All Free English Literature MCQs with Answers

• A. Capulet And Montague
• B. Breslow and Felsher
• C. Fuech and Goodside
• D. Dawson and Hurley

Explanation: Romeo belongs to the Montague family, while Juliet belongs to the Capulet family, and their feud drives the tragedy.

• A. The closing of theatres
• B. The return of the King.
• C. King Arthurs' dead
• D. King to exile

Explanation: The Puritan-controlled Parliament ordered English theatres closed in 1642, viewing stage plays as morally and politically dangerous.

• A. Taming of the Shrew
• B. Romeo and Juliet
• C. A Midsummer Night's Dream
• D. Hamlet

Explanation: Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play by the usual measures of word count and line count.

• A. Goorge peele
• B. Samuel daniel
• C. Phineas fletcher
• D. Thomas kyd

Explanation: Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy established the influential Elizabethan revenge-play tradition, with motifs such as a murdered victim, a…

• A. \nothing happens-twice\
• B. \political correctness gone mad\
• C. \kitchen sink drama\
• D. \angry young men

Explanation: The critic Vivian Mercier famously described Waiting for Godot as “a play in which nothing happens, twice,” capturing its repeated waiting…

• A. the rise of workshops and the collaborative ethos
• B. the diversifying impact of playwrights from the former colonies
• C. the death of the musical
• D. all but C

Explanation: Post-1968 British theatre increasingly used collaborative workshops and was enriched by playwrights from former colonies and other…

• A. 1910s
• B. 1930s
• C. 1950s
• D. 1970s

Explanation: The Angry Young Men became prominent in the 1950s, especially after John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger appeared in 1956.

• A. regional dialect and political critique
• B. religious symbolism and society comedy
• C. iambic pentameter and sexual innuendo
• D. witty paradoxes and feminist diatribe

Explanation: In plays such as Murder in the Cathedral and The Cocktail Party, T. S. Eliot tried to join Christian or religious symbolism with the…

• A. Othello
• B. Volpone
• C. King Lear
• D. Antony and Cleopatra

Explanation: Volpone was written by Ben Jonson, not Shakespeare. Othello, King Lear, and Antony and Cleopatra are Shakespearean tragedies generally…

• A. They relied on admission charges, an innovation of the period.
• B. The early versions were oval in shape.
• C. They were located outside the city limits of London.
• D. all of the above

Explanation: Elizabethan public theatres charged admission, were commonly built beyond London's civic limits, and developed polygonal or rounded early…

• A. the patron of the acting company, eg, the Lord Chamberlain
• B. the bishop of London
• C. the printer
• D. the acting company

Explanation: An acting company generally controlled the performance rights to a play and could purchase or commission a script from its author.

• A. They caused excessive noise and traffic.
• B. They charged too much.
• C. They excited illicit sexual desires.
• D. They drew young people away from work.

Explanation: Puritan and civic critics complained that theaters created noise and traffic, encouraged sexual immorality, and distracted young people…

• A. villain tragedy
• B. poetic tragedy
• C. heroic tragedy
• D. revenge tragedy

Explanation: Senecan drama strongly influenced Gorboduc through its violence, ghosts, rhetoric, and concern with revenge, helping establish the English…

• A. interludes
• B. spectacles
• C. meditations
• D. mysteries

Explanation: Interludes were short dramatic pieces, often using dialogue to treat religious, moral, or political subjects.

• A. the short story
• B. the heroic epic
• C. the morality play
• D. the romance

Explanation: Morality plays developed strongly in the fifteenth century and presented abstract virtues and vices as characters in an allegorical…

• A. "The Seafarer"
• B. "Everyman"
• C. "The Second Shepherds' Play"
• D. "The Dream of the Rood"

Explanation: Everyman is an allegorical morality play in which abstractions such as Good Deeds and Knowledge guide the protagonist toward judgment.

• A. Mystery plays involve Christian themes, whereas morality plays do not.
• B. Morality plays involve Christian themes, whereas mystery plays do not.
• C. Morality plays were written individually, whereas mystery plays are in cycles.
• D. Mystery plays were written individually, whereas morality plays are in cycles.

Explanation: Mystery plays dramatise episodes from Christian scripture and were commonly organised into cycles, whereas morality plays usually present…

• A. Cornish cycle
• B. York cycle
• C. Roman cycle
• D. Wakefield cycle

Explanation: The Second Shepherds' Play belongs to the Wakefield cycle, a collection of medieval English mystery plays associated with the town of…

• A. "The Wife of Bath's Tale"
• B. "The Second Shepherds' Play"
• C. "The Knight's Tale"
• D. "The Dream of the Rood"

Explanation: The Second Shepherds' Play is a mystery play because it forms part of a biblical cycle presenting sacred history for performance.

• A. The title suggests a long history of conflict between the government and the individual.
• B. The title is part of the morality play's attempt to make Christian struggles universal.
• C. The title alludes to other plays in the same cycle.
• D. The title suggests that faith-based issues are individual to each Christian.

Explanation: The name Everyman makes the protagonist representative of all human beings, turning one man’s trial into a universal Christian lesson…