MCQS

 

Shakespeare & His Works – MCQs

1. In which year was William Shakespeare born?

a) 1564
b) 1544
c) 1575
d) 1582
Answer: a) 1564

2. Shakespeare’s plays are mainly classified into how many categories?

a) Two
b) Three
c) Four
d) Five
Answer: b) Three (Tragedies, Comedies, and Histories)

3. Which of the following is NOT a tragedy by Shakespeare?

a) Hamlet
b) King Lear
c) The Merchant of Venice
d) Othello
Answer: c) The Merchant of Venice

4. What is the famous opening line of Shakespeare’s play Hamlet?

a) "To be, or not to be, that is the question."
b) "Now is the winter of our discontent."
c) "If music be the food of love, play on."
d) "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears."
Answer: a) "To be, or not to be, that is the question."

5. Which of the following is Shakespeare’s longest play?

a) Macbeth
b) Hamlet
c) Othello
d) King Lear
Answer: b) Hamlet

6. Who is the villain in Shakespeare’s play Othello?

a) Claudius
b) Iago
c) Macbeth
d) Shylock
Answer: b) Iago

7. "All the world's a stage" is a famous line from which play?

a) Hamlet
b) As You Like It
c) The Tempest
d) Julius Caesar
Answer: b) As You Like It

8. How many sonnets did Shakespeare write?

a) 124
b) 134
c) 154
d) 164
Answer: c) 154

9. Who is the female protagonist in Romeo and Juliet?

a) Ophelia
b) Desdemona
c) Portia
d) Juliet
Answer: d) Juliet

10. In which play does the character Prospero appear?

a) The Tempest
b) Macbeth
c) Twelfth Night
d) Richard III
Answer: a) The Tempest

11. What is the setting of Macbeth?

a) Denmark
b) Scotland
c) England
d) Rome
Answer: b) Scotland

12. Who is the historical king depicted in Henry V?

a) King Richard III
b) King Henry VIII
c) King Henry V
d) King Edward IV
Answer: c) King Henry V

13. Which of Shakespeare’s plays is often referred to as “The Scottish Play”?

a) Hamlet
b) Othello
c) Macbeth
d) King Lear
Answer: c) Macbeth

14. Who is the Prince of Denmark in Hamlet?

a) Claudius
b) Laertes
c) Hamlet
d) Polonius
Answer: c) Hamlet

15. Which famous Shakespearean character says, "Et tu, Brute?"

a) Hamlet
b) Macbeth
c) Julius Caesar
d) King Lear
Answer: c) Julius Caesar

16. What is the central theme of Sonnet 18 (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”)?

a) Love and beauty
b) Death and revenge
c) Political power
d) Betrayal
Answer: a) Love and beauty

17. What is the name of Shakespeare’s theatre?

a) The Rose
b) The Globe
c) The Swan
d) The Curtain
Answer: b) The Globe

18. Which of the following plays is NOT a history play by Shakespeare?

a) Henry IV
b) Richard III
c) King Lear
d) Henry V
Answer: c) King Lear

19. Which character is known for the famous speech “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears”?

a) Hamlet
b) Brutus
c) Antony
d) Cassius
Answer: c) Antony (Julius Caesar)

20. Who is the Jewish moneylender in The Merchant of Venice?

a) Iago
b) Shylock
c) Antonio
d) Bassanio
Answer: b) Shylock

21. Which Shakespearean tragedy features the famous "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" soliloquy?

a) Hamlet
b) Macbeth
c) Othello
d) King Lear
Answer: b) Macbeth

22. Who is the protagonist in The Tragedy of King Lear?

a) Edgar
b) Gloucester
c) King Lear
d) Edmund
Answer: c) King Lear

23. Which of these is NOT one of Shakespeare’s late romances?

a) The Winter’s Tale
b) The Tempest
c) Pericles
d) Much Ado About Nothing
Answer: d) Much Ado About Nothing

24. What is the title of Shakespeare’s last complete play?

a) The Tempest
b) Cymbeline
c) Henry VIII
d) The Winter’s Tale
Answer: a) The Tempest

