Quiz: Test Your Knowledge of Classic Literature

Classic Literature Quiz

Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator”

  1. What is the primary theme of Charlie Chaplin’s final speech in The Great Dictator?

    • a) War and conquest
    • b) Freedom and humanity
    • c) Scientific advancements
    • d) The power of dictatorship

    Answer: b) Freedom and humanity

  2. In his speech, Chaplin warns against the dangers of:

    • a) Democracy
    • b) Dictatorship and oppression
    • c) Industrialization
    • d) Religious beliefs

    Answer: b) Dictatorship and oppression

  3. What literary device is used in the line, “More than machinery, we need humanity”?

    • a) Metaphor
    • b) Alliteration
    • c) Contrast
    • d) Hyperbole

    Answer: c) Contrast (Opposing ideas of machinery and humanity)

  4. The speech encourages soldiers and people to:

    • a) Obey without question
    • b) Fight for democracy and freedom
    • c) Support war efforts
    • d) Surrender to dictators

    Answer: b) Fight for democracy and freedom

  5. What is the tone of the speech?

    • a) Aggressive and hateful
    • b) Hopeful and inspirational
    • c) Sad and melancholic
    • d) Neutral and indifferent

    Answer: b) Hopeful and inspirational

  6. The speech criticizes leaders who:

    • a) Promote peace and cooperation
    • b) Encourage war and exploitation
    • c) Work for the people’s benefit
    • d) Are weak and indecisive

    Answer: b) Encourage war and exploitation

  7. Which of the following lines from the speech contains personification?

    • a) “Do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed.”
    • b) “We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in.”
    • c) “Greed has poisoned men’s souls.”
    • d) “Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people.”

    Answer: c) “Greed has poisoned men’s souls.” (Greed is given human-like qualities)

  8. What does Chaplin emphasize about power in his speech?

    • a) It should be held only by dictators
    • b) It belongs to the people
    • c) It should never be questioned
    • d) It is dangerous and should be avoided

    Answer: b) It belongs to the people

  9. Which historical event heavily influenced the themes of The Great Dictator?

    • a) The American Civil War
    • b) World War II and the rise of fascism
    • c) The Great Depression
    • d) The Vietnam War

    Answer: b) World War II and the rise of fascism

  10. The final words of the speech encourage:

    • a) Unity and brotherhood
    • b) Revenge against oppressors
    • c) Fear and obedience
    • d) Isolationism

    Answer: a) Unity and brotherhood

“The Great Dictator” Film Facts

  1. When was The Great Dictator released?

    • a) 1935
    • b) 1940
    • c) 1945
    • d) 1950

    Answer: b) 1940

  2. The Great Dictator is primarily a:

    • a) Horror film
    • b) Romantic comedy
    • c) Satirical political comedy
    • d) Science fiction movie

    Answer: c) Satirical political comedy

  3. Who does Charlie Chaplin portray in the film?

    • a) A Jewish barber and a dictator
    • b) A soldier and a general
    • c) A teacher and a revolutionary
    • d) A journalist and a war hero

    Answer: a) A Jewish barber and a dictator

  4. The character of Adenoid Hynkel in The Great Dictator is a parody of which real-life figure?

    • a) Benito Mussolini
    • b) Joseph Stalin
    • c) Adolf Hitler
    • d) Winston Churchill

    Answer: c) Adolf Hitler

  5. What is the name of the fictional country in The Great Dictator?

    • a) Tomania
    • b) Germania
    • c) Oceania
    • d) Mordania

    Answer: a) Tomania

  6. What is the significance of the globe scene where Hynkel plays with an inflatable globe?

    • a) It shows his love for the world
    • b) It represents his desire for world domination
    • c) It is a celebration of peace
    • d) It is a scene of destruction

    Answer: b) It represents his desire for world domination

  7. The film mocks fascism and dictatorship primarily through:

    • a) Tragic storytelling
    • b) Propaganda techniques
    • c) Satirical humor and exaggeration
    • d) Serious historical analysis

