literature MCQs Set 4

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Author: Nasir Iqbal | Assistant Professor of English Literature

English Literature MCQs Set 4
Updated on: November 4, 2025
Estimated Reading Time: 16 min

English Literature MCQs

Set-4

1. Thomas More’s ‘Utopia’ was translated into English in

A. 1551
B. 1651
C. 1516
D. 1616

A. 1551
Sir Thomas More’s Latin text was translated by Ralph Robinson and published in 1551.

2. Philip Sidney’s ‘Astrophel and Stella’ is

A. a narrative poem
B. a prose romance
C. a tragedy
D. a collection of songs

D. a collection of songs
The work is a sonnet sequence (cycle), containing 108 sonnets and 11 songs (the collection of songs).

3. How many pilgrims are mentioned in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales ?

A. 29
B. 30
C. 28
D. 31

A. 29
The Host proposes that 29 pilgrims (plus Chaucer himself and the Host, making 31 total) tell stories; 29 is the number of companions.

4. What is the complete title of Marlowe’s play popularly known as ‘Dr. Faustus’?

A. The Life and Death of Dr. Faustus
B. The History of Dr. Faustus
C. The Lamentable Tragedy of Dr. Faustus
D. The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus

D. The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus
The full title is The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus.
5. Which of the following arrangements is in the correct chronological order?

A. Hamlet, Othello, Lear, Macbeth
B. Hamlet, Lear, Othello, Macbeth
C. Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear
D. Lear, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth

A. Hamlet (c. 1600-01), Othello (c. 1603-04), Lear (c. 1605-06), Macbeth (c. 1606-07)
This sequence follows the generally accepted chronological order of Shakespeare’s four great tragedies.

6. Milton’s final work is

A. Paradise Lost
B. Samson Agonistes
C. Paradise Regained
D. Comus

B. Samson Agonistes
This dramatic poem (1671) was published alongside Paradise Regained but is considered his final major poetic work.

7. Webster’s ‘The White Devil’ is associated with –

A. Vittoria
B. Duches of Malfi
C. Bosola
D. Ferdinand

A. Vittoria
The play’s full title is The White Devil, or The Tragedy of Vittoria Corombona.

8. The writer of ‘The Honest Whore’ is –

A. Middleton
B. Dekker
C. Webster
D. Jonson

B. Dekker
The Honest Whore (Part 1, 1604) is primarily attributed to Thomas Dekker (with an unconfirmed collaboration on Part 2).

9. The Restoration comedy is known as

A. the comedy of manners
B. the sentimental comedy
C. the comedy of humours
D. the domestic comedy

A. the comedy of manners
This genre dominated the Restoration period (1660-1710), satirizing the conventions and morals of the wealthy elite.
10. In ‘Absalom and Achitophel’, Achitophel stands for

A. The Duke of Monmouth
B. The Earl of Sunderland
C. The Earl of Essex
D. The Earl of Shaftesbury

D. The Earl of Shaftesbury
In Dryden’s allegory, Achitophel represents Anthony Ashley Cooper, the Earl of Shaftesbury, a leading opponent of King Charles II.

11. The word ‘sense’ for the Eighteenth century English scholars meant

A. an individual opinion
B. a feeling or emotion
C. the opposite of reason
D. an inherent power to tell true from false

D. an inherent power to tell true from false
In Enlightenment philosophy, “sense” often referred to innate common sense or the ability to judge and discern truth and moral rightness.

12. The objective of The Spectator was

A. to satirize all political parties
B. to entertain and distract
C. to educate
D. to provide news

C. to educate
Addison and Steele stated their goal was “to bring philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and coffee-houses” (i.e., to educate and civilize).

13. Uncle Toby is a character in

A. Pamela
B. Joseph Andrews
C. Tom Jones
D. Tristram Shandy

D. Tristram Shandy
Uncle Toby is the kind, gentle, and obsessively military-minded brother of Walter Shandy in Laurence Sterne’s novel.

