Explore topic-wise MCQs in English Literature .

This section includes 95 Mcqs, each offering curated multiple-choice questions to sharpen your English Literature knowledge and support exam preparation. Choose a topic below to get started.

1.

Which of the following terms is NOT closely associated with the Gothic novel ?

A. Horror
B. The sublime
C. Suspense
D. Picaresque
Answer» E.
Discussion
2.

Which of the following texts is an example of a sentimental novel ?

A. Pope’s The Rape of the Lock
B. Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”
C. Richardson’s Pamela
D. Lewis’s The Monk
Answer» D. Lewis’s The Monk
Discussion
3.

Which of the following works is considered to be the first Gothic novel ?

A. Congreve’s The Way of the World
B. Richardson’s Pamela
C. Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho
D. Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto
Answer» E.
Discussion
4.

Which poet did Arthur Henry Hallum associate with “the picturesque” ?

A. Alexander Pope
B. Percy Shelley
C. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
D. Alfred Tennyson
Answer» E.
Discussion
5.

Which writer is most closely associated with the serialized novel ?

A. William Congreve
B. Ann Radcliffe
C. Matthew Lewis
D. Charles Dickens
Answer» E.
Discussion
6.

Why were coffee-houses important in the Restoration ?

A. They enabled discussion about important literary texts.
B. They created a space for the exchange of pamphlets.
C. They offered people a private place in which they could plan political revolts.
D. Both A and B
Answer» E.
Discussion
7.

With which literary form or movement is the Restoration most closely associated ?

A. Familiar essays
B. Comedies of manners
C. Romanticism
D. Medievalism
Answer» C. Romanticism
Discussion
8.

With which of these writers is the “spontaneous overflow of emotion” associated ?

A. Ann Radcliffe
B. William Wordsworth
C. John Keats
D. Alfred Lord Tennyson
Answer» C. John Keats
Discussion
9.

With which text is the term mock-epic most closely associated ?

A. Wordsworth’s “We Are Seven”
B. Pope’s Rape of the Lock
C. Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”
D. Benn’s Oroonoko
Answer» C. Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”
Discussion
10.

Which of the following statements does NOT accurately characterize a lyric poem ?

A. The lyric poem is a popular form in the Romantic era.
B. The lyric poem has a song-like quality.
C. The lyric poem creates a personal sense of emotion.
D. The lyric poem focuses on action.
Answer» E.
Discussion
11.

Which of the following statements best describes the behavior of the upper-class characters in Congreve’s The Way of the World ?

A. They are somewhat jaded, but all are finally good at heart.
B. They are almost universally selfabsorbed and willing to do anything to get what they want.
C. They tend to value love above money and honor.
D. They provide a moral example for the lower classes.
Answer» C. They tend to value love above money and honor.
Discussion
12.

Which of the following statements best characterizes Romanticism’s relationship to the Enlightenment ?

A. Romanticism continued the Enlightenment’s focus on a universal order best apprehended through reason.
B. Romanticism challenged the Enlightenment’s emphasis on objectivity as the basis of truth.
C. Romanticism largely abandoned the Enlightenment’s hope in progressive political change.
D. Unlike the Enlightenment, Romanticism deemed the natural world unimportant
Answer» C. Romanticism largely abandoned the Enlightenment’s hope in progressive political change.
Discussion
13.

Which of the following statements accurately describes the theme of Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” ?

A. Nature loses its ability to affect human emotion over time.
B. Sensitivity to nature’s message comes with age.
C. Life experience does not have to power to alter human opinions.
D. It is not possible to appreciate beauty once one has aged.
Answer» C. Life experience does not have to power to alter human opinions.
Discussion
14.

Which of the following statements about the poems in Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience is true ?

A. The poems defend the industrial revolution as helping England’s economy.
B. The poems criticize religious institutions for not helping the oppressed.
C. The poems reject experience in favor of innocence.
D. The poems reject innocence in favor of experience.
Answer» C. The poems reject experience in favor of innocence.
Discussion
15.

