Watt MCQs

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Author: Nasir Iqbal | Assistant Professor of English Literature


Updated on: November 19, 2025
Estimated Reading Time: 16 min

Watt MCQs

1. Where did Mr Hackett first see the occupied seat?

A. Corner, failing light
B. Rail, near tram
C. Park, dark night
D. House, front yard

A. Corner, failing light.
Hackett saw his accustomed seat occupied at the corner in the dim evening light.

2. What activity were the couple in the seat engaged in?

A. Reading poems
B. Waiting for the tram
C. Showing affection
D. Eating dinner

C. Showing affection.
The gentleman and lady were kissing and touching, suggesting tired of waiting for the tram.

3. What item was dangling limply from the gentleman’s hand?

A. Full cigarette
B. Spent cigarette
C. Empty lighter
D. Stick and rail

B. Spent cigarette.
Mr Hackett saw the gentleman’s hand dangling over the seat back with a spent cigarette between fingers.

4. What term did Mr Hackett use to describe things that pleased him?

A. His property
B. Shared goods
C. Not his, but his
D. Municipality property

C. Not his, but his.
Hackett’s attitude was thinking of things that pleased him as his, though he knew they were not.
5. What nickname did the gentleman call Mr Hackett?

A. Mad Hackett
B. Hunchy Hackett
C. Dear Hackett
D. Old Hackett

B. Hunchy Hackett.
The passing gentleman identified him to his wife, saying, “Hunchy Hackett. On the seat”.

6. What item did the gentleman use so Mr Hackett could read?

A. Petrol-lighter
B. Matchbox
C. Electric torch
D. Tiny candle

A. Petrol-lighter.
The gentleman used his petrol lighter so Mr Hackett could read Grehan’s enclosed poem, “To Nelly”.

7. What occasion did Tetty describe to Mr Hackett?

A. Goff’s illness
B. Larry’s birth night
C. Grehan’s trial
D. Nixon’s marriage

B. Larry’s birth night.
Tetty insisted on telling Mr Hackett about the night their son Larry was born.

8. How did Tetty sever the umbilical cord for Larry?

A. Doctor’s scissors
B. Her teeth
C. Sharp stone
D. Across her knee

B. Her teeth.
Goff proudly mentioned that Tetty severed the cord with her teeth because she lacked scissors.

9. What age was Mr Hackett when he fell off a ladder?

A. Five
B. One
C. Fifteen
D. Forty

B. One.
Mr Hackett stated that he was one year old when he fell off the ladder in Glencullen.
10. How much money did Watt owe Mr Nixon?

A. Four shillings
B. Five shillings
C. Two and threepence
D. Six and ninepence

B. Five shillings.
Watt owed Goff (Mr Nixon) five shillings for the past seven years.

11. What distinctive feature did Mr Nixon grudgingly share about Watt?

A. Limped dreadfully
B. Huge big red nose
C. Wore clip-on ties
D. Excellent bowler

B. Huge big red nose.
After being pressed for details, Mr Nixon grudgingly mentioned that Watt “has a huge big red nose”.

12. What was the gentleman on the train named?

A. Mr Hackett
B. Mr Lowry
C. Mr Spiro
D. Mr Evans

C. Mr Spiro.
The large gentleman sitting diagonally opposite to Watt in the compartment introduced himself as Spiro.

13. What periodical did Mr Spiro edit?

A. The Catholic Weekly
B. The Popular Monthly
C. Crux, the monthly
D. Spiritual Syringe

C. Crux, the monthly.
Mr Spiro informed Watt that he edited Crux, which he described as the popular catholic monthly.

14. What question did Martin Ignatius MacKenzie’s letter ask about?

A. The Holy Family
B. A consecrated wafer
C. The eels of Como
D. Spiritual costiveness

B. A consecrated wafer.
MacKenzie’s letter posed questions regarding a rat eating a consecrated wafer.
15. How did Watt prefer to orient himself in the moving train?

A. Face the engine
B. Face the direction
C. Back to the destination
D. Back to driver

C. Back to the destination.
Watt preferred “to have his back to his destination” when the train moved.

16. What was Watt’s unique method of moving due east?

A. Bending his knees
B. Headlong tardigrade
C. Simple shuffling
D. North/south flinging

D. North/south flinging.
He advanced by turning his bust north and flinging his right leg south, then reversing.

17. What animal’s movements did Lady McCann compare to Watt’s head?

A. Bear turning
B. Dog trotting
C. Cat stalking
D. Goat butting

A. Bear turning.
Lady McCann wondered if she had read in Mr Walpole that baited bears turn their heads from side to side.