    Answer: c) Satirical humor and exaggeration

  8. Which other dictator is mocked in the film through the character of Benzino Napaloni?

    • a) Joseph Stalin
    • b) Francisco Franco
    • c) Benito Mussolini
    • d) Emperor Hirohito

    Answer: c) Benito Mussolini

  9. What happens at the end of the film?

    • a) The Jewish barber, mistaken for Hynkel, gives a powerful speech about freedom and democracy
    • b) Hynkel conquers the world
    • c) The barber is executed
    • d) Hynkel realizes his mistakes and reforms

    Answer: a) The Jewish barber, mistaken for Hynkel, gives a powerful speech about freedom and democracy

  10. What is the main message of The Great Dictator?

    • a) The power of dictatorship
    • b) The need for war and expansion
    • c) The importance of human rights, democracy, and freedom
    • d) The strength of military leadership

    Answer: c) The importance of human rights, democracy, and freedom

Ted Hughes’ “Hawk Roosting”: Poem Analysis

  1. What type of poem is “Hawk Roosting”?

    • a) Sonnet
    • b) Dramatic monologue
    • c) Ballad
    • d) Elegy

    Answer: b) Dramatic monologue

  2. What is the poem’s stanza structure?

    • a) Three-line stanzas (tercets)
    • b) Four-line stanzas (quatrains)
    • c) Six-line stanzas (sestets)
    • d) Five-line stanzas (quintains)

    Answer: b) Four-line stanzas (quatrains)

  3. What is the rhyme scheme of “Hawk Roosting”?

    • a) AABB
    • b) ABAB
    • c) Free verse (no fixed rhyme scheme)
    • d) ABCD

    Answer: c) Free verse (no fixed rhyme scheme)

  4. The poem is written in which type of verse?

    • a) Blank verse
    • b) Free verse
    • c) Iambic pentameter
    • d) Heroic couplets

    Answer: b) Free verse

  5. What is the predominant tone of the poem?

    • a) Humble and peaceful
    • b) Arrogant and authoritative
    • c) Nostalgic and sorrowful
    • d) Joyful and celebratory

    Answer: b) Arrogant and authoritative

  6. The poem is structured around the thoughts of a single speaker (the hawk). This makes it a:

    • a) Lyric poem
    • b) Narrative poem
    • c) Dramatic monologue
    • d) Satirical poem

    Answer: c) Dramatic monologue

  7. How does the structure of short, forceful lines affect the poem?

    • a) It creates a sense of hesitation
    • b) It mimics the hawk’s decisive and powerful nature
    • c) It slows down the pace of the poem
    • d) It makes the poem sound weak and uncertain

    Answer: b) It mimics the hawk’s decisive and powerful nature

  8. What poetic device is most emphasized through the structure of the poem?

    • a) Enjambment
    • b) Rhyme scheme
    • c) Meter
    • d) Alliteration

    Answer: a) Enjambment

“Hawk Roosting”: Literary Devices

  1. What literary device is used in the line “I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed”?

    • a) Simile
    • b) Metaphor
    • c) Personification
    • d) Hyperbole

    Answer: c) Personification

  2. The hawk speaking in the first person (“I”) is an example of which literary technique?

    • a) Symbolism
    • b) Dramatic monologue
    • c) Free verse
    • d) Irony

    Answer: b) Dramatic monologue

  3. What literary device is present in the phrase “The sun is behind me”?

    • a) Imagery
    • b) Metaphor
    • c) Symbolism
    • d) Onomatopoeia

    Answer: c) Symbolism (The sun symbolizes power and divine authority.)

  4. The phrase “Tearing off heads” is an example of which literary device?

    • a) Hyperbole
    • b) Metaphor
    • c) Alliteration
    • d) Imagery

    Answer: d) Imagery (It creates a vivid picture of violence.)

