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the gothic novel MCQs

Practise focused the gothic novel questions with marked answers for exam preparation and subject revision.

the gothic novel Mcqs
1. What literary purpose does Emilys stay with the nuns at the convent NOT serve ?
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A. Emily is tested regarding the guilt and ghosts of sins past.

B. Emily learns the story of Sister Agness past.

C. Emily comes to understand the benefits of a cloistered life.

D. Emily is confronted with the duality of the human mind, at once rational and then mad.

2. What is Gothic about the narrative structure of Frankenstein ?
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A. The erratic movement of time and place

B. The reliable narrator

C. The mix of language in terms of voice, diction, and rhythm

D. The readers unwavering empathy for Frankenstein

3. For many scholars, what distinguishes terror from horror in the Gothic novel ?
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A. The male Gothic versus the female Gothic

B. Plotted revenge versus random violence

C. The persistence of the past in the present versus the betrayal in the present of the paternal protector

D. The anticipation of the violation of ones person versus an act of physical violence
4. Why does Radcliffe favor the term romance as the subtitle to The Mysteries of Udolpho ?
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A. Radcliffe considers her work a continuation of the sentimental novel of the 18th century.

B. It frees Radcliffe from a strict adherence to common life, allowing her to place Emily in challenging situations.

C. Radcliffe wants to emphasize the happy ending of the marriage of Emily and Valancourt.

D. It acknowledges the lack of supernatural plot tricks.

5. Which of the following terms is most closely related to the phrase the explained supernatural ?
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A. The fallen world

B. The Other

C. The uncanny

D. The sublime

6. Why is The Castle of Otranto often considered a reaction against the Enlightenment ?
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A. It marks a return to more primitive ways of pre-Enlightenment thought and expression.

B. It suggests that reason is more important than emotion.

C. It shows the possible dangers of science.

D. It exposes the deep flaws in medieval ways of thinking about the world.

7. Which character best represents the concept of terror versus that of horror in Lewiss The Monk ?
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A. Baptiste

B. Ambrosio

C. Agnes

D. Matilda
8. In what way do the houses in The Yellow Wallpaper and Jane Eyre differ from each other as Gothic literary structures ?
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A. The relative location of the houses within the larger communities

B. The relative age of the houses

C. The relative location of the room in which the troubled women are kept

D. The state of disrepair when the houses are first encountered by the protagonists
9. What do scholars Michael ORourke and David Collings argue about Queer Romanticism ?
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A. Romantic literary criticism has been stubbornly limited with regard to queer readings.

B. Deviant sexuality, including homosexuality, has historically been associated with Romantic literature.

C. The sexual lives of Romantic-era authors are not relevant to our understanding of queer Romanticism.

D. The Queer Gothic is understudied.

10. It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer. How does this opening sentence of Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper NOT immediately suggest the Gothic ?
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A. The uncommon nature of the event

B. The first-person narrator

C. The dichotomy between the concepts of ordinary and estate

D. The reference to ancestral halls

11. Who does NOT represent the new woman ?
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A. Antonia

B. Charlotte Perkins Gilman

C. Jane Eyre

D. Mina Murray Harker

12. How is Thornfield in Jane Eyre different from the structures found in the first wave of Gothic novels ?
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A. It is located in England.

B. It contains vault-like spaces.

C. It is mysterious.

D. It is an ancestral estate.

13. Which statement best summarizes the parallel between Frankenstein and Prometheus ?
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A. Both were successful because they followed the laws of nature.

B. Both refused to use science to do innovative work.

C. Both worked collaboratively.

D. Both suffered for their attempt to do divine work.
14. In what century and in what literary era was the first Gothic novel written ?
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A. 17th century; Enlightenment

B. 18th century; Enlightenment

C. 18th century; Romanticism

D. 19th century; Romanticism

15. The Gothic novel was intended to have which of the following effects on the reader ?
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A. To create a sense of mystery, gloom, and suspense

B. To make the reader feel distaste for supernatural themes

C. To generate feelings of intense pleasure

D. To make the reader dislike modern society

16. Which one of the following events inspired the trend of body transformation in Gothic novels ?
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A. The end of the Vitalist Controversy

B. The end of absolute monarchy

C. The increase in scientific experimentation

D. The decline in animal dissections

17. Which psychological issue is NOT typical of the Gothic novel ?
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A. Aberrant mental states

B. Violence

C. Sexual rapacity

D. Daydreams
18. What have literary critics read into the vampirism in Stokers Dracula ?
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A. The vampire represents a beloved father who seeks to gather together all the women and young men (sons).