18. What did Lady McCann throw at Watt on the road?

A. Shoe
B. Stick
C. Stone
D. Parcel

C. Stone.
Lady McCann picked up a stone and threw it at Watt, striking his hat from his head.

19. Where did Watt roll himself over to rest near the road?

A. Into the ditch
B. On the grass
C. Against a tree
D. Behind a wall

A. Into the ditch.
Disliking the moon’s rays, Watt rolled himself over into the ditch to lie on his face.
20. What was visible just before Watt reached Mr Knott’s house?

A. A single light
B. Knott’s chimneys
C. The open gate
D. Lady McCann

B. Knott’s chimneys.
Watt advanced with awe when the chimneys of Mr Knott’s house finally became visible.

21. Who was the gentleman Watt met in the kitchen upon arrival?

A. Mr Knott
B. Walter
C. Vincent
D. Arsene

D. Arsene.
The gentleman who came into the kitchen wearing a green baize apron and later spoke to Watt was Arsene.

22. What garment did the man Watt meet in the kitchen wear?

A. Old dark coat
B. Fine full apron
C. Carpet slippers
D. Felt hat

B. Fine full apron.
The gentleman (Arsene) wore a fine full apron of green baize when he first entered the kitchen.

23. What did Arsene say he regretted exceedingly?

A. His failures
B. Everything
C. His life spent
D. The boil

B. Everything.
Arsene stated: “Personally, of course, I regret everything. Not a word, not a deed… that I do not regret, exceedingly”.

24. What laugh laughs at that which is unhappy?

A. Bitter laugh
B. Hollow laugh
C. Mirthless laugh
D. Ethical laugh

C. Mirthless laugh.
Arsene explained that the mirthless laugh (risus purus) is the laugh that laughs at that which is unhappy.
25. What type of items did Mary (the former housemaid) eat, turn and turn about?

A. Bread and butter
B. Meat and pastry
C. Onions and peppermints
D. Fish and stout

C. Onions and peppermints.
Mary would sit before a task and quietly eat onions and peppermints alternately.

26. Who were the two callers who came to tune the piano?

A. The Nixons
B. The Galls
C. Mr Graves
D. Mr Spiro

B. The Galls.
The piano tuners introduced themselves as “the Galls, father and son”.

27. What conclusion did the Galls reach about the piano?

A. Excellent condition
B. Doomed
C. Needs new strings
D. Only one damper

B. Doomed.
Mr Gall Junior declared, “The piano is doomed, in my opinion,” a sentiment Mr Gall Senior agreed with.

28. What effect did the Galls incident have on Watt’s need for meaning?

A. Felt tranquil
B. Sought another meaning
C. Accepted meaning
D. Forgot entirely

B. Sought another meaning.
The event’s lost literal meaning caused Watt to seek “some meaning of what had passed”.

29. What type of meaning did Watt seek for inexplicable incidents?

A. Real meaning
B. Coerced meaning
C. Simple truth
D. External symbol

B. Coerced meaning.
Watt inquired into what incidents “might be induced to mean” with ingenuity and patience.
30. What was the name Watt had trouble applying to Mr Knott’s kitchen object?

A. Kettle
B. Duster
C. Pot
D. Chair

C. Pot.
Looking at a specific object, Watt labored in vain to name it, saying, “it was not a pot at all”

31. How often was Mr Knott’s unique food dish prepared?

A. Daily
B. Weekly
C. Monthly
D. Annually

B. Weekly.
A sufficient quantity of food was prepared and cooked on Saturday night to last Mr Knott through the entire week.

32. What common items were mixed into Mr Knott’s dish?

A. Food, drink, physic
B. Meat, cheese, wine
C. Milk, water, spices
D. Eggs, fish, tea

A. Food, drink, physic.
The dish contained various foods, beverages, and medical items like insulin and digitalin.

33. What was the name of the large, impoverished family connected to the dog?

A. Sharpes
B. Brynes
C. Lynches
D. Nackybal

C. Lynches.
The solution to the dog-feeding problem involved securing the large needy local family named Lynch.

34. What was the dog’s name when Watt began service on the ground floor?

A. Cis
B. Larry
C. Kate
D. Joe

C. Kate.
The dog in service when Watt started on the ground floor was named Kate, the sixth dog used by the dwarves.
35. Who were the two small men who led the famished dog nightly?

A. Tom and Jack
B. Art and Con
C. Joe and Jim
D. Sean and Simon

B. Art and Con.
The twin dwarves Art and Con led the famished dog to the back door every evening.

36. Who was the fishwoman that Watt greatly liked?

A. Mrs Nixon
B. Mrs Gorman
C. Mrs Graves
D. Lady McCann

B. Mrs Gorman.
The fishwoman who called every Thursday and with whom Watt enjoyed physical closeness was Mrs Gorman.

37. What drink did Watt habitually share with the fishwoman?

A. Hot tea
B. Glass of milk
C. Stout
D. Brandy

C. Stout.
Watt would open a bottle of stout for Mrs Gorman every Thursday in the kitchen.

38. What was the probable reason Mrs Gorman and Watt never “coalesced”?

A. No privacy
B. Watt lacked strength
C. Mrs Gorman lacked time
D. Both lack/time force

D. Both lack/time force.
Watt lacked the necessary strength, and Mrs Gorman lacked the necessary time for perfunctory coalescence.

