All Free English Literature MCQs with Answers

Every English Literature question in the bank, across all chapters, each with the correct answer and a written explanation. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.

3,192 questions · page 140 of 160

  • A. To show ideas of transcendentalism are put into action
  • B. To critique slavery
  • C. Tell his entire life story
  • D. None of the aboveDownload Interactive Maps

Explanation: Walden records Thoreau's experiment of putting Transcendentalist principles such as self-reliance, simplicity, and closeness to nature…

Correct answer: To show ideas of transcendentalism are put into action
  • A. Following orders.
  • B. Resisting arrest.
  • C. Civil disobedience.
  • D. Mutiny.

Explanation: Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience” argues that individuals should refuse to cooperate with an unjust government.

Correct answer: Civil disobedience.
  • A. The intellect
  • B. The author's personal pain
  • C. Strong feeling
  • D. Rewriting Homer

Explanation: Hazlitt links genuine poetry with powerful emotion rather than cold intellect or mechanical imitation.

Correct answer: Strong feeling
  • A. Celebrates the French Revolution
  • B. Encourages the United States to Support the French Revolution
  • C. Attacks the ideals of the French Revolution
  • D. Champions Napoleon's political vision

Explanation: Burke's Reflections attacks the French Revolution for rejecting inherited institutions, tradition, and gradual reform in favour of…

Correct answer: Attacks the ideals of the French Revolution
  • A. Revolution is inhumane
  • B. Revolution never succeeds
  • C. Revolution is proper when a government does not take care of its people
  • D. Every government should be revolted against

Explanation: Paine defends revolution as legitimate when a government violates the rights and welfare of its people.

Correct answer: Revolution is proper when a government does not take care of its people
  • A. The Visions of Petrarch
  • B. A View of the Present State of Ireland
  • C. The Ruines of Time
  • D. Visions of the worlds vanitie

Explanation: Spenser wrote A View of the Present State of Ireland in 1596, presenting his observations and proposals concerning English rule in…

Correct answer: A View of the Present State of Ireland
  • A. the race for more modes of transportation
  • B. the decline of the Irish race
  • C. the race to establish an empire
  • D. the race for Ireland's welfare

Explanation: The automobile race represents the wider European competition for wealth, power, and empire, while Ireland remains on the margins of that…

Correct answer: the race to establish an empire
  • A. that women are more at fault than men
  • B. that individuals are too passive
  • C. that people work too hard for change
  • D. that Catholicism is not to blame for problems

Explanation: “Two Gallants” presents Dubliners as morally and socially paralysed, drifting into exploitation rather than taking responsibility or…

Correct answer: that individuals are too passive
  • A. a reporter
  • B. a father
  • C. a poet
  • D. a soldier

Explanation: Little Chandler imagines becoming a poet because he sees poetry as a way to escape his dull domestic and clerical existence.

Correct answer: a poet
  • A. "The Dead"
  • B. "Eveline"
  • C. "A Painful Case"
  • D. All of the Above

Explanation: Each story presents frustrated or one-sided emotional attachment: Gretta’s memory in “The Dead,” Eveline’s uncertain relationship with…

Correct answer: All of the Above
  • A. realism
  • B. impressionism
  • C. fantasy
  • D. gothic

Explanation: Dubliners is chiefly realist because it depicts ordinary Dublin life, recognisable social conditions, and psychologically credible…

Correct answer: realism
  • A. adolescence, maturity, childhood
  • B. childhood, maturity, adolescence
  • C. childhood, adolescence, maturity, public life
  • D. childhood, adolescence, maturity

Explanation: The collection moves from childhood stories through adolescence and mature life to the wider sphere of public life.

Correct answer: childhood, adolescence, maturity, public life
  • A. she decides to stay in Ireland
  • B. she decides to quit her job
  • C. she decides to leave her mother
  • D. she leaves for France

Explanation: At the station Eveline becomes paralysed by fear, duty, and memories of her mother, so she refuses to board the ship with Frank.

Correct answer: she decides to stay in Ireland
  • A. Ezra Pound
  • B. W.B. Yeats
  • C. Ernest Hemmingway
  • D. Virginia Woolf

Explanation: Ezra Pound supported Joyce’s career and helped secure publication for his early work, including Dubliners.

Correct answer: Ezra Pound
  • A. Arthur Symons
  • B. Harriet Weaver
  • C. W.B. Yeats
  • D. All of the Above

Explanation: Joyce’s literary circle included Arthur Symons and W. B. Yeats, while Harriet Weaver became a major patron and supporter of his work.

Correct answer: All of the Above
  • A. his father's alcoholism
  • B. poverty
  • C. lack of stable work
  • D. All of the Above

Explanation: Joyce’s early family life was marked by his father’s alcoholism, serious poverty, and irregular employment.

Correct answer: All of the Above
  • A. Trieste
  • B. Paris
  • C. Zurich
  • D. All of the Above

Explanation: Joyce lived in Trieste, Zurich, and Paris during his self-imposed exile.

Correct answer: All of the Above
  • A. After his exile, he only used one "voice" in his works
  • B. After his exile, he disliked the intricacy of language
  • C. After his exile, he never used split narratives
  • D. After his exile, he used a mixture of languages and linguistic traditions in his works

Explanation: Exile widened Joyce’s linguistic and cultural range, leading him to combine different languages, dialects, and literary traditions.

Correct answer: After his exile, he used a mixture of languages and linguistic traditions in his works
  • A. Thomas Aquinas
  • B. William Bradshaw
  • C. John Foxe
  • D. William Tyndale

Explanation: Joyce was strongly influenced by Thomas Aquinas, especially his ideas about aesthetics, art, and intellectual order.

Correct answer: Thomas Aquinas
  • A. commonness
  • B. boredom
  • C. backwardness
  • D. All of the AboveTake Sociology Courses

Explanation: Dublin in The Dubliners is presented as ordinary and restricted, marked by commonness, boredom, and social backwardness.

Correct answer: All of the AboveTake Sociology Courses