cultural and literary 18th 19th centuries MCQs – Page 2

Practise focused cultural and literary 18th 19th centuries questions with marked answers for exam preparation and subject revision.

cultural and literary 18th 19th centuries Mcqs
51. Complete the following sentence. The politics of Radcliffes medieval settings______________?
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A. is at odds with her explicit socialist politics.

B. suggests her commitment to the Catholic Church.

C. implies that contemporary British society has overcome the institutions leading to the horrors its characters experience.

D. indicates her longing for the older aristocracy.

52. Aphra Behns Oroonoko is a transitional text in all of the following ways EXCEPT________________?
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A. like a novel, it makes claims to historical realism.

B. like a novel, it tells its story with an emphasis on realistic detail and the everyday passage of time.

C. like a romance, it focuses on an aristocratic character considered superior to average individuals.

D. like an epic, it involves gods and goddesses.
53. Complete the following sentence. Tennysons In Memoriam and Brownings dramatic monologues can best be seen as combining neoclassicism with romanticism through their ?
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A. romantic rejection of science and neoclassical use of mythology.

B. neoclassical emphasis on traditional form and romantic subjectivism.

C. romantic emphasis on personal feelings combined with a neoclassical focus on social context.

D. romantic critique of industrialization and neoclassical use of satire.

54. Complete the following sentence. Robert Brownings poem Porphyrias Lover is_______________?
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A. a sonnet expressing his devotion to his wife.

B. a dramatic monologue spoken by a murderer.

C. a dramatic monologue spoken by Browning.

D. an epic describing a great romance.

55. Tennysons Ulysses can be characterized in all of the following ways, EXCEPT________________?
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A. it emphasizes the internal life of the mind over social action.

B. it reflects a Victorian attitude of continuing to fight against loss of hope or faith.

C. it thematizes the importance of choosing action over complacency.

D. it uses Greek mythology to comment on contemporary questions.

56. Complete the following sentence. The Romantic movement is least closely related to______________?
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A. parody.

B. folklore.

C. exoticism

D. nationalism.

57. Do we now live in an enlightened age? The answer is, no, but we do live in an age of enlightenment. ?
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A. Immanuel Kant

B. John Locke

C. Denis Diderot

D. David Hume

58. Complete the following sentence. According to Edmund Burke, the French Revolution was________________?
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A. a necessary change that was beginning to go astray.

B. a misguided attempt to overthrow human nature by rejecting tradition.

C. the ultimate expression of humankinds ability to control its own destiny.

D. an event that had little consequence to England

59. Complete the following sentence. In Popes The Rape of the Lock, elevated language functions primarily to______________?
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A. set up the parody of the pretensions of the characters and their concerns.

B. demonstrate the importance of the topic.

C. reveal the learnedness of the characters.

D. elicit the sympathy of elite readers

60. The Enlightenment in European history refers to which of the following ?
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A. The power given to absolute monarchs by God

B. A period in the 18th century that celebrated industry

C. The revelation of religious truths through meditation

D. A period in which reason was celebrated as enabling human knowledge and possibly human perfection
61. Complete the following sentence. Keatss idea of negative capability refers to the idea that______________?
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A. it is only in the absence of experience that true poetry can emerge.

B. the true poet must be comfortable with balancing conflicting ideas.

C. certain people are simply incapable of understanding poetry.

D. the poet cannot express anything beyond his own experience.

62. Which poet did Arthur Henry Hallum associate with the picturesque ?
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A. Alfred Tennyson

B. Alexander Pope

C. Percy Shelley

D. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

63. In The Rape of the Lock, Pope satirizes which of the following social institutions ?
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A. The government

B. Organized religion

C. All of these answers

D. Marriage

64. With which of these writers is the spontaneous overflow of emotion associated ?
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A. Ann Radcliffe

B. John Keats

C. Alfred Lord Tennyson

D. William Wordsworth
65. In The Way of the World, Congreve satirizes which of the following ?
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A. The aristocracy

B. The institution of marriage

C. Ideas about chastity

D. All of these answers
66. Radcliffes version of the Gothic differs most from Walpoles in its use of which of the following ?
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A. Its use of mysterious events to spur readers interests and emotional responses