B. The vampire represents sexual impotence.

C. The novel presents the vampire count as a father-figure of great power.

D. The vampire represents the future.

19. When Mary Shelley writes about ghosts, what is her concern ?
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A. A world devoid of supernatural phenomena is a better world.

B. A belief in ghosts is a belief in imagination.

C. The personification of nature is regressive.

D. People are foolishly superstitious.

20. What is the significance of the bloody bedchamber in Gothic fiction ?
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A. It represents male sexuality.

B. It suggests female complicity in sexual deviance.

C. It refers to the location of murder in Gothic novels.

D. It symbolizes the forced sequestration of women both before and after marriage.
21. In The Castle of Otranto which attitude does Walpole express towards primogeniture ?
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A. It is monstrous.

B. It is essentially fair.

C. It is a necessary part of the social order.

D. It will naturally fall out of favor.

22. How does the use of Gothic architecture assist the Gothic novelist ?
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A. It engenders confusion for both the novels protagonist and readers.

B. It offers a secure refuge for the novels protagonist.

C. It provides the space for a large community of people to congregate.

D. It represents the glory of a bygone age.

23. To whom is the concept of the uncanny attributed ?
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A. Edmund Lewis

B. Mary Shelley

C. Edmund Burke

D. Sigmund Freud
24. Based on your readings for the course, which of the following best states how critics often interpret the dead hand in The Castle of Otranto ?
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A. The hand represents the superiority of the Enlightenment over medievalism.

B. The hand symbolizes the danger of marriage.

C. The hand signifies the mysterious pull of the labyrinth.

D. The hand represents the claim of primogeniture over the living.
25. In The Yellow Wallpaper what does Gilman suggest about madness ?
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A. That it is necessary to contain mad women

B. That female madness is a serious obstacle to womens liberation

C. That men also are mad

D. That it is an artificial patriarchal tool
26. What quality does the Gothic novel of the 18th and early 19th centuries share with the majority of English novels of the same time period ?
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A. A focus on the individual

B. An epistolary format

C. Realism

D. An English setting

27. In Dracula what does the death of Lucy suggest ?
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A. That sexual purity was less important than societys safety

B. That men consider themselves responsible for their own fates

C. That women are not one-dimensional

D. That female sexuality is dangerous and must be destroyed
28. How is the concept of the new woman Gothic ?
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A. It represents the transformation of the traditional Victorian woman from the private sphere to the public sphere.

B. It represents the rise in psychological pathologies or madness in women in the late 19th century.

C. It represents a doubling of Queen Victoria by English women as they remake themselves in her image.

D. It represents the pollution of the ideal woman by foreign influences.

29. In what way does Thornfield Hall differ from the Castle of Otranto, Udolpho, and the Convent of St. Clare ?
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A. It serves as a kind of prison.

B. It is the scene of sexual transgression.

C. It is the scene of redemption for the Byronic hero.

D. It is the scene of violence.

30. What is Strawberry Hill ?
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A. The ancestral home of HoraceWalpole

B. The ancestral home of Ann Radcliffe

C. One of the settings in The Mysteries of Udolpho

D. The inspiration for The Castle of Otranto
31. What is the origin of the vampire myth ?
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A. Beckfords Vathek

B. Stokers Dracula

C. Ancient civilizations worldwide

D. Walpoles The Castle of Otranto

32. What is the significance of the Other in Gothic novels ?
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A. They are typically heroes.

B. They are almost always the subjects of omens and curses.

C. They always express deviant sexual tendencies.

D. They are perceived as dangerous because they are unknown.
33. According to Radcliffe, what is the difference between terror and horror ?
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A. Horror fails to awaken and expand the soul.

