TestUstad

Free Literary Criticism MCQs with Answers

268 Literary Criticism MCQs from English Literature, each with the correct answer and a written explanation of why it is correct. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.

Last updated

268 questions · page 14 of 14

261. According to most critics, how does Dante distinguish love from lust ?

  • A. Lust is often pure, while love tends to be crude.
  • B. Lust and love are both sins that place the sinner in hell.
  • C. Lust involves the subordination of reason to desire.
  • D. Lust leads to moral improvement, while love is a more destructive force.

Explanation: For Dante, lust occurs when sexual desire overrules rational judgment and moral order.

Read the full explanation →
Correct answer: Lust involves the subordination of reason to desire.

262. According to critics, how does Dante's underworld differ from Virgil's hell ?

  • A. Unlike Virgil's hell, Dante's underworld focuses on punishment for sins.
  • B. Unlike Virgil's hell, Dante's underworld is concerned with destiny and future.
  • C. Unlike Virgil's hell, Dante's underworld is not expected to last forever.
  • D. Unlike Virgil's hell, Dante's underworld does not include examples of justice.

Explanation: Dante’s Hell is organised as a Christian moral system in which sinners receive punishments corresponding to their sins.

Read the full explanation →
Correct answer: Unlike Virgil's hell, Dante's underworld focuses on punishment for sins.

263. According to Dante, what does the term "gramatica" mean ?

  • A. It is static language with unchanging rules.
  • B. It is the language spoken by everyday people.
  • C. It is the only kind of illustrious vernacular.
  • D. It is synonymous with natural language.

Explanation: For Dante, grammatica means a deliberately constructed, stable language governed by fixed rules, unlike the changing vernacular spoken by…

Read the full explanation →
Correct answer: It is static language with unchanging rules.

264. According to skeptics of Shakespeare's authorship, all of the following are considered to be the "true" authors of some of Shakespeare's plays EXCEPT________________?

  • A. Thomas More.
  • B. Francis Bacon.
  • C. Earl of Oxford.
  • D. John Shakespeare.

Explanation: Francis Bacon and the Earl of Oxford are famous anti-Stratfordian candidates, while John Shakespeare, William's father, has not been…

Read the full explanation →
Correct answer: John Shakespeare.

265. That Milton was of the Devil's party without knowing it, was said by ?

  • A. Blake
  • B. Eliot
  • C. Johnson
  • D. Shelley

Explanation: William Blake described Milton as being ‘of the Devil's party without knowing it’ because Milton's imaginative sympathy appears to lie…

Read the full explanation →
Correct answer: Blake

266. Who said that Shakespeare in his comedies has only heroines and no heroes ?

  • A. Ben Jonson
  • B. John Ruskin
  • C. Thomas Carlyle
  • D. William Hazlitt

Explanation: John Ruskin praised Shakespeare's comic heroines and observed that Shakespeare's comedies have ‘only heroines and no heroes.’ The…

Read the full explanation →
Correct answer: John Ruskin

267. Who called 'The Waste Land 'a music of ideas' ?

  • A. Allen Tate
  • B. J.C Ransom
  • C. I.A Richards
  • D. F. R Leavis

Explanation: Allen Tate described T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land as “a music of ideas,” highlighting how its meanings arise through recurring images…

Read the full explanation →
Correct answer: Allen Tate

268. Who called Shelley 'a beautiful and ineffectual angel beating in the void his luminous wings in vain' ?

  • A. Walter Pater
  • B. A. C. Swinburne
  • C. Matthew Arnold
  • D. T. S. Eliot

Explanation: Matthew Arnold used this striking image in his essay “Shelley” to criticise Shelley’s idealism as beautiful but ineffective in practical…

Read the full explanation →
Correct answer: Matthew Arnold
Start Free Literary Criticism Practice MCQs Test