14. ‘Each in his narrow cell for ever laid / The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep’ These Lines are taken from

A. The Deserted Village
B. Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College
C. Elegy written in a Country Churchyard
D. The Vanity of Human Wishes

C. Elegy written in a Country Churchyard
These famous lines of melancholy meditation on mortality are from Thomas Gray’s poem.
15. She Stoops to Conquer is

A. a sentimental comedy
B. an anti-sentimental comedy
C. a domestic comedy
D. a comedy of humours

B. an anti-sentimental comedy
Oliver Goldsmith’s play was a conscious effort to restore laughing comedy in opposition to the emotionally excessive sentimental comedy of the period.

16. ‘Heard melodies are sweet but those unheard are sweeter’. These lines are written by

A. John Keats
B. P. B. Shelley
C. S. T. Coleridge
D. William Wordsworth

A. John Keats
These lines are from Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” asserting the superiority of imagined, eternal art over transient reality.

17. Biographia Literaria was published in

A. 1817
B. 1827
C. 1798
D. 1805

A. 1817
S. T. Coleridge’s major prose work on philosophy and criticism was published in 1817.

18. ‘O Rose, thou art sick! / The invisible worm, / That files in the night, / In the howling storm’ These lines are written by

A. Alfred, Lord Tennyson
B. John Keats
C. William Blake
D. S. T. Coleridge

C. William Blake
These lines are from William Blake’s poem “The Sick Rose,” contrasting Innocence with the destructive power of hidden Experience/Evil.

19. The phrase ‘willing supension of disbelief’ is associated with

A. Keats
B. Wordsworth
C. Shelley
D. Coleridge

D. Coleridge
S. T. Coleridge coined this key phrase in his Biographia Literaria, describing the necessary state of mind required for reading imaginative poetry.
20. Who considers William Wordsworth the third greatest poet in English after Shakespeare and Milton ?

A. T. S. Eliot
B. Arnold
C. F. R. Leavis
D. Harold Bloom

B. Arnold
Matthew Arnold was a fervent admirer and critical champion of Wordsworth.

21. Michael Henchard is a character from a novel by –

A. Thomas Hardy
B. George Eliot
C. Charles Dickens
D. Jane Austen

A. Thomas Hardy
Michael Henchard is the tragic, self-destructive protagonist of The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy.

22. Which of the following arrangements is in the correct chronological sequence?

A. Bleak House, Hard Times, Great Expectation, A Tale of Two Cities
B. Hard Times, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations
C. Bleak House, Hard Times, Great Expectation, A Tale of Two Cities
D. Hard Times, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Bleak House

C. Bleak House (1852-53), Hard Times (1854), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1860-61)
The correct chronological order of these Charles Dickens novels is: Bleak House, Hard Times, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations.

23. Maggie Tulliver is a character in

A. The Mill on the Floss
B. Middlemarch
C. Daniel Deronda
D. Adam Bede

A. The Mill on the Floss
Maggie Tulliver is the central tragic heroine of George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss.

24. “For the world which seems / To lie before us like a land of dreams, / So various, so beautiful, so new, / Hath really neither joy, nor love, not light, / Nor attitude, not peace, not help for pain; These lines are written by

A. Arnold
B. Tennyson
C. Browning
D. Swinburne

A. Arnold
These bleak, existential lines are from the end of Matthew Arnold’s poem “Dover Beach.”
25. The Subjection of Women was written by

A. Thomas Carlyle
B. J.S. Mill
C. Charles Dickens
D. Walter Pater

B. J.S. Mill
John Stuart Mill’s influential philosophical essay (1869) passionately argued for the legal and social equality of women.

26. ‘Mistah Kurtz he dead’. These words are spoken in

A. The Heart of the Matter
B. The Secret Sharer
C. Lord Jim
D. Heart of Darkness

D. Heart of Darkness
These are the famous final words spoken by Kurtz’s African servant, marking the end of the corrupted ivory agent in Joseph Conrad’s novella.

27. The Marbar Caves in A Passage to India echo

A. the silence of the earth
B. the futility of love
C. ‘ou-boun’
D. the sound of despair

C. ‘ou-boun’
The bizarre, echoing sound (ou-boum or ou-boun) in the caves emphasizes the profound mystery and indifference of the universe, a key theme in E. M. Forster’s novel.