25. What is the name of Hamlet’s mother?

a) Ophelia
b) Portia
c) Gertrude
d) Cordelia
Answer: c) Gertrude

26. Who kills Macbeth in the play Macbeth?

a) Banquo
b) Macduff
c) Malcolm
d) Fleance
Answer: b) Macduff

27. Which of these plays features the character of Falstaff?

a) Henry IV, Part 1
b) Henry V
c) Richard III
d) Othello
Answer: a) Henry IV, Part 1

28. Which of Shakespeare’s comedies features the characters Beatrice and Benedick?

a) As You Like It
b) Twelfth Night
c) Much Ado About Nothing
d) A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Answer: c) Much Ado About Nothing

29. Who was Shakespeare’s wife?

a) Mary Arden
b) Anne Boleyn
c) Anne Hathaway
d) Elizabeth I
Answer: c) Anne Hathaway

30. How many acts are there in Shakespeare’s plays?

a) Three
b) Four
c) Five
d) Six
Answer: c) Five

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31. Which Shakespearean play has a character named Puck?

a) Twelfth Night
b) The Tempest
c) A Midsummer Night’s Dream
d) The Winter’s Tale
Answer: c) A Midsummer Night’s Dream

32. What is the name of Othello’s wife?

a) Desdemona
b) Ophelia
c) Rosalind
d) Cordelia
Answer: a) Desdemona

33. Which play begins with the line “If music be the food of love, play on”?

a) The Tempest
b) Twelfth Night
c) Much Ado About Nothing
d) A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Answer: b) Twelfth Night

34. Which character is called “The Moor” in a Shakespearean play?

a) Macbeth
b) Othello
c) Shylock
d) Caliban
Answer: b) Othello

35. What is the full title of Shakespeare’s play Hamlet?

a) The Tragedy of Hamlet
b) The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
c) Prince Hamlet
d) Hamlet and the Ghost
Answer: b) The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

36. Who says, "The better part of valor is discretion"?

a) Hamlet
b) Falstaff
c) Macbeth
d) Brutus
Answer: b) Falstaff

37. Which of Shakespeare’s plays is believed to be cursed, leading actors to avoid saying its name?

a) Hamlet
b) Macbeth
c) Othello
d) King Lear
Answer: b) Macbeth

38. In Julius Caesar, who persuades Caesar to go to the Senate on the day of his assassination?

a) Cassius
b) Brutus
c) Decius
d) Mark Antony
Answer: c) Decius

39. Which of the following is NOT one of Shakespeare’s Roman plays?

a) Coriolanus
b) Titus Andronicus
c) Julius Caesar
d) The Tempest
Answer: d) The Tempest

40. What is the main theme of Macbeth?

a) Love and betrayal
b) The corrupting nature of power
c) Revenge and justice
d) Identity and disguise
Answer: b) The corrupting nature of power

41. How many sonnets did Shakespeare write?

a) 100
b) 125
c) 154
d) 200
Answer: c) 154

42. What is the theme of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 (“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”)?

a) Idealized beauty
b) Realistic love
c) Betrayal
d) Nature’s power
Answer: b) Realistic love

43. Which of the following poems was written by Shakespeare?

a) The Rape of Lucrece
b) Paradise Lost
c) The Faerie Queene
d) The Canterbury Tales
Answer: a) The Rape of Lucrece

44. Who is the Fair Youth in Shakespeare’s sonnets believed to be addressed to?

a) A mysterious woman
b) A young nobleman
c) A political leader
d) His wife
Answer: b) A young nobleman

45. Which of Shakespeare’s long narrative poems is about the tragic fate of a Roman noblewoman?

a) Venus and Adonis
b) The Rape of Lucrece
c) The Phoenix and the Turtle
d) A Lover’s Complaint
Answer: b) The Rape of Lucrece