  5. The line “My feet are locked upon the rough bark” uses which literary device?

    • a) Metaphor
    • b) Alliteration
    • c) Personification
    • d) Hyperbole

    Answer: b) Alliteration (Repetition of “l” sounds in “locked” and “bark.”)

  6. The phrase “The convenience of the high trees!” suggests which literary device?

    • a) Satire
    • b) Irony
    • c) Euphemism
    • d) Personification

    Answer: d) Personification (The trees are described as being “convenient,” as if they exist to serve the hawk.)

  7. The hawk’s belief that it has control over life and death is an example of which literary technique?

    • a) Hyperbole
    • b) Juxtaposition
    • c) Irony
    • d) Allegory

    Answer: a) Hyperbole (The hawk exaggerates its control over nature.)

  8. The structure of the poem, with short, forceful sentences, contributes to which literary device?

    • a) Free verse
    • b) Caesura
    • c) Enjambment
    • d) Rhyme scheme

    Answer: b) Caesura (The use of short sentences creates pauses that add to the hawk’s commanding tone.)

  9. The line “I kill where I please because it is all mine” reflects which literary device?

    • a) Metaphor
    • b) Repetition
    • c) Symbolism
    • d) Arrogant tone

    Answer: d) Arrogant tone (The hawk’s absolute confidence in its power is emphasized.)

  10. The hawk represents more than just a bird—it symbolizes power, control, and dominance. What literary device is this?

    • a) Allegory
    • b) Symbolism
    • c) Hyperbole
    • d) Personification

    Answer: b) Symbolism

“Hawk Roosting”: Themes and Interpretation

  1. What is the central theme of “Hawk Roosting”?

    • a) The beauty of nature
    • b) The brutality of power and dominance
    • c) The intelligence of birds
    • d) The struggle for survival

    Answer: b) The brutality of power and dominance

  2. What literary device is used in the line “I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed”?

    • a) Metaphor
    • b) Personification
    • c) Symbolism
    • d) Alliteration

    Answer: b) Personification

  3. How does the hawk view itself in the poem?

    • a) As a fragile creature
    • b) As a ruler with absolute power
    • c) As part of a larger ecosystem
    • d) As a victim of nature

    Answer: b) As a ruler with absolute power

  4. What is the effect of the first-person narration in the poem?

    • a) It creates sympathy for the hawk
    • b) It makes the hawk’s arrogance more striking
    • c) It makes the poem sound like a scientific description
    • d) It distances the reader from the hawk’s perspective

    Answer: b) It makes the hawk’s arrogance more striking

  5. The line “The sun is behind me” suggests what about the hawk?

    • a) It is physically weak
    • b) It believes it has divine support
    • c) It is afraid of the dark
    • d) It is moving toward death

    Answer: b) It believes it has divine support

  6. The phrase “tearing off heads” is an example of which literary device?

    • a) Hyperbole
    • b) Metaphor
    • c) Alliteration
    • d) Imagery

    Answer: d) Imagery

  7. What does the hawk symbolize in the poem?

    • a) The fragility of life
    • b) The ruthless nature of power and control
    • c) The beauty of flight
    • d) The balance of nature

    Answer: b) The ruthless nature of power and control

  8. The phrase “nothing has changed since I began” suggests what about the hawk’s attitude?

    • a) It acknowledges change as part of life
    • b) It believes in its eternal dominance
    • c) It wants to escape nature’s cycle
    • d) It is unaware of its surroundings

    Answer: b) It believes in its eternal dominance

  9. What is the main contrast in “Hawk Roosting”?

    • a) The hawk’s strength vs. its fragility
    • b) The hawk’s brutality vs. nature’s gentleness
    • c) The hawk’s intelligence vs. human foolishness
    • d) The hawk’s hunger vs. its laziness

    Answer: b) The hawk’s brutality vs. nature’s gentleness

William Faulkner: Fictional County and Narrative Style

  1. What is the name of the fictional county Faulkner created for many of his works?

    • a) Jefferson County
    • b) Yoknapatawpha County
    • c) Maycomb County
    • d) Faulkner County

    Answer: b) Yoknapatawpha County

  2. Faulkner is known for his use of which narrative technique?

    • a) First-person limited perspective
    • b) Stream of consciousness
    • c) Epistolary format
    • d) Magical realism

    Answer: b) Stream of consciousness

  3. Which novel is considered William Faulkner’s most complex work, using multiple perspectives and stream of consciousness?

