All Free English Literature MCQs with Answers

• A. Robert Hass
• B. Jessica Hagdorn
• C. Maya Angelou
• D. Micheal Palmer

Explanation: Maya Angelou published “A Brave and Startling Truth” in 1996, a poem written for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.

• A. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• B. Ernest Holmes
• C. John Locke
• D. John Locke

Explanation: Ralph Waldo Emerson, the leading American transcendentalist, was strongly influenced by Coleridge’s ideas about imagination, religion, and…

• A. Every Man in His Humour
• B. Cynthia Revels
• C. The Alchemist
• D. Epicene or The Silent Woman

Explanation: Every Man in His Humour, first performed in 1598, is generally regarded as Ben Jonson's first major play.

• A. "Two Gentlemen of Verona"
• B. "The Winter's Tale"
• C. "The Tempest"
• D. "Faustus"

Explanation: Faustus is Christopher Marlowe's tragedy, commonly known as Doctor Faustus, not a Shakespearean play.

• A. The Massacre at Berlin
• B. The Massacre at Rome
• C. The Massacre at Copenhagen
• D. The Massacre at Paris

Explanation: Marlowe's The Massacre at Paris dramatizes the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572, when French Protestants were killed in Paris.

• A. Lord Tennyson
• B. William Wordsworth
• C. John Keats
• D. Lord Byron

Explanation: *Heaven and Earth* is a dramatic work by Lord Byron, published as part of his unfinished dramatic trilogy.

• A. The Mousetrap
• B. Romeo and Juliet
• C. Othello
• D. Macbeth

Explanation: Agatha Christie's *The Mousetrap* is recognised as the world's longest-running stage play, having opened in London in 1952.

• A. The Taming of the Shrew
• B. As you Like it
• C. Two Gentlemen of Verona
• D. Titus Andronicus

Explanation: The Oxford Shakespeare chronology places Titus Andronicus among Shakespeare’s earliest plays and, in the cited 1988 edition, treats it as…

• A. John Dryden
• B. William Shakespeare
• C. John Milton
• D. None of these

Explanation: William Shakespeare is associated with Avon because he was born at Stratford-upon-Avon; “Bird of Avon” is an honorific referring to him.

• A. Marlowe
• B. Ben Johnson
• C. King Henry
• D. John Milton

Explanation: Ben Jonson praised Shakespeare in the poem prefixed to the First Folio, writing that he was “not of an age, but for all time.” The option…

• A. Macbeth
• B. Hamlet
• C. As You like It
• D. Othello

Explanation: This soliloquy occurs in Act 3, Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, where the prince weighs existence against suffering and death.

• A. Merchant of Venice
• B. Two gentleman of Verona
• C. Midsummer's Night Dream
• D. Anthony and Cleopatra

Explanation: Portia speaks these famous words in Act 4, Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice while pleading for mercy.

• A. a playwright
• B. a film-maker
• C. a historian
• D. a modern painter

Explanation: George Bernard Shaw is chiefly known as a playwright whose dramas include Pygmalion and Man and Superman.

• A. Short Story
• B. Novel
• C. Play
• D. Poem

Explanation: Exiles is a play by James Joyce, first performed in 1919. It is Joyce’s only surviving full-length drama, not a short story, novel, or poem.

• A. play
• B. novel
• C. an essy
• D. poem

Explanation: Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s tragedies, written for performance on the stage.

• A. Milan
• B. Verona
• C. Turin
• D. none of these

Explanation: Shakespeare’s tragedy is set mainly in Verona, an Italian city where the Montagues and Capulets are engaged in their long feud.

• A. W. Shakespeare
• B. George Bernard Shaw
• C. Leo Tolstoy
• D. Charles Dickens

Explanation: Man and Superman is a philosophical comedy by George Bernard Shaw, whose drama often debates social, political and intellectual ideas.

• A. Ulysses : James Joyce
• B. A Full Moon in March : W. B. Yeats
• C. Drama of Ideas : T. S. Eliot
• D. Riders to the Sea : John Millington Synge

Explanation: Ulysses, A Full Moon in March and Riders to the Sea are identifiable literary works paired with Joyce, Yeats and Synge.

• A. Ben Jhonson
• B. G B Shaw
• C. William Shakespeare
• D. T S Eliot

Explanation: William Shakespeare wrote The Comedy of Errors, an early comedy built around mistaken identities involving two pairs of twins.

• A. Macbeth
• B. Othello
• C. Merchant of Venice
• D. None of these

Explanation: The Merchant of Venice is generally classified as a comedy or problem play, whereas Macbeth and Othello are Shakespearean tragedies.