Free Prose and Essayists MCQs with Answers

• A. Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae
• B. Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love
• C. Marie de France's Lanval
• D. Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur

Explanation: Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love is a Christian mystical and devotional work, not an Arthurian narrative.

• A. The phrase refers to anchoresses' responsibility to defend other Christians.
• B. The phrase suggests that women should safeguard their spirituality through total withdrawal from the world.
• C. The phrase is considered one of the positive effects of prayer.
• D. The phrase involves becoming a nunin order to escape the bad influence of men.

Explanation: Ancrene Wisse presents enclosure as a means of guarding the anchoress’s heart from worldly temptation and preserving spiritual purity.

• A. The life of everyday people in the 5th and 6th centuries
• B. The conversion of Britain to Christianity
• C. The history of Christianity before it reached Britain
• D. The spread of Christianity after the Norman Conquest

Explanation: Bede’s history traces how Christianity was introduced to and established in Britain, especially through the conversion of Anglo-Saxon…

• A. Anchoresses should live in a dwelling attached to a church.
• B. Anchoresses should avoid gossip.
• C. Anchoresses should avoid men.
• D. All of these answers

Explanation: Ancrene Wisse instructs anchoresses to remain enclosed near a church, avoid gossip, and maintain strict separation from men.

• A. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the history of the continuity and persistence of Anglo-Saxon culture in Old English.
• B. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle offers a lay person's perspective on Anglo-Saxon history.
• C. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle focuses on the courtly adventures of Anglo-Saxon English.
• D. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle presents an accurate description of the Second and Third Crusades.

Explanation: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a set of annals recording English history in Old English, preserving the continuity of Anglo-Saxon culture…

• A. He combined zealous Christianity with English patriotism.
• B. He did not believe that Christianity was an essential part of English culture.
• C. He thought that England was a pagan wilderness.
• D. He believed that English Christians needed to move to a New Israel.

Explanation: Bede combined strong Christian commitment with pride in and concern for the English people, presenting their history within a Christian…

• A. To serve the church
• B. To withdraw and meditate upon God
• C. To pray
• D. To preach

Explanation: The anchorite's vocation was enclosed spiritual devotion, centred on withdrawal from worldly life and meditation on God.

• A. The life and poems of Caedmon
• B. The conversion of Britain from paganism
• C. The early years of William the Conqueror
• D. The tales of King Arthur

Explanation: Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudo-historical chronicle traces the legendary history of Britain, especially the story of King Arthur.

• A. English was a more commonly used language in the Church.
• B. The audience was likely unable to read French.
• C. Women were more educated, so they knew more languages.
• D. The audience was partially lay-women with little knowledge of Latin.

Explanation: Ancrene Wisse addressed anchoresses who were not necessarily trained in Latin, and its audience included laywomen.

• A. The Rule of Saint Benedict standardized monasticism.
• B. The Rule of Saint Benedict was the first example of poetry written in the vernacular language.
• C. The Rule of Saint Benedict explained the new architectural style.
• D. The Rule of Saint Benedict offered an early example of dream poetry.

Explanation: The Rule of Saint Benedict laid down a practical code for monastic life, covering discipline, prayer, work, and obedience.

• A. The short work speaks of the daunting search for truth and knowledge.
• B. It is obsessed with the descriptions of an endless and ultimately incomprehensible library.
• C. Borges takes great pains to show how the key to understanding the library is reason.
• D. The library is analogous to the universe.

Explanation: The library represents the universe and the characters’ frustrating search for truth, while its infinite books remain fundamentally…

• A. Seamus Heaney
• B. James Joyce
• C. William Butler Yeats
• D. E.M. Forster

Explanation: Seamus Heaney, James Joyce, and W. B. Yeats are major Irish writers, whereas E. M. Forster was English.

• A. Joyce's "The Dead"
• B. Hemingway's "My Old Man"
• C. Woolf's "A Haunted House"
• D. Borges' "The Library of Babel"

Explanation: Borges’s “The Library of Babel” imagines the universe as an endless library made up of hexagonal galleries.

• A. It begins with the famous line: "North Richmond Street being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers' School set the boys free."
• B. It speaks of the author's illicit relationship with a young girl.
• C. It is a dramatization of the relationship between Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
• D. It is an analysis of "Exodus" from "The Holy Bible."

Explanation: Araby opens with the sentence about North Richmond Street being a blind, quiet street.

• A. "The Dead"
• B. "The Surrealist Manifesto"
• C. "The Heart of Darkness"
• D. "To the Lighthouse"

Explanation: Eliot greatly admired James Joyce’s “The Dead” and regarded it as one of the finest short stories ever written.

• A. His career ended when he was jailed for criminal "gross indecency."
• B. He believed that art should be something more than the reproduction and appreciation of the natural world.
• C. Wilde was the author of such poems as "Bénédiction," "L'Albatros," and "élévation."
• D. He was notorious for his use of paradox.Books & Literature

Explanation: “Bénédiction,” “L’Albatros,” and “Élévation” are poems by Charles Baudelaire, not Oscar Wilde.

• A. Amy Lowell
• B. Gertrude Stein
• C. Virginia Woolf
• D. Alice Walker

Explanation: The statement comes from Virginia Woolf’s extended reflection on women, writing, and material independence in A Room of One’s Own.

• A. Women should wear more makeup in order to attract husbands.
• B. Women should make sure to receive an education in order to secure their own futures.
• C. Women should take pains to remain generous, modest, and capable.
• D. Women should be given the right to vote immediately.

Explanation: Eliza Lynn Linton’s conservative critique of the ‘girl of the period’ praises women who remain generous, modest, and capable.

• A. its mocking tone.
• B. its absurd response to a real issue.
• C. its sentimental plea to its audience.
• D. its attempt to shock readers into acting.

Explanation: Swift's proposal uses mock seriousness, grotesque absurdity, and deliberate shock to expose the treatment of the Irish poor.

• A. social contract theory of government.
• B. blank slate or tabula rasa.
• C. divine authority of kings.
• D. natural political rights.

Explanation: Locke rejected the divine right of kings and supported government based on consent, natural rights, and a social contract.