cultural and literary 18th 19th centuries Mcqs
1. How does the Encyclopdie best epitomize the mission of the Enlightenment ?
comments icon0
A. By emphasizing the idea that gathering knowledge together can lead to human improvement

B. By dismissing all knowledge from outside Europe

C. By questioning the nature of scientific method

D. By rejecting the divine right of kings

2. Which of the following statements about Elizabeth Barrett Brownings sonnet 43 (How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.) is false ?
comments icon0

A. Sonnet 43 is similar to most other sonnets in its focus on love.

B. Sonnet 43 consists of fourteen lines, like other sonnets.

C. Sonnet 43 is a romantic poem in the same way Wordsworths Tintern Abbey is a romantic poem.

D. Sonnet 43 is part of a sonnet sequence Sonnets from the Portuguese.

3. Which of the following events was NOT associated with the Victorian period ?
comments icon0

A. Repeal of the corn laws

B. French Revolution

C. Opium Wars

D. Great Exhibition

4. Which of the following statements does NOT accurately characterize a lyric poem ?
comments icon0

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 focuses on action.

D. The lyric poem creates a personal sense of emotion.

5. In Pamela, how does the epistolary style enhance the sentimental aspects of the novel ?
comments icon0
A. All of these answers

B. It does not cloud the novel with authorial intrusion that confuses the emotions.

C. It provides access to the heroines innermost reactions.

D. It provides a sense of immediacy because the letters are written in the thick of the action.

6. Which of the following best defines satire ?
comments icon0

A. A work of literature that attempts to improve society

B. Literature that relies on devices like irony, sarcasm, and humor

C. All of these answers

D. A text that exposes serious flaws under the veil of comedy

7. John Drydens poem Annus Mirabilis emphasizes the solution to which of the following important Restoration problems or events ?
comments icon0

A. The churchs potential to unify the populace after the English revolution

B. Parliaments ability to restrain the power of the King

C. The monarchs ability to squelch continuing Puritan resistance

D. Englands power to overcome the recent plague and the great fire of London
8. In which of the following ways did Hopkins revolutionize poetry ?
comments icon0

A. He created a radically new form.

B. All of these answers

C. He made obscure allusions.

D. He used unusual, arcane words.

9. Jonathan Swifts suggestion in A Modest Proposal that the Irish eat their children exemplifies the characteristics of a satire in all of the following ways EXCEPT_______________?
comments icon0

A. its absurd response to a real issue.

B. its attempt to shock readers into acting.

C. its mocking tone.

D. its sentimental plea to its audience.
10. Victor Frankensteins project to create life in Mary Shelleys novel can be linked to romanticism through which of the following ?
comments icon0

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
11. Popes comment that Know, then, thyself, presume God not to scan;/The proper study of mankind is man in his Essay on Man is indicative of all of the following EXCEPT______________?
comments icon0

A. an Enlightenment focus on useful knowledge.

B. a neoclassical emphasis on propriety and knowing limitations.

C. a radical questioning of revealed religion

D. his use of the heroic couplet.

12. Complete the following sentence. Keatss Ode to a Nightingale is characteristically Romantic because of_____________?
comments icon0

A. its focus on his lost love.

B. its elaboration of the intersecting importance of nature and the imagination.

C. its rejection of scientific progress.

D. its development of elements from national folklore.

13. The opening lines of Charlotte Smiths 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 ?
comments icon0

A. A call for social and political reform as in some of Shelleys works

B. A focus on the poet as seer as in some of Keatss poems

C. A nod to the poet as outcast as in some of Byrons poems

D. An emphasis on the relationship between a natural setting and the imagination as in Wordsworths poems
14. Which of the following statements accurately describes the theme of Wordsworths Tintern Abbey ?
comments icon0
A. Sensitivity to natures message comes with age.

B. Nature loses its ability to affect human emotion over time.

C. Life experience does not have to power to alter human opinions.

D. It is not possible to appreciate beauty once one has aged.

15. Which of the following is a central theme of Christina Rossettis poem Goblin Market ?
comments icon0
A. All of these answers

B. The links between sexuality and economics

C. The importance of sisterly bonds

D. The dangers of sensuality to women

16. Which of the following directives was part of Queen Victorias moral crusade ?
comments icon0

A. Members of the Jewish and Catholic faiths should be excluded from public office.

B. Civil servants should talk more openly and publicly about their moral work.

C. There should be more missionary work in less civilized parts of the world.

D. Concerts in the parks that were attended by ordinary people should be banned.

17. Both the Gothic and sentimental fiction emphasize which of the following ?
comments icon0

A. A sense of adventure

B. Reason over emotions

C. The power of feelings

D. The necessity for an aristocracy

18. Complete the following sentence. Shelleys Ozymandias can be linked to his Defence of Poetry through its_______________?
comments icon0

A. rejection of traditional form.

B. rejection of arts political role.

C. portrayal of the power of art to speak truth.

D. attempt to link poetry with music.

19. How does the following representative quotation from Bronts Jane Eyre reflect on Victorian social conventions? You have nothing to do with the master of Thornfield, further than to receive the salary he gives you for teaching his protge, and to be grateful for such respectful and kind treatment as, if you do your duty, you have a right to expect at his hands ?
comments icon0
A. It reiterates the class divisions that kept both men and women from social mobility.