B. Its medieval settings

C. The explained supernatural

D. The sublime

67. Which of the following is NOT a central theme of Wordsworths poetry ?
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A. The common man

B. The movement of time

C. The promises of technology

D. The outcast figure

68. Which of the following ideas does NOT come from Edmund Burkes Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime ?
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A. The effect of the sublime on the physical body

B. The distinction between the sublime and beauty

C. The important role surprise plays in creating pleasure

D. An aesthetic explanation of the sublime through painting

69. With which text is the term mock-epic most closely associated ?
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A. Benns Oroonoko

B. Wordsworths We Are Seven

C. Popes Rape of the Lock

D. Swifts A Modest Proposal

70. How does this quotation from Behns Oroonoko most suggest its status as an early novel: I do not pretend, in giving you the history of this Royal Slave, to entertain my reader with adventures of a feigned hero, whose life and fortunes fancy may manage at the poets pleasure. ?
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A. It focuses on adventures.

B. It denies being imagined in favor of claims of realism.

C. It focuses on a royal hero.

D. It connects to poetry.

71. Which of the following characteristics is NOT closely associated with a comedy of manners ?
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A. Sexual promiscuity

B. Hidden identities

C. Witty banter

D. Epic heroes

72. Mary Shelleys Frankenstein most reflects which central romantic themes or concerns ?
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A. The centrality of subjective experience to apprehending the world

B. Nature as mirroring the human mind and its imagination

C. The limits of scientific attempts to understand and control the world

D. The poet as special interpreter of the world

73. Why were coffee-houses important in the Restoration ?
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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
74. In which of the following ways does Radcliffes The Mysteries of Udolpho combine the features of the Gothic and the sentimental ?
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A. It has a didactic moral focus.

B. It emphasizes emotion over reason.

C. All of these answers

D. There is a focus on a central love story.

75. Complete the following sentence. John Drydens Mac Flecknoe reflects a commitment to neoclassical aesthetics through_______________?
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A. its scientific ethos and setting in London.

B. its refusal to mention Shadwell directly.

C. its commitment to an elevated taste, its use of classical imagery, and its evocation of classic forms.

D. its references to Shakespeare.

76. Which of the following best characterizes the ways that Radcliffes The Mysteries of Udolpho links the Gothic novel with the sentimental form ?
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A. Its focus on having readers vicariously experience the dangers that a heroine faces

B. Its use of a medieval setting to reflect on rational progress

C. Its use of the sublime

D. Its ambivalent treatment of its leading villain

77. What was the white mans burden that Kipling speaks of in his poem of the same title ?
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A. The Eurocentric idea that the colonizer has a social responsibility to civilize other nations

B. The pressure of conforming to preexisting social conventions

C. The burden of white colonizers who are forced to learn to live in new lands

D. The concept that all white men do not share the same imperial duties

78. With which literary form or movement is the Restoration most closely associated ?
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A. Medievalism

B. Romanticism

C. Comedies of manners

D. Familiar essays

79. Which of the following is a requirement of a dramatic monologue ?
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A. It has a speaker as well as an implied reader.

B. There is a spontaneous overflow of emotion.

C. It includes elements of parody.

D. It is written in common, ordinary language.

80. Which of the following statements best describes the behavior of the upper-class characters in Congreves The Way of the World ?
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A. They are almost universally selfabsorbed and willing to do anything to get what they want.

B. They tend to value love above money and honor.

C. They are somewhat jaded, but all are finally good at heart.

D. They provide a moral example for the lower classes.

81. What do Wordsworths Tintern Abbey and Coleridges Dejection Ode have in common ?
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A. The belief that a person is incapable of change, even as he or she ages

B. An identical rhyme structure

C. The sense of hope that death will come soon

D. A shared theme that nature exposes the pain in human life
82. Which of the following statements best characterizes Romanticisms relationship to the Enlightenment ?
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A. ightenments hope in progressive political change.

B. Unlike the Enlightenment, Romanticism deemed the natural world unimportant

C. Romanticism continued the Enlightenments focus on a universal order best apprehended through reason.

D. Romanticism largely abandoned the

E. Romanticism challenged the Enlightenments emphasis on objectivity as the basis of truth.
83. Which of the following statements about the poems in Blakes Songs of Innocence and Experience is true ?
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A. The poems criticize religious institutions for not helping the oppressed.

