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 69 of 160

  • A. There is an emphasis on the importance of preaching.
  • B. There is an emphasis on spiritual experience.
  • C. There is an emphasis on the freedom of sexual expression.
  • D. A and B

Explanation: Puritanism stressed preaching, biblical instruction, and personal spiritual experience.

Correct answer: A and B
  • A. Existentialism
  • B. Humanism
  • C. Stoicism
  • D. Postmodernism

Explanation: Renaissance thought placed renewed emphasis on human dignity, classical learning, and the powers of human reason, a movement known as…

Correct answer: Humanism
  • A. Charles I
  • B. Charles II
  • C. Queen Anne
  • D. Henry VIII

Explanation: Charles I was tried and beheaded in 1649 after the Parliamentarian victory in the English Civil War.

Correct answer: Charles I
  • A. Romantic
  • B. Victorian
  • C. Cavalier
  • D. Enlightenment

Explanation: Milton distanced himself from the Cavalier poets, whose verse was associated with courtly elegance, wit, love, drinking, and light social…

Correct answer: Cavalier
  • A. Charles I
  • B. Charles II
  • C. Henry VIII
  • D. Charles III

Explanation: The Restoration began in 1660 when Charles II returned to the throne after the collapse of the Commonwealth.

Correct answer: Charles II
  • A. William Blake
  • B. Alfred Lord Tennyson
  • C. Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  • D. T.S. Eliot

Explanation: William Blake was deeply influenced by Milton and responded directly to him in works such as The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Milton.

Correct answer: William Blake
  • A. Royalists and Monarchists
  • B. Royalists and Parliamentarians
  • C. Parliamentarians and Roundheads
  • D. Anarchists and Royalists

Explanation: The English Civil War opposed the supporters of the king, called Royalists or Cavaliers, to the supporters of Parliament, commonly called…

Correct answer: Royalists and Parliamentarians
  • A. French word
  • B. Italian word
  • C. Greek word
  • D. Spanish word

Explanation: Renaissance is a French word meaning “rebirth,” derived from the French verb renaître.

Correct answer: French word
  • A. Rebirth, revival and re-awaking
  • B. Reveal, revel and reverie
  • C. Raillery, renunciation and recoup
  • D. none of the above

Explanation: Renaissance means “rebirth,” especially the revival of classical Greek and Roman learning, art and culture.

Correct answer: Rebirth, revival and re-awaking
  • A. Marlowe
  • B. Milton
  • C. Spencer
  • D. Johnson

Explanation: Edmund Spenser is called a child of the Renaissance because his poetry reflects its classical learning, humanism, and renewed interest in…

Correct answer: Spencer
  • A. 14 th
  • B. 15 th
  • C. 16 th
  • D. 14 th and 16 th

Explanation: The fifteenth century is commonly described as the dawn of the English Renaissance, when classical learning and humanist ideas began…

Correct answer: 15 th
  • A. France
  • B. Italy
  • C. England
  • D. Rome

Explanation: The Renaissance began in the Italian city-states, especially Florence, before spreading northward to France, England and other countries.

Correct answer: Italy
  • A. Metalanguage
  • B. Paralanguage
  • C. Protalanguage
  • D. None of These

Explanation: Paralanguage covers vocal features that accompany words, such as pitch, tone, stress, rhythm and pauses.

Correct answer: Paralanguage
  • A. Milton
  • B. Coleridge
  • C. Carlyle
  • D. John Ruskin

Explanation: John Ruskin coined pathetic fallacy for attributing human feelings or intentions to inanimate nature, as in calling angry clouds…

Correct answer: John Ruskin
  • A. Harmony
  • B. Poetry
  • C. Tragedy
  • D. None of these

Explanation: Tragedy comes from the Greek tragōidia, meaning “goat-song,” probably referring to a song connected with a goat sacrifice or a goat prize.

Correct answer: Tragedy
  • A. Text Structure
  • B. Double meaning
  • C. Conversational structure
  • D. None of these

Explanation: Implicature is meaning conveyed indirectly in conversation rather than stated literally, so it is chiefly associated with conversational…

Correct answer: Conversational structure
  • A. One who is lover of beauty.
  • B. One who never stops.
  • C. A lover of mankind.
  • D. A person who hates mankind

Explanation: An altruist acts out of concern for the welfare of others, often putting their interests before personal advantage.

Correct answer: A lover of mankind.
  • A. Syntagmatic
  • B. Synergy
  • C. Performance
  • D. N. O. T

Explanation: Syntagmatic refers to the linear or sequential arrangement of linguistic units, such as words in a sentence.

Correct answer: Syntagmatic
  • A. Synchrony
  • B. Diachrony
  • C. Paradigmatic
  • D. N. O. T

Explanation: Synchrony studies a language at a particular point in time, while diachrony studies its historical development.

Correct answer: Synchrony
  • A. Semiotics
  • B. Semantics
  • C. Paradigmatic
  • D. Parole

Explanation: Semiotics is the general study of signs and sign systems. Semantics is narrower, dealing mainly with meaning in language.

Correct answer: Semiotics