    • a) Light in August
    • b) The Sound and the Fury
    • c) The Reivers
    • d) A Rose for Emily

    Answer: b) The Sound and the Fury

William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize

  1. In which year did William Faulkner receive the Nobel Prize for Literature?

    • a) 1945
    • b) 1949
    • c) 1950
    • d) 1951

    Answer: c) 1950

  2. What is the central theme of Faulkner’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech?

    • a) The importance of financial success
    • b) The survival of mankind through endurance and resilience
    • c) The decline of literature in the modern era
    • d) The superiority of American literature

    Answer: b) The survival of mankind through endurance and resilience

  3. Faulkner claims that the writer’s duty is to write about what?

    • a) War and politics
    • b) The human spirit and emotions
    • c) Scientific discoveries
    • d) Historical events

    Answer: b) The human spirit and emotions

  4. According to Faulkner, what is the only thing worth writing about?

    • a) Love
    • b) The human heart in conflict with itself
    • c) Power and authority
    • d) Nature and its beauty

    Answer: b) The human heart in conflict with itself

  5. Faulkner suggests that modern writers are too preoccupied with what?

    • a) Love and romance
    • b) Fear and doom
    • c) Science and technology
    • d) Political ideologies

    Answer: b) Fear and doom

  6. What does Faulkner believe will help writers create great literature?

    • a) Mastery of language and grammar
    • b) Understanding human emotions and conflicts
    • c) Studying past literary works
    • d) Traveling the world

    Answer: b) Understanding human emotions and conflicts

  7. Faulkner’s speech emphasizes the importance of which quality in humanity?

    • a) Intelligence
    • b) Wealth
    • c) Endurance
    • d) Physical strength

    Answer: c) Endurance

  8. According to Faulkner, what must a writer never forget?

    • a) His responsibility to entertain
    • b) His duty to write without fear
    • c) The problems of his time
    • d) The truths of the human heart

    Answer: d) The truths of the human heart

  9. What does Faulkner say about the role of fear in contemporary literature?

    • a) Fear strengthens the quality of literature
    • b) Writers have forgotten how to write about anything except fear
    • c) Fear is necessary for good storytelling
    • d) Literature should focus only on fear

    Answer: b) Writers have forgotten how to write about anything except fear

  10. How does Faulkner end his speech?

    • a) By predicting the decline of literature
    • b) By encouraging writers to embrace courage and resilience
    • c) By expressing gratitude for the prize
    • d) By warning about the dangers of technology

    Answer: b) By encouraging writers to embrace courage and resilience

Faulkner’s Nobel Prize Speech: Literary Devices

  1. Which literary device does Faulkner use when he says, “the human heart in conflict with itself”?

    • a) Metaphor
    • b) Simile
    • c) Alliteration
    • d) Personification

    Answer: a) Metaphor

  2. When Faulkner states that “I decline to accept the end of man”, which literary device is he using?

    • a) Hyperbole
    • b) Symbolism
    • c) Paradox
    • d) Irony

    Answer: c) Paradox

  3. The phrase “He will prevail”, referring to humanity’s endurance, is an example of which literary device?

    • a) Alliteration
    • b) Repetition
    • c) Imagery
    • d) Onomatopoeia

    Answer: b) Repetition

  4. Faulkner’s reference to “the last ding-dong of doom” is an example of which literary device?

    • a) Onomatopoeia
    • b) Hyperbole
    • c) Metaphor
    • d) Symbolism

    Answer: b) Hyperbole

  5. What literary device does Faulkner use when he speaks of the “agony and sweat of the human spirit”?

    • a) Personification
    • b) Simile
    • c) Oxymoron
    • d) Symbolism

    Answer: a) Personification

  6. Faulkner’s use of “courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice” is an example of which literary technique?