B. It suggests that women were increasingly accepted as professionals.

C. It indicates that British society had become much more egalitarian.

D. It reveals the stern consequences of the Industrial Revolution.

20. Swinburnes poems such as Hermaphroditus are best known for which of the following ?
comments icon0
A. Their frank depiction of sexuality

B. Their conservative poetics

C. Their radical politics

D. Their nationalistic tone

21. Complete the following sentence. Unlike many Enlightenment thinkers, Adam Smith and Rousseau_____________?
comments icon0

A. traveled to America.

B. believed in God.

C. rejected Newtons view of the universe.

D. emphasized the importance of human emotions as guiding behavior.
22. How was the philosophical and popular emphasis on sensibility in the 18th century related to the development of the novel ?
comments icon0

A. Like the novel, it demonized the aristocracy.

B. Like the novel, it emphasized the importance of sympathy and individual feelings.

C. Like the novel, it foregrounded abstract reason over experience and emotion.

D. Like the novel, it focused on romantic relationships.

23. Which of the following texts is an example of a sentimental novel ?
comments icon0

A. Swifts A Modest Proposal

B. Popes The Rape of the Lock

C. Lewiss The Monk

D. Richardsons Pamela
24. The Pre-Raphaelites are best known for which of the following ?
comments icon0

A. Disassociating painting and poetry

B. A return to neoclassical aesthetics

C. Rejecting English poetic tradition

D. Lavish attention to the sensuous elements of life
25. Which of the following political ideas is least related to the Enlightenment ?
comments icon0

A. Social contract

B. Checks and balances

C. Socialism

D. Enlightened monarchy

26. Which of the following novelists was NOT associated with the rise of the novel as a literary form ?
comments icon0

A. Samuel Richardson

B. Laurence Sterne

C. Charles Dickens

D. Daniel Defoe

27. Robinson Crusoes isolation on a deserted island allows Defoe to explore his development in which of the following ways ?
comments icon0

A. His relationship to God and Christianity

B. His understanding of the basis of economics

C. His ability to identify with the slaves he has sold

D. Both A and B
28. Samuel Johnsons Dictionary of the English Language most reflects an 18thcentury interest in which of the following ?
comments icon0

A. Subjective experience

B. Classification, order, and judgment

C. Romantic origins

D. Linguistic indeterminacy

29. What was the importance of the Reform Bills of 1832 and 1867 ?
comments icon0

A. They allowed new colonization and imperialism efforts.

B. They allowed women to divorce their husbands.

C. They established new standards for Victorian morality.

D. They raised the question of whether women should be able to vote.
30. The main plot of Richardsons Pamela reflects the main characteristics of the sentimental novel through its emphasis on which of the following ?
comments icon0
A. Pamelas attempts to protect her chastity from the advances of her employer

B. Pamelas parents attempt to marry her to a wealthy landowner

C. Pamelas struggle to overcome her poverty through hard-work

D. Pamelas attempt to seduce her employer

31. Which of the following best characterizes Wordsworths attitude towards the French Revolution ?
comments icon0
A. He favored its democratic impulses but was appalled by its destructive nature.

B. He opposed it in favor of supporting the king and the ancien rgime.

C. He thought it did not go far enough in granting women rights.

D. He did not think it concerned him and his relationship to nature.

32. Which event did Percy Shelley call the master theme of the epoch in which we live ?
comments icon0
A. French Revolution

B. Industrial Revolution

C. Scientific Revolution

D. Technological Revolution

33. In Matthew Arnolds poem Dover Beach, the speaker refers to the melancholy, long, withdrawing roar of The Sea of Faith. This reference alludes to which of the following ?
comments icon0
A. The decline of religions importance in the modern West

B. His lovers betrayal

C. Religious interpretations of changes to the oceans

D. The Protestant Reformation

34. For I have learned/To look on nature, not as in the hour/Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes/The sad, still music of humanity ?
comments icon0
A. The poets changing relationship to nature as fount of meaning and significance