B. The poems defend the industrial revolution as helping Englands economy.

C. The poems reject experience in favor of innocence.

D. The poems reject innocence in favor of experience.

84. Which of the following best defines the heroic couplet ?
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A. Two lines of rhyming verse written in iambic pentameter

B. Two characters in an epic who are romantically involved

C. The concluding lines of any poem

D. Two characters who act as foils in a comedy of manners

85. The development of the novel is associated with all of the following EXCEPT__________________?
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A. the political focus on individuals and their rights.

B. scientific emphasis on detailed observation.

C. philosophical theories of sympathy and human emotions.

D. the continuing importance of mythological stories.
86. Complete the following sentence. Neoclassicism most paralleled Enlightenment thought in its_______________?
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A. emphasis on order, logic, and universal truths.

B. emphasis on the corrupt nature of the aristocracy.

C. rejection of traditional models.

D. rejection of Renaissance optimism.

87. Complete the following sentence. The Byronic hero is characterized as________________?
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A. nearly superhuman in his powers but tortured by a psychological weight.

B. devoted to religion above all things

C. always fighting for good against evil.

D. fortunate in always coming out victorious.

88. Which of the following social issues does Dickens confront in Great Expectations ?
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A. Penal reform

B. Educational reform

C. The role of the monarchy

D. Both A and B
89. Which of the following works is considered to be the first Gothic novel ?
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A. Radcliffes The Mysteries of Udolpho

B. Walpoles The Castle of Otranto

C. Richardsons Pamela

D. Congreves The Way of the World

90. Which of the following does NOT accurately characterize Jane Eyres relationship to other literary works ?
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A. Like Great Expectations, Jane Eyre can be read as a bildungsroman.

B. Like Great Expectations, Jane Eyre addresses the power of wealth and class.

C. Like Dover Beach, Jane Eyre mourns the diminishing power of Christian faith.

D. Through Rochester, Jane Eyre develops a Byronic hero.

91. In Ode to the West Wind, why does Shelley ask the wind to make me thy lyre ?
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A. To help him start a new revolutionary war

B. To help him reach the afterlife

C. To help drive his ideas across the universe

D. To help him hear natures music

92. Which of the following terms is NOT closely associated with the Gothic novel ?
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A. Horror

B. The sublime

C. Picaresque

D. Suspense

93. How did ideas about the spread of the British Empire start to shift in the Victorian Period ?
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A. People found ways to justify expansion by claiming national superiority.

B. Competition between European rivals forced the British to find new trading partners.

C. All of these answers

D. Colonizers were no longer necessarily interested in reforming indigenous populations.

94. Complete the following sentence. Wordsworth conceives of himself as a chosen son primarily because_____________?
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A. he was given special educational opportunities.

B. he feels especially connected to nature due to his experience as a youth.

C. he was endowed with a great poetic talent.

D. his brothers died in their youth.

95. In Lintons The Girl of the Period, what course of behavior does the author recommend for women ?
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A. Women should be given the right to vote immediately.

B. Women should make sure to receive an education in order to secure their own futures.

C. Women should wear more makeup in order to attract husbands.

D. Women should take pains to remain generous, modest, and capable.
96. Samuel Johnsons Rasselas most fundamentally emphasizes which theme from Johnsons other works or other 18thcentury works ?
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A. The need for self-sufficiency as detailed in novels like Robinson Crusoe

B. The ultimate impossibility of achieving happiness, as espoused in his poem The Vanity of Human Wishes

C. The need for linguistic correctness as exemplified in his Dictionary

D. The promise of universal knowledge as epitomized by the Encyclopdie

97. Complete the following sentence. Wordsworths advocacy of poets drawing on the language really used by men in his preface to Lyrical Ballads represents______________?
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A. a rejection of nature in favor of society.

B. a defense of the use of elaborate figurative language.

C. a radical break with 18th-century rules on elevated diction.

D. a continuity with poets such as Alexander Pope.

98. Which writer is most closely associated with the serialized novel ?
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A. Ann Radcliffe

B. Matthew Lewis

C. Charles Dickens

D. William Congreve