    • a) Simile
    • b) Parallelism
    • c) Antithesis
    • d) Epistrophe

    Answer: b) Parallelism

  7. The “writer must learn them again” refers to which literary device, as Faulkner emphasizes the need for writers to focus on deep human emotions?

    • a) Symbolism
    • b) Allusion
    • c) Irony
    • d) Repetition

    Answer: d) Repetition

  8. What literary device is Faulkner using when he says, “the basest of all things is to be afraid”?

    • a) Hyperbole
    • b) Metaphor
    • c) Personification
    • d) Irony

    Answer: a) Hyperbole

  9. Which literary device is used when Faulkner refers to writing as “a life’s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit”?

    • a) Metaphor
    • b) Simile
    • c) Symbolism
    • d) Imagery

    Answer: d) Imagery

  10. Faulkner’s speech is an example of which larger rhetorical device that conveys a moral lesson?

    • a) Anecdote
    • b) Allegory
    • c) Didacticism
    • d) Euphemism

    Answer: c) Didacticism

William Blake’s “The Tyger”: Poem Analysis

  1. “The Tyger” is a poem from which collection by William Blake?

    • a) Songs of Innocence
    • b) Songs of Experience
    • c) The Prelude
    • d) Lyrical Ballads

    Answer: b) Songs of Experience

  2. What is the central theme of “The Tyger”?

    • a) The beauty of nature
    • b) The contrast between good and evil
    • c) The power of love
    • d) The journey of the soul

    Answer: b) The contrast between good and evil

  3. What question does the speaker repeatedly ask in “The Tyger”?

    • a) “Why do you roam the night?”
    • b) “What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?”
    • c) “Who gave you such bright flames?”
    • d) “What makes you so fierce?”

    Answer: b) “What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?”

  4. What does the tiger symbolize in the poem?

    • a) Innocence and purity
    • b) Power and divine creation
    • c) Peace and tranquility
    • d) The simplicity of life

    Answer: b) Power and divine creation

  5. Which literary device is used in the phrase “burning bright” in the poem?

    a) Simile
    b) Alliteration
    c) Personification
    d) Metaphor

    Answer: b) Alliteration

    6. What does the poet compare the creator of the tiger to?

    a) A sculptor
    b) A blacksmith
    c) A king
    d) A shepherd

    Answer: b) A blacksmith

    7. The phrase “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” suggests what idea?

    a) That the tiger and the lamb are unrelated
    b) That the same God created both gentleness and fierceness
    c) That the tiger is superior to the lamb
    d) That the tiger was created by a different god

    Answer: b) That the same God created both gentleness and fierceness

    8. What type of poem is “The Tyger”?

    a) Sonnet
    b) Ballad
    c) Lyric poem
    d) Epic

    Answer: c) Lyric poem

    9. What is the dominant meter used in “The Tyger”?

    a) Iambic pentameter
    b) Trochaic tetrameter
    c) Free verse
    d) Dactylic hexameter

    Answer: b) Trochaic tetrameter

    10. How does “The Tyger” contrast with Blake’s poem “The Lamb”?

    a) “The Lamb” focuses on nature, while “The Tyger” focuses on war
    b) “The Lamb” represents innocence, while “The Tyger” represents experience
    c) “The Lamb” is about an angel, while “The Tyger” is about a demon
    d) “The Lamb” is written in free verse, while “The Tyger” follows strict rhyme

    Answer: b) “The Lamb” represents innocence, while “The Tyger” represents experience5