46. Which of the following is NOT a theme in Shakespeare’s sonnets?

a) Love
b) Time
c) Death
d) Politics
Answer: d) Politics

47. Venus and Adonis is based on mythology from which culture?

a) Roman
b) Greek
c) Egyptian
d) Norse
Answer: a) Roman

48. Which sonnet begins with “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”

a) Sonnet 18
b) Sonnet 29
c) Sonnet 116
d) Sonnet 130
Answer: a) Sonnet 18

49. What is the structure of a Shakespearean sonnet?

a) 12 lines
b) 14 lines (three quatrains and a couplet)
c) 10 lines (two quatrains and a couplet)
d) 16 lines (four quatrains)
Answer: b) 14 lines (three quatrains and a couplet)

50. Who is the Dark Lady mentioned in Shakespeare’s sonnets?

a) Queen Elizabeth I
b) A mysterious woman
c) Anne Hathaway
d) A fictional character
Answer: b) A mysterious woman

51. Which of the following is NOT a Shakespearean comedy?

a) As You Like It
b) Twelfth Night
c) The Taming of the Shrew
d) King Lear
Answer: d) King Lear

52. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, who is the king of the fairies?

a) Oberon
b) Theseus
c) Puck
d) Demetrius
Answer: a) Oberon

53. Who disguises herself as a man named Cesario in Twelfth Night?

a) Olivia
b) Viola
c) Portia
d) Rosalind
Answer: b) Viola

54. What is the setting of The Merchant of Venice?

a) Rome
b) Venice
c) Athens
d) London
Answer: b) Venice

55. What is the main theme of Much Ado About Nothing?

a) Revenge
b) The power of fate
c) Love and deception
d) The supernatural
Answer: c) Love and deception

56. In The Comedy of Errors, what causes confusion among the characters?

a) Lost letters
b) A shipwreck
c) Mistaken identities of two sets of twins
d) A magical spell
Answer: c) Mistaken identities of two sets of twins

57. Who says, “The course of true love never did run smooth” in A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

a) Lysander
b) Puck
c) Oberon
d) Helena
Answer: a) Lysander

58. In The Taming of the Shrew, who is the shrew?

a) Bianca
b) Katherina
c) Portia
d) Beatrice
Answer: b) Katherina

59. What does Portia disguise herself as in The Merchant of Venice?

a) A merchant
b) A lawyer
c) A soldier
d) A servant
Answer: b) A lawyer

60. Who says, “All the world's a stage” in As You Like It?

a) Orlando
b) Jaques
c) Rosalind
d) Touchstone
Answer: b) Jaques

41. Which of the following is NOT a Shakespearean comedy?

a) A Midsummer Night’s Dream
b) The Tempest
c) King Lear
d) Twelfth Night
Answer: c) King Lear

42. In which play do the twin brothers, both named Antipholus, appear?

a) Twelfth Night
b) The Comedy of Errors
c) A Midsummer Night’s Dream
d) The Taming of the Shrew
Answer: b) The Comedy of Errors

43. Who is the heroine in As You Like It?

a) Viola
b) Rosalind
c) Beatrice
d) Miranda
Answer: b) Rosalind

44. In The Merchant of Venice, who disguises herself as a lawyer?

a) Jessica
b) Nerissa
c) Portia
d) Desdemona
Answer: c) Portia

45. Which play features the characters Oberon and Titania?

a) Twelfth Night
b) A Midsummer Night’s Dream
c) As You Like It
d) The Tempest
Answer: b) A Midsummer Night’s Dream

46. What is the subtitle of Twelfth Night?

a) Love’s Labor Lost
b) What You Will
c) All’s Well That Ends Well
d) The Battle of the Sexes
Answer: b) What You Will

47. Which Shakespearean comedy has a character named Malvolio?

a) Twelfth Night
b) Much Ado About Nothing
c) The Merchant of Venice
d) As You Like It
Answer: a) Twelfth Night

48. Who is the protagonist in The Taming of the Shrew?

a) Ophelia
b) Katherina
c) Portia
d) Viola
Answer: b) Katherina

49. Which of these comedies features the character of Jacques, who delivers the famous “All the world’s a stage” monologue?

a) Twelfth Night
b) The Tempest
c) As You Like It
d) The Comedy of Errors
Answer: c) As You Like It