Which of the following statements about Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 43 (“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”) is false ?

A. Sonnet 43 is similar to most other sonnets in its focus on love.
B. Sonnet 43 is part of a sonnet sequence “Sonnets from the Portuguese.”
C. Sonnet 43 consists of fourteen lines, like other sonnets.
D. Sonnet 43 is a romantic poem in the same way Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” is a romantic poem.
Answer» E.
Discussion
16.

Which of the following social issues does Dickens confront in Great Expectations ?

A. Penal reform
B. Educational reform
C. The role of the monarchy
D. Both A and B
Answer» E.
Discussion
17.

Which of the following political ideas is least related to the Enlightenment ?

A. Checks and balances
B. Social contract
C. Enlightened monarchy
D. Socialism
Answer» E.
Discussion
18.

Which of the following novelists was NOT associated with the rise of the novel as a literary form ?

A. Samuel Richardson
B. Laurence Sterne
C. Daniel Defoe
D. Charles Dickens
Answer» E.
Discussion
19.

Which of the following most accurately describes the relationship between Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and Victorian society and its ideals ?

A. Darwin’s work echoed Victorian thought with its emphasis on struggle while disrupting Victorian faith by decentering humans.
B. Darwin’s work was almost universally accepted from its first appearance.
C. Darwin’s work had little initial influence on Victorian society and culture.
D. Almost all religious authorities rejected Darwin’s work completely.
Answer» B. Darwin’s work was almost universally accepted from its first appearance.
Discussion
20.

Which of the following is NOT a central theme of Wordsworth’s poetry ?

A. The common man
B. The promises of technology
C. The outcast figure
D. The movement of time
Answer» C. The outcast figure
Discussion
21.

Which of the following is a requirement of a dramatic monologue ?

A. It has a speaker as well as an implied reader.
B. It includes elements of parody.
C. There is a “spontaneous overflow of emotion.”
D. It is written in common, ordinary language.
Answer» B. It includes elements of parody.
Discussion
22.

Which of the following is a central theme of Christina Rossetti’s poem “Goblin Market” ?

A. The dangers of sensuality to women
B. The links between sexuality and economics
C. The importance of sisterly bonds
D. All of these answers
Answer» E.
Discussion
23.

Which of the following ideas does NOT come from Edmund Burke’s Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime ?

A. The effect of the sublime on the physical body
B. The distinction between the sublime and beauty
C. An aesthetic explanation of the sublime through painting
D. The important role surprise plays in creating pleasure
Answer» E.
Discussion
24.

Which of the following genres is NOT part of the hybrid form of Behn’s Oroonoko ?

A. Nonfiction
B. Travel memoir
C. Detective story
D. Biography
Answer» D. Biography
Discussion
25.

Which of the following events was NOT associated with the Victorian period ?

A. Repeal of the corn laws
B. Opium Wars
C. Great Exhibition
D. French Revolution
Answer» E.
Discussion
26.

Which of the following does NOT characterize Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” ?

A. It is a dramatic monologue.
B. Like earlier Romantic lyrics, it takes a natural setting as an occasion for philosophical reflection.
C. It has a melancholic tone.
D. It envisions Christianity as eternal.
Answer» E.
Discussion
27.

Which of the following does NOT accurately describe Robinson Crusoe’s and Oroonoko’s relationship to central features of the early English novel ?

A. Where Oroonoko foregrounds supernatural agents, Robinson Crusoe avoids religion completely.
B. Both are largely set in South America, reflecting the relationship between empire and the early English novel.
C. Oroonoko seems to defend the aristocracy, where Robinson Crusoe elaborates the struggles of the middle class.
D. Both make claims to historical veracity.
Answer» B. Both are largely set in South America, reflecting the relationship between empire and the early English novel.
Discussion
28.

Which of the following does NOT accurately characterize Jane Eyre’s relationship to other literary works ?

A. Like Great Expectations, Jane Eyre addresses the power of wealth and class.
B. Like “Dover Beach,” Jane Eyre mourns the diminishing power of Christian faith.
C. Through Rochester, Jane Eyre develops a Byronic hero.
D. Like Great Expectations, Jane Eyre can be read as a bildungsroman.
Answer» C. Through Rochester, Jane Eyre develops a Byronic hero.
Discussion
29.

Which of the following directives was part of Queen Victoria’s moral crusade ?

A. There should be more missionary work in less civilized parts of the world.
B. Concerts in the parks that were attended by ordinary people should be banned.
C. Civil servants should talk more openly and publicly about their moral work.
D. Members of the Jewish and Catholic faiths should be excluded from public office.
Answer» B. Concerts in the parks that were attended by ordinary people should be banned.
Discussion
30.

Which of the following did NOT contribute to the growth of literacy in the 19thcentury ?

A. More magazines on the market
B. The rise in serialized fiction
C. Lower prices for magazines
D. The passage of the Reform Bills
Answer» E.
Discussion
31.

Which of the following characteristics is NOT closely associated with a comedy of manners ?

A. Witty banter
B. Epic heroes
C. Sexual promiscuity
D. Hidden identities
Answer» B. Epic heroes
Discussion
32.

Which of the following best defines the heroic couplet ?

A. Two characters in an epic who are romantically involved
B. Two lines of rhyming verse written in iambic pentameter
C. The concluding lines of any poem
D. Two characters who act as foils in a comedy of manners
Answer» C. The concluding lines of any poem
Discussion
33.

Which of the following best defines sentimentalism ?

A. A refusal to emphasize the innate goodness of humanity
B. An emphasis on the power of sympathy to allow individuals to feel others’ pain and joy
C. A sense of awe in the power of the natural world
D. A parody of the interest in emotion that developed out of the Enlightenment interest in reason
Answer» C. A sense of awe in the power of the natural world
Discussion
34.

Which of the following best defines satire ?

A. Literature that relies on devices like irony, sarcasm, and humor
B. A work of literature that attempts to improve society
C. A text that exposes serious flaws under the veil of comedy
D. All of these answers
Answer» E.
Discussion
35.

Which of the following best characterizes Wordsworth’s attitude towards the French Revolution ?

A. He thought it did not go far enough in granting women rights.
B. He opposed it in favor of supporting the king and the ancien régime.
C. He favored its democratic impulses but was appalled by its destructive nature.
D. He did not think it concerned him and his relationship to nature.
Answer» D. He did not think it concerned him and his relationship to nature.
Discussion
36.

Which of the following best characterizes the ways that Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho links the Gothic novel with the sentimental form ?

A. Its use of a medieval setting to reflect on rational progress
B. Its focus on having readers vicariously experience the dangers that a heroine faces
C. Its ambivalent treatment of its leading villain
D. Its use of the sublime
Answer» C. Its ambivalent treatment of its leading villain
Discussion
37.

Which event did Percy Shelley call “the master theme of the epoch in which we live” ?

A. Industrial Revolution
B. French Revolution
C. Scientific Revolution
D. Technological Revolution
Answer» C. Scientific Revolution
Discussion
38.

What was the “Woman Question” in the Victorian Period ?

A. A debate about whether women should be able to vote
B. A discussion of women’s roles inside and outside the home
C. A conversation about women’s work as a product of the Industrial Revolution
D. All of these answers
Answer» E.
Discussion
39.

What was the “white man’s burden” that Kipling speaks of in his poem of the same title ?

A. The pressure of conforming to preexisting social conventions
B. The burden of white colonizers who are forced to learn to live in new lands
C. The Eurocentric idea that the colonizer has a social responsibility to civilize other nations
D. The concept that all white men do not share the same imperial duties
Answer» D. The concept that all white men do not share the same imperial duties
Discussion
40.

What was the importance of the Reform Bills of 1832 and 1867 ?

A. They raised the question of whether women should be able to vote.
B. They allowed new colonization and imperialism efforts.
C. They established new standards for Victorian morality.
D. They allowed women to divorce their husbands.
Answer» B. They allowed new colonization and imperialism efforts.
Discussion
41.

