A TO Z Literary Principles from History of English Literature: Note 46

Short notes on History of English Literature

A Set of 26 Objective Questions & Answers

a. Catherine is the heroine of ‘A Farewell to Arms’. Henry is the hero of ‘A Farewell to Arms’. Lieutenant Henry was commander of an Ambulance unit.

b.  Willy Loman is a hero of ‘Death of a Salesman’.

c.  ‘Walden’ is written by Thoreau. Mahatma Gandhi was inspired by Thoreau. Thoreau had read Hindu Scriptures.

d.  ‘Stopping by Woods’ inspired Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru.

e.  Frost is also called a regional and pastoral poet.
f.  In the last scene of Hamlet Horatio   bids flights of angels to sing Hamlet to his rest.

g. Jane Austen’s light comic touch and finely developed sense of irony are evident in Emma.

h. Jane Austen’s last completed novel, Persuasion, has a more sombre tone than her earlier work.
 
i.  Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift's “A Modest Proposal” (anonymously published in 1729) is a powerful political satire about the economic and social conditions of the poor in Ireland under British rule. 

j. Some critics suggest that Shakespeare uses images of physical corruption in Hamlet to suggest the rottenness in Denmark. 

k. The first regular comedy by Ralph Roister Doister was written by Nicholas Udall.

l.  “It expresses Shakespeare’s highest and serenest view of life.” This is a comment made by the critic Dowden on Shakespeare’s  The Tempest.

m.  The Elizabethan Revenge tragedy was inspired by the plays of Seneca the Younger.

n.  The mysterious woman present in the sonnets of Shakespeare is known as  Dark Lady.

o.  Prothalamion and Epithalamion are called Irregular Odes odes.

p. ‘The Fairie Queene” and ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ are examples of Allegory.

q.  Samson Agonistes is a tragedy on the Greek model written by Milton.

r.  The verse form used in Paradise Lost is Blank Verse.

s.  The French writer who is called the father of modern essay is Montaigne. 

t.  One of the most celebrated novels in the English language, the powerfully written and psychologically penetrating Jane Eyre (1847) is partially based on English novelist Charlotte Brontë’s own experiences.

u.  A Picaresque novel represents a wandering hero, uses first person narrative  and is  characterized by a vast social canvas.  

v.  The verse form used by Chaucer in Canterbury Tales is Blank verse.

w.  Negative capability is the term used by Keats to refer to the negation of the rationalizing power of the mind.

x.  “The School for Scandal’ and ‘Importance of being Earnest’ are examples of  Sentimental Comedy.

y.  Interior Monologue is a term sometimes used interchangeably with stream of consciousness.

z.  Mathew Arnold called P.B.Shelley “a beautiful and ineffectual angel
beating his luminous wings in the void”.

            Ardhendu De

Ref: 1. Microsoft Students’ Encarta

       2. History of English Literature- Albert 

       3. The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature