Free Prose and Essayists MCQs with Answers

202 Prose and Essayists 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.

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202 questions · page 9 of 11

  • 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
  • A. acatalectic
  • B. chiasmus
  • C. fantasy
  • D. pentameter

Explanation: Chiasmus, which reverses or balances grammatical structures, is identified by critics as a recurring device in The Dubliners.

Correct answer: chiasmus
  • A. it is represented in a way that implies collective activity is needed
  • B. it reveals the sense of imprisonment that comes from routine
  • C. it reveals characters' literal inability to move away from Ireland
  • D. All of the Above

Explanation: Paralysis represents the way routine, social forces, and Ireland’s restrictive environment imprison Joyce’s characters and prevent…

Correct answer: All of the Above
  • A. The historical evolution of language
  • B. The language of different literary genres
  • C. The difference between grammar and language
  • D. All of the above

Explanation: De Vulgari Eloquentia examines the development of language, the relation between ordinary speech and grammatical Latin, and the vernacular…

Correct answer: All of the above
  • A. Tuscan
  • B. Italian
  • C. Latin
  • D. English

Explanation: Although De Vulgari Eloquentia discusses the Italian vernacular, Dante wrote the treatise itself in Latin, the learned language of…

Correct answer: Latin
  • A. In written literature
  • B. In everyday speech
  • C. In essays
  • D. In love poetry

Explanation: Dante generally associated Latin with learned, formal prose such as essays and scholarly treatises, while the vernacular was more suitable…

Correct answer: In essays
  • A. English
  • B. Latin
  • C. Italian
  • D. Tuscan

Explanation: De Monarchia is Dante’s Latin political treatise, written for a learned European audience rather than in the Italian used for much of his…

Correct answer: Latin
  • A. Thomas More
  • B. William Shakespeare
  • C. Christopher Marlowe
  • D. Philip Sydney

Explanation: Thomas More wrote Utopia, a work of political and social philosophy presented partly as a fictional travel account.

Correct answer: Thomas More
  • A. Johnson
  • B. Cromwell
  • C. Shakespeare
  • D. Luther

Explanation: In “The Hero as King,” Carlyle praises Oliver Cromwell as a heroic ruler whose strength and sincerity enabled him to lead during political…

Correct answer: Cromwell
  • A. Sesame and Lilies
  • B. The Seven Lamps of Architecture
  • C. Unto This Last
  • D. Fors Clavigera

Explanation: Gandhi was deeply influenced by Ruskin’s Unto This Last, whose ideas about the dignity of labour and social equality helped shape his…

Correct answer: Unto This Last
  • A. full of didactic sermonising
  • B. practically autobiographical fragments
  • C. remarkable for their aphoristic style
  • D. satirical and critical

Explanation: Lamb’s Essays of Elia draw heavily on memories, personalities, and incidents from his life, making them imaginative autobiographical…

Correct answer: practically autobiographical fragments