What does the shift in weather in Chapter 23 of Jane Eyre reflect about the plot ?

A. It functions as a metaphor for the women’s rights movement.
B. It foreshadows a negative shift in mood
C. It symbolizes the increase in scientific knowledge.
D. It acts as an allusion to the importance of nature in the Romantic period.
Answer» C. It symbolizes the increase in scientific knowledge.
Discussion
42.

What do Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” and Coleridge’s “Dejection Ode” have in common ?

A. An identical rhyme structure
B. The belief that a person is incapable of change, even as he or she ages
C. The sense of hope that death will come soon
D. A shared theme that nature exposes the pain in human life
Answer» E.
Discussion
43.

Victor Frankenstein’s project to create life in Mary Shelley’s novel can be linked to romanticism through which of the following ?

A. His Promethean striving to exceed human limitations as explored by Byron and Percy Shelley
B. Its suggestion that the natural order has laws beyond human control
C. His desire to create a political revolution
D. Both A and B
Answer» E.
Discussion
44.

The Pre-Raphaelites are best known for which of the following ?

A. A return to neoclassical aesthetics
B. Disassociating painting and poetry
C. Lavish attention to the sensuous elements of life
D. Rejecting English poetic tradition
Answer» D. Rejecting English poetic tradition
Discussion
45.

The opening lines of Charlotte Smith’s “Beachy Head” refer to the speaker “reclin[ing]” on the “stupendous summit” of a “rock sublime” as her “Fancy” went forth. This poem reflects which of the following features common to much Romantic poetry ?

A. An emphasis on the relationship between a natural setting and the imagination as in Wordsworth’s poems
B. A focus on the poet as seer as in some of Keats’s poems
C. A call for social and political reform as in some of Shelley’s works
D. A nod to the poet as outcast as in some of Byron’s poems
Answer» B. A focus on the poet as seer as in some of Keats’s poems
Discussion
46.

The main plot of Richardson’s Pamela reflects the main characteristics of the sentimental novel through its emphasis on which of the following ?

A. Pamela’s attempt to seduce her employer
B. Pamela’s parents’ attempt to marry her to a wealthy landowner
C. Pamela’s struggle to overcome her poverty through hard-work
D. Pamela’s attempts to protect her chastity from the advances of her employer
Answer» E.
Discussion
47.

The Enlightenment in European history refers to which of the following ?

A. A period in the 18th century that celebrated industry
B. The revelation of religious truths through meditation
C. The power given to absolute monarchs by God
D. A period in which reason was celebrated as enabling human knowledge and possibly human perfection
Answer» E.
Discussion
48.

The development of the novel is associated with all of the following EXCEPT__________________?

A. scientific emphasis on detailed observation.
B. the political focus on individuals and their rights.
C. philosophical theories of sympathy and human emotions.
D. the continuing importance of mythological stories.
Answer» E.
Discussion
49.

Samuel Richardson’s Pamela and Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe similarly reflect the forces giving rise to the novel in which of the following ways ?

A. Their imperialist settings reflect the interest in faraway lands that led to adventure novels.
B. Both emphasize romantic relationships that play up the importance of women readers.
C. Both focus on the struggles of lower or middle-class characters, mirroring the development of a large middle-class readership as consumers.
D. Their epistolary forms reflect an increasing political interest in subjective feelings.
Answer» D. Their epistolary forms reflect an increasing political interest in subjective feelings.
Discussion
50.

Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas most fundamentally emphasizes which theme from Johnson’s other works or other 18thcentury works ?

A. The need for linguistic correctness as exemplified in his Dictionary
B. The promise of universal knowledge as epitomized by the Encyclopédie
C. The ultimate impossibility of achieving happiness, as espoused in his poem “The Vanity of Human Wishes”
D. The need for self-sufficiency as detailed in novels like Robinson Crusoe
Answer» D. The need for self-sufficiency as detailed in novels like Robinson Crusoe
Discussion