28. Tiresia appears in

A. The Second Coming
B. Ulysses
C. The Waste Land
D. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

C. The Waste Land
Tiresias, the blind prophet of Greek myth, appears in T. S. Eliot’s poem as the omniscient observer who “has foresuffered all.”

29. Point Counter Point is

A. a political novel
B. a love story
C. a satirical romance
D. a discussion novel

D. a discussion novel
Aldous Huxley’s Point Counter Point (1928) is characterized by long, philosophical dialogues, fitting the definition of a discussion novel.
30. Which of the following novels does not use the technique of the stream of consciousness?

A. Ulysses
B. To the Lighthouse
C. Mrs. Dalloway
D. Sons and Lovers

D. Sons and Lovers
Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence (1913) is known for its intense psychological realism, but generally does not employ the highly fluid, interior monologue technique of the stream of consciousness used by Joyce and Woolf.

31. Waiting for Godot was published in

A. 1950
B. 1952
C. 1953
D. 1954

B. 1952
Samuel Beckett’s play was published in French (En attendant Godot) in 1952.

32. Harold Pinter is associated with

A. The Theatre of the Absurd
B. The Angry Young Men Movement
C. Neoclassicism
D. Sentimental Drama

A. The Theatre of the Absurd
Harold Pinter is a major British playwright associated with the Theatre of the Absurd, known for ambiguous plots and menacing dialogue.

33. Lord of the Flies is

A. a fable
B. a thriller
C. a fairy tale
D. a romance

A. a fable
William Golding’s novel (1954) functions as an extended allegory or fable about the collapse of civilizéd society into savagery.

34. Now and then a smell of grass / Displaced the reek of buttoned carriage cloth / Until the next town, new and non descript / These lines are taken from

A. The Less Deceived
B. High Windows
C. The Whitsun Weddings
D. The North Ship

C. The Whitsun Weddings
These lines describe the train journey and contrast the natural world with the drabness of modern life in Philip Larkin’s poem.
35. David Lodge is a

A. modernist
B. postmodernist
C. metaphysical poet
D. romantic novelist

B. postmodernist
David Lodge is a contemporary British novelist and critic known for his satirical, self-aware, and academic novels, placing him firmly in the Postmodernist tradition.

36. In Walden Thoreau criticises

A. the materialistic approach to life
B. the political corruption
C. the lack of natural beauty
D. the excessive technology

A. the materialistic approach to life
Henry David Thoreau’s Walden (1854) argues for a simple, self-sufficient life close to nature, rejecting the pursuit of wealth and consumerism.

37. In The Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman sings songs of

A. communism
B. democracy
C. aristocracy
D. war

B. democracy
Walt Whitman’s poetry celebrates the democratic spirit of America, the common person, and the ideals of equality.

38. Hester Prynne is a character from

A. Moby Dick
B. The Custom House
C. The Scarlet Letter
D. The Blithedale Romance

C. The Scarlet Letter
Hester Prynne is the protagonist forced to wear the letter ‘A’ for adultery in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel.

39. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is by

A. Herman Melville
B. Washington Irving
C. Nathaniel Hawthorne
D. Edgar Allen Poe

D. Edgar Allen Poe
Edgar Allan Poe’s tale (1839) is a classic of Gothic literature, exploring themes of decay and madness.
40. Disgrace is written by

A. J.M. Coetzee
B. Nadine Gordimer
C. Chinua Achebe
D. Wole Soyinka

A. J.M. Coetzee
Disgrace (1999), set in post-apartheid South Africa, is one of J. M. Coetzee’s most famous and controversial novels.

41. Plato wanted to judge poetry from the tool of

A. Beauty
B. Emotion
C. Truth
D. Form

C. Truth
Plato famously critiqued poetry in The Republic for being mere imitation and therefore three times removed from the highest form of reality (Truth or the Forms).