B. Terror involves uncertainty and obscurity.

C. Horror is only a sense of the sublime.

D. Terror contracts the soul.

34. Why has Bertha been characterized as the madwoman in the attic by literary scholars ?
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A. To make an ironic statement about the point of view and marginalization of the Other in Victorian England

B. To make reference to the rise of personal responsibility in Victorian England for the care of the sick and insane

C. To represent the expansion of Gothic literary spaces from only subterranean spaces to attics as well

D. To represent the shift from the male Gothic villain to the female Gothic villain in the Victorian Gothic novel

35. Which cultural theme is NOT referenced in Stokers Dracula ?
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A. Theories of Darwinian evolution

B. The Woman Question

C. Imperialism

D. Labor unions
36. How does Lewis portray the Catholic confessional in The Monk?
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A. As a model for contemporary police work

B. As a necessary control

C. As a voyeuristic activity

D. As a path to redemption

37. All of the following define the Gothic EXCEPT________________?
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A. The unknown

B. The grotesque

C. Reason

D. Transgression

38. In Dracula what is the significance of the typewriter ?
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A. It is a less effective tool than traditional folklore weapons.

B. It becomes a way to conceal information.

C. It serves as a path to the public sphere for women.

D. It allows women to participate in the novel.

39. Why is the concept of the sublime important in Gothic literature ?
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A. It creates a sense of contentment.

B. It causes an experience of elestasis, or transport.

C. It leads the reader to overlook the beauty of nature.

D. It reminds readers of their civic duties.

40. In what way does the Gothic novel of the 18th century differ from the modern English novel that began to emerge in the 17th century and flourished in the 18th century ?
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A. The consideration of the sensibilities of the protagonists

B. The exploration of cultural taboos

C. Plots taken from everyday life

D. The focus on the middle and working classes

41. All of the following are ways in which The Castle of Otranto reflects the values of Enlightenment England EXCEPT_________________?
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A. The concern for the sanctity of legal inheritance

B. The interest in the lessons and values of the Middle Ages for England in the 18th century

C. The support for the British class system

D. The belief in British superiority to foreign countries

42. In what way does Radcliffe depart from Walpoles earlier tradition ?
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A. She is not concerned with issues of rightful inheritance.

B. She resolves the appearance of supernatural phenomena.

C. She sets the novel in present day.

D. She creates a strong male hero to rescue Emily.

43. In what way is The Monk a reaction to the French Revolution ?
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A. It includes apocalyptic themes.

B. It condemns the misuse of power.

C. It predicts the upheaval of society.

D. It represents society as relatively stable.

44. What does the term angel in the house signify ?
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A. The idea that the Victorian woman represents the new woman

B. The idea that confinement in the home may induce madness

C. The idea that women are pure and morally superior to men

D. The idea that women should advise men

45. Why do scholars consider the first wave of the English Gothic novel an aspect of Romanticism ?
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A. The ascendency of human reason in the Gothic novel

B. The Gothic novels interest in the apocalyptic prophecies found in Hebrew and Christian Scriptures

C. The use of poetic prose in the Gothic novel

D. The representation of contemporary life in the Gothic novel

46. Which of the following is NOT a theme of The Castle of Otranto ?
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A. The rupture of the everyday by acts of violence

B. Unnatural forces overwhelming human endeavor

C. The return of the past to the present

D. The destruction of humanity through scientific experimentation
47. How does Emily show initiative in The Mysteries of Udolpho ?
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A. She leaves home in search of adventure.

B. She rejects her aunts invitation to travel to Italy.

C. She converts to Catholicism.

D. She takes control of her own money.
48. Why does one scholar suggest that The Monk represents literary transvestism ?
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A. The habited nuns

B. Lewiss use of a female pseudonym in the original edition

C. Ambrosios rape and murder of his sister

D. Lewiss choiceof a feminine literary genre

49. What is NOT Gothic about the room to which the female protagonist of The Yellow Wallpaper is confined ?
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A. It is removed from the main area of the house.

B. It is locked.

C. It is sunny.

D. It has bars on the window.

50. In The Monk what event does NO represent the theme of entrapment of women ?
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A. Agness admittance to the convent

B. Antonias death

C. The magic mirror

D. Matildas dressing as Rosario