B. The falsity of human art as opposed to the immediate truth of nature

C. The utter rejection of youthful folly in favor of mature rationality

D. The failure of the poet when a youth to imagine his future

35. Which of the following did NOT contribute to the growth of literacy in the 19thcentury ?
comments icon0

A. More magazines on the market

B. Lower prices for magazines

C. The rise in serialized fiction

D. The passage of the Reform Bills
36. Which of the following best defines sentimentalism ?
comments icon0
A. An emphasis on the power of sympathy to allow individuals to feel others pain and joy

B. A parody of the interest in emotion that developed out of the Enlightenment interest in reason

C. A refusal to emphasize the innate goodness of humanity

D. A sense of awe in the power of the natural world

37. Which of the following does NOT accurately describe Robinson Crusoes and Oroonokos relationship to central features of the early English novel ?
comments icon0
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.

38. Which of the following genres is NOT part of the hybrid form of Behns Oroonoko ?
comments icon0

A. Biography

B. Nonfiction

C. Travel memoir

D. Detective story
39. What does the shift in weather in Chapter 23 of Jane Eyre reflect about the plot ?
comments icon0

A. It acts as an allusion to the importance of nature in the Romantic period.

B. It functions as a metaphor for the womens rights movement.

C. It foreshadows a negative shift in mood.

D. It symbolizes the increase in scientific knowledge.

40. John Locke is known for advocating all of the following ideas EXCEPT________________?
comments icon0
A. divine authority of kings.

B. social contract theory of government.

C. blank slate or tabula rasa.

D. natural political rights.

41. Complete the following sentence. In the opening lines of Gerard Manley Hopkinss The Windhover, the words daylights dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon ?
comments icon0

A. are an example of antithesis to suggest the falcons contradictory nature.

B. refer to the speakers heart.

C. use alliterative language to draw attention to the falcons importance as a symbol of Christ.

D. indicate the speakers lack of faith.

42. O my death mother! I am miserable, truly miserable! But yet, dont be frightened, I am honest! God, of his goodness, keep me so! These lines characterize Samuel Richardsons Pamela in all of the following ways EXCEPT ______________?
comments icon0

A. by emphasizing sexual morality.

B. through the personal, direct appeal enabled by his epistolary form.

C. through the sentimental attempt to make readers strongly identify with the characters feelings.

D. by emphasizing the characters fright.
43. Shelley expresses all of the following ideas in A Defence of Poetry, EXCEPT______________?
comments icon0

A. language shows humanitys impulse towards order.

B. reason can help man understand beauty.

C. civilization comes through beauty.

D. poetry has no effect on society.
44. Complete the following sentence. The opening frame narrative of Frankenstein comes from_______________?
comments icon0

A. the creature, after he has killed Victor Frankenstein.

B. Victor Frankensteins diary.

C. Walton, a failed poet who is attempting to discover the North Pole.

D. Mrs. Saville, Frankensteins cousin.

45. Which of the following does NOT characterize Matthew Arnolds Dover Beach ?
comments icon0
A. It envisions Christianity as eternal.

B. It has a melancholic tone.

C. Like earlier Romantic lyrics, it takes a natural setting as an occasion for philosophical reflection.

D. It is a dramatic monologue.

46. Complete the following sentence. The scientific revolution paralleled Enlightenment political thought and political revolutions through its similar______________?
comments icon0
A. emphasis on the world being governed by laws that could be discerned through rational exploration.

B. devotion to traditional authority in political and theoretical matters.

C. reliance on classical scholarship.

D. defense of violent emotions as natural.

47. Complete the following sentence. We can best understand the medieval setting of Walpoles The Castle of Otranto as______________?
comments icon0
A. enabling his 18th-century readers access to a world they would see as less rational.

B. commenting on the French and Indian War.

C. revealing his interest in Chaucer.

D. promoting the rise of museums.

48. Which of the following most accurately describes the relationship between Darwins On the Origin of Species and Victorian society and its ideals ?
comments icon0

A. Darwins work was almost universally accepted from its first appearance.

B. Almost all religious authorities rejected Darwins work completely.

C. Darwins work had little initial influence on Victorian society and culture.

D. Darwins work echoed Victorian thought with its emphasis on struggle while disrupting Victorian faith by decentering humans.
49. Samuel Richardsons Pamela and Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe similarly reflect the forces giving rise to the novel in which of the following ways ?
comments icon0

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.

50. What was the Woman Question in the Victorian Period ?
comments icon0

A. A discussion of womens roles inside and outside the home

B. A conversation about womens work as a product of the Industrial Revolution

C. A debate about whether women should be able to vote

D. All of these answers