42. The function of tradegy, according to Aristotle, is to offer

A. purgation of emotions
B. recognition and reversal
C. moral instruction
D. tragic pleasure

D. tragic pleasure
Aristotle states in Poetics that the unique function and end of tragedy (telos) is the arousal of pity and fear, leading to a specific kind of tragic pleasure.

43. ‘The poet is a man speaking to man’. Who wrote this?

A. S. T. Coleridge
B. T. S. Eliot
C. Wordsworth
D. Matthew Arnold

C. Wordsworth
William Wordsworth wrote this influential definition of the poet in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads.

44. Rasa Theory was first expounded by

A. Dhananjaya
B. Abhinavagupta
C. Bharat Muni
D. Jagannatha

C. Bharat Muni
The Rasa Theory (aesthetics of sentiment and emotion) was first detailed by Bharata Muni in his ancient treatise, the Natyashastra.
45. ‘Death of the Author’ emphasises

A. author’s intent
B. historical context
C. literary form
D. reader

D. reader
The theory of “The Death of the Author” (Roland Barthes) deliberately rejects the author’s intention and biography, shifting interpretive authority entirely to the reader.

46. Identify the figure of speech in the following line: “It is an open secret”

A. Pun
B. Simile
C. Oxymoron
D. Metaphor

C. Oxymoron
An Oxymoron combines two contradictory terms (“open” and “secret”) to form an expressive paradox.

47. Match the following: a. Innuendo, b. Parable, c. Onomatopoeia, d. Oxymoron with I figure based on difference, II figure based on sound, III figure based on indirectness, IV figure based on similarity

A. a-I, b-II, c-III, d-IV
B. a-II, b-I, c-IV, d-III
C. a-IV, b-III, c-II, d-I
D. a-III, b-IV, c-II, d-I

D. a-III, b-IV, c-II, d-I
The correct matches are: a. Innuendo (Indirectness) – III; b. Parable (Similarity/Comparison/Tale) – IV; c. Onomatopoeia (Sound) – II; d. Oxymoron (Difference/Contradiction) – I.

48. Identify the figure of speech – “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting”

A. Metaphor
B. Simile
C. Apostrophe
D. Personification

A. Metaphor
The line asserts that birth is a sleep and forgetting (comparison without “like” or “as”), making it a Metaphor.

49. A Petrarchan sonnet is divided as follows –

A. Three Quatrains and a Couplet
B. A Sestet followed by an Octave
C. Two Quatrains and two Tercets
D. An Octave followed by a Sestet

D. An Octave followed by a Sestet
The Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet divides its 14 lines into an Octave (8 lines, abbaabba) and a Sestet (6 lines, cdecde or cdcdcd).
50. Match the following: a. iambic b. anapestic c. trochaic d. dactylic

A. a-II, b-III, c-IV, d-I
B. a-IV, b-I, c-III, d-II
C. a-I, b-II, c-III, d-IV
D. a-III, b-II, c-I, d-IV

A. a-II, b-III, c-IV, d-I
The correct matches are: a. Iambic (da-DUM) – II. Unstressed + Stressed; b. Anapestic (da-da-DUM) – III. Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed; c. Trochaic (DUM-da) – IV. Stressed + Unstressed; d. Dactylic (DUM-da-da) – I. Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed.

Overview

This set of 50 multiple-choice questions begins with the Renaissance (More, Sidney) and Medieval (Chaucer) periods. It moves through Shakespeare, Milton, and Restoration comedy.

The 18th century is tested with questions on Dryden, The Spectator, and Thomas Gray. The Romantic period follows, with a focus on Keats, Blake, and Coleridge. The Victorian section includes authors such as Hardy, Dickens, George Eliot, and Matthew Arnold.

The 20th century is represented by Modernists (Conrad, T.S. Eliot, Huxley), Absurdists (Beckett, Pinter), and post-war poets (Larkin).

A section on American literature (Thoreau, Whitman, Poe, Hawthorne) is also included. The test concludes with questions on literary theory (Plato, Aristotle, Barthes) and poetic devices (oxymoron, sonnet structure, and metrical feet).

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