50. Who is Prospero’s daughter in The Tempest?

a) Miranda
b) Portia
c) Ophelia
d) Desdemona
Answer: a) Miranda

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51. How many sonnets did Shakespeare write?

a) 124
b) 134
c) 154
d) 164
Answer: c) 154

52. What is the theme of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?")?

a) The fleeting nature of love
b) Immortal beauty through poetry
c) Betrayal and revenge
d) The unpredictability of time
Answer: b) Immortal beauty through poetry

53. What is the rhyme scheme of Shakespearean sonnets?

a) ABAB BCBC CDCD EE
b) ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
c) AABB CCDD EEFF GG
d) ABBA ABBA CDECDE
Answer: b) ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

54. Who is the "Fair Youth" addressed in many of Shakespeare’s sonnets?

a) The Earl of Southampton
b) The Earl of Leicester
c) The Duke of Norfolk
d) William Herbert
Answer: a) The Earl of Southampton

55. Which sonnet includes the line: "Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments"?

a) Sonnet 18
b) Sonnet 116
c) Sonnet 29
d) Sonnet 130
Answer: b) Sonnet 116

56. Which Shakespearean poem tells the tragic story of a wronged wife and her unfaithful husband?

a) Venus and Adonis
b) The Rape of Lucrece
c) A Lover’s Complaint
d) The Phoenix and the Turtle
Answer: b) The Rape of Lucrece

57. What is the primary theme of The Phoenix and the Turtle?

a) Love and fidelity
b) Betrayal and jealousy
c) War and revenge
d) The beauty of nature
Answer: a) Love and fidelity

58. Which sonnet describes the speaker’s mistress as having “eyes nothing like the sun”?

a) Sonnet 18
b) Sonnet 29
c) Sonnet 130
d) Sonnet 116
Answer: c) Sonnet 130

59. Shakespeare’s poem Venus and Adonis is based on a story from which mythology?

a) Greek
b) Roman
c) Norse
d) Egyptian
Answer: b) Roman

60. What type of poem is A Lover’s Complaint?

a) A comedy
b) A sonnet
c) A narrative poem
d) A tragedy
Answer: c) A narrative poem

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61. In which year was the First Folio of Shakespeare’s works published?

a) 1609
b) 1616
c) 1623
d) 1632
Answer: c) 1623

62. What is the primary setting of The Tempest?

a) A forest in Athens
b) A ship at sea
c) A remote island
d) A castle in Scotland
Answer: c) A remote island

63. Which Shakespearean play features the line: "The quality of mercy is not strained"?

a) The Merchant of Venice
b) Macbeth
c) Twelfth Night
d) As You Like It
Answer: a) The Merchant of Venice

64. Who was the ruling monarch of England when Shakespeare was born?

a) Queen Mary I
b) Queen Elizabeth I
c) King James I
d) King Henry VIII
Answer: b) Queen Elizabeth I

65. Which of Shakespeare’s plays is set in the forest of Arden?

a) Twelfth Night
b) As You Like It
c) The Merchant of Venice
d) A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Answer: b) As You Like It

66. Who is considered the first significant critic of Shakespeare’s works?

a) Dr. Samuel Johnson
b) Ben Jonson
c) Alexander Pope
d) John Dryden
Answer: b) Ben Jonson

67. Which 18th-century critic published Preface to Shakespeare, one of the most important critical works on Shakespeare?

a) Alexander Pope
b) Dr. Samuel Johnson
c) John Dryden
d) William Hazlitt
Answer: b) Dr. Samuel Johnson

68. Who called Shakespeare "the poet of nature"?

a) John Milton
b) Dr. Samuel Johnson
c) T.S. Eliot
d) A.C. Bradley
Answer: b) Dr. Samuel Johnson

69. Which of the following critics is best known for his psychological analysis of Shakespeare’s tragedies?

a) A.C. Bradley
b) T.S. Eliot
c) Harold Bloom
d) Northrop Frye
Answer: a) A.C. Bradley