39. What did Mr Graves (the gardener) complain about to Watt?

A. Low wages
B. Bad harvest
C. Wife troubles
D. Old age

C. Wife troubles.
Mr Graves’s chief subject of conversation was his domestic troubles, specifically not getting along with his wife.
40. How did Mr Graves pronounce “third and fourth”?

A. Bird and forth
B. Turd and fart
C. Dirt and forth
D. Third and fourth

B. Turd and fart.
Watt noted that Mr Graves pronounced his ‘th’ charmingly, saying “Turd and fart” for “third and fourth”.

41. What was the most fixed item of furniture in Mr Knott’s room?

A. The tallboy
B. The round bed
C. The washhand-stand
D. The chairs

B. The round bed.
The bed was round and clamped to the ground, maintaining an “illusion of fixity”.

42. What was Mr Knott’s attitude when moving about the house?

A. Masterful stride
B. Fumbling unfamiliarity
C. Swift urgency
D. Determined progress

B. Fumbling unfamiliarity.
When moving, Mr Knott acted “as one unfamiliar with the premises,” fumbling at doors.

43. What was Mr Knott’s first conjecture of interest to Watt?

A. Need for food
B. Need to not need
C. Need for clothing
D. Need for solitude

B. Need to not need.
Mr Knott’s actions stemmed not from need, but from the “need never to need” anything.

44. How did Mr Knott wear his clothes to bed?

A. Removed all dayclothes
B. Over his dayclothes
C. Under his nightshirt
D. He slept nude

B. Over his dayclothes.
Mr Knott habitually went to bed with his nightclothes over his dayclothes.
45. What was the first stage of Watt’s language inversion observed by the narrator?

A. Sentences in reverse
B. Letters in reverse
C. Words in reverse
D. Words and letters

C. Words in reverse.
Watt first inverted the order of the words only, speaking “back to front”.

46. What type of reversal followed the word-order inversion?

A. Sentence order
B. Periods in reverse
C. Letters in reverse
D. Mixed syntax

C. Letters in reverse.
After simple word inversion, Watt began to invert “the order of the letters in the word”.

47. What did the narrator say was visible from Watt’s window?

A. Mr Knott’s face
B. A bustling town
C. A race-course
D. The distant sea

C. A race-course.
Watt’s dinghy compartment on the first floor commanded a wonderful view of a race-course.

48. Who did Watt encounter sitting in the kitchen upon his departure?

A. Mr Gorman
B. Micks
C. Arthur
D. Mr Nixon

B. Micks.
Watt found Micks sitting in the kitchen when he went down to drink his last glass of milk.

49. What items did Watt carry when leaving Mr Knott’s house?

A. Two large suitcases
B. Two small grousebags
C. A coat and hat
D. Food and water

B. Two small grousebags.
When leaving, Watt carried two small bags in his hands, which he called “grousebags”.
50. Where did Watt buy his mismatched boot and shoe?

A. City market
B. Found on the sea-shore
C. From a one-legged man
D. From Mr Knott

C. From a one-legged man.
Watt bought the boot for eight pence from a one-legged man after finding the shoe on the seashore.

Brief Overview

Watt is a novel by Samuel Beckett, first published in 1953. The novel is a key work of existentialism and the Theatre of the Absurd. It profoundly questions the limits of human knowledge, the absurdity of life, and the inherent difficulty of communication.

The novel begins with Mr Hackett observing a strange couple near his public seat. He then speaks with Mr and Mrs Nixon about a peculiar man named Watt. Watt is travelling by train to a new job. He meets Mr. Spiro, who talks cryptically about religion.

Watt arrives at Mr Knott’s large, dark house. He is there to replace the outgoing servant, Arsene, who delivers a confusing, long farewell speech. Watt works on the ground floor. Mr Knott eats a single, boiled meal twice a day.

Watt struggles to understand the house’s strange, arbitrary events. These include the Galls’ visit, during which they tune a broken piano. Watt also learns about the highly complex, logistical plan to ensure a hungry dog, managed by the Lynch family, eats Mr Knott’s leftovers. Watt finds it almost impossible to correctly name the objects he sees, even calling a pot “not a pot.”

Watt later moves upstairs. He learns that Mr Knott looks radically different every day, changing in height, weight, and colour. Watt concludes that Mr Knott only needs “not to need” anything, and he requires a witness to observe this state of self-cancellation.

Watt eventually leaves the house one night. He stops on the road and bursts into tears. He walks to the closed railway station. Watt buys a ticket to the “further end” of the line and leaves, a final, absurd action of movement without purpose

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