70. In which of his essays did T.S. Eliot criticize Shakespeare’s Hamlet, calling it an "artistic failure"?

a) The Metaphysical Poets
b) Tradition and the Individual Talent
c) Hamlet and His Problems
d) The Function of Criticism
Answer: c) Hamlet and His Problems

71. Who edited the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, known as the First Folio (1623)?

a) Ben Jonson
b) John Heminges and Henry Condell
c) Francis Bacon
d) Edmund Malone
Answer: b) John Heminges and Henry Condell

72. Which critic wrote Shakespearean Tragedy (1904), a key text analyzing Shakespeare’s tragic heroes?

a) Northrop Frye
b) A.C. Bradley
c) Harold Bloom
d) William Empson
Answer: b) A.C. Bradley

73. Who described Shakespeare as "not of an age, but for all time"?

a) Ben Jonson
b) Dr. Samuel Johnson
c) John Dryden
d) Matthew Arnold
Answer: a) Ben Jonson

74. Which of the following critics emphasized the role of "Shakespeare’s invention of the human"?

a) Harold Bloom
b) T.S. Eliot
c) F.R. Leavis
d) Northrop Frye
Answer: a) Harold Bloom

75. Alexander Pope’s edition of Shakespeare’s works was notable for what major feature?

a) He modernized the text
b) He removed supposed errors and corruptions
c) He added footnotes and explanations
d) All of the above
Answer: d) All of the above

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76. Who among the following Romantic poets was greatly inspired by Shakespeare’s works?

a) John Keats
b) William Wordsworth
c) Samuel Taylor Coleridge
d) All of the above
Answer: d) All of the above

77. Which 19th-century critic wrote Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays?

a) William Hazlitt
b) Charles Lamb
c) Matthew Arnold
d) John Ruskin
Answer: a) William Hazlitt

78. Who wrote the famous essay On the Tragedies of Shakespeare (1811)?

a) William Hazlitt
b) Charles Lamb
c) John Keats
d) T.S. Eliot
Answer: b) Charles Lamb

79. What was John Dryden’s major contribution to Shakespearean criticism?

a) He defended Shakespeare’s "natural genius" despite his lack of classical unity
b) He heavily criticized Shakespeare’s use of blank verse
c) He rejected Shakespeare as an overrated dramatist
d) He rewrote Shakespeare’s plays in rhymed verse
Answer: a) He defended Shakespeare’s "natural genius" despite his lack of classical unity

80. What did Matthew Arnold say about Shakespeare in his essay Study of Poetry?

a) Shakespeare was an "unconscious artist"
b) Shakespeare was "the best poet of his time but not a universal genius"
c) Shakespeare should be ranked below Milton
d) Shakespeare’s plays lacked moral depth
Answer: a) Shakespeare was an "unconscious artist"

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81. What was Harold Bloom’s main argument in Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998)?

a) Shakespeare created the modern concept of human personality
b) Shakespeare’s works are outdated and should be reinterpreted
c) Shakespeare’s characters lack psychological depth
d) Shakespeare was not the true author of his plays
Answer: a) Shakespeare created the modern concept of human personality

82. Who applied feminist criticism to Shakespeare’s works in Shakespeare and the Nature of Women?

a) Virginia Woolf
b) Lisa Jardine
c) Marilyn French
d) Juliet Dusinberre
Answer: d) Juliet Dusinberre

83. New Historicist critics, such as Stephen Greenblatt, emphasize what aspect of Shakespeare’s plays?

a) Their psychological depth
b) Their moral messages
c) Their historical and cultural contexts
d) Their poetic beauty
Answer: c) Their historical and cultural contexts

84. Which modern critic argued that Othello is a reflection of early modern anxieties about race?

a) Edward Said
b) Stephen Greenblatt
c) Ania Loomba
d) Stanley Fish
Answer: c) Ania Loomba

85. Which of the following critical theories has been applied extensively to Shakespeare’s King Lear?

a) Psychoanalytic criticism
b) Marxist criticism
c) Feminist criticism
d) All of the above
Answer: d) All of the above

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