English Language

Literary Analysis

4,495 Questions

Analyze classic and modernist novels, autobiographies, plays, and graphic novels across various genres. This topic tests your familiarity with prominent authors, literary movements, and thematic elements. Questions appear regularly in the English language sections of SSC, banking, and teaching competency exams.

Classic and modernist novelsAutobiographies and biographiesPoetic language and farcesThematic literary elements

Literary Analysis Questions

Multiple choice story and its elements writing english

Identify the mood created by the following elements of setting:
Weather: cold and snowy
Climate: winter
Time of day: late afternoon
Locale: quiet neighborhood, a room in a small house
Lighting: dim 

  1. Celebratory

  2. Calm

  3. Exciting

  4. Melancholy
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Options A and C requires a setting of a lively, joyous and bright environment with vibrant colours and happy moods; and option D is suited in the elements like gloomy, dark and sad environment.

The mood of cold, snowy winter in the late afternoon, when there is still dim lighting from the setting sun in a quiet neighbourhood suggests a calm and peaceful setting. Therefore option B is the correct answer. 

Multiple choice story and its elements writing english

Which of the following is an example of a part of an exposition?
Choose the best option:

  1. The very next day, she woke up to find herself in a new place ...

  2. Once upon a time, there lived a gracious king ...

  3. Finally, the witch was dead ...

  4. There was only one way out ...
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

 An exposition is 'a comprehensive description and explanation of an idea or theory'.

In literature, it's a literary device that introduces background information about events, settings, characters or other elements of a work to the reader.
Option B: This line 'once upon a time...' introduces a story, which is a part of a story. Hence option B is correct.
Option A: This line is a continuation of a story, and in the middle of a scene.
It does not reveal any background information.
Option C: This line is a conclusion and does not reveal any background information.
Option D: This line is a narration of an event and not a backstory.
Hence options A, C and D are wrong.

Multiple choice story and its elements writing english

The alligator has a u-shaped, round snout and tends to live in freshwater swamps and streams. The crocodile has a long, V-shaped nose and can live in saltier waters as well as freshwater habitats.

The above excerpt is an example of __________________ 

  1. Personification

  2. Satire

  3. Exposition

  4. Simile
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Exposition is used to introduce background information about events, settings, characters, or other elements to the audience or readers. in the given passage, the writer is trying to set characteristics of an alligator. 

Thus, option C is the correct answer. 
Satire is used to expose someone's stupidity or criticize someone by using humour or irony. 
Personification is used to represent an abstract quality.  
A simile is a kind of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind. 

Multiple choice story and its elements writing english

Identify the mood created by the following elements of setting:
Weather: Cold and damp
Climate: unchanging
Time of day: evening
Locale: small town
Geography: bare and few trees, small shrubs, moist, dark soil

  1. Happy

  2. Humorous

  3. Depressing

  4. Angry
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The mood created by the following elements is gloomy, depressing, dark, i.e. option C is the most suitable option. 

Whereas other options are suitable for the elements like  bright and sunny, evolving and developing, spacious place with greenery and scenic beauty.

Multiple choice story and its elements writing english

Which of the following does not help create a desolate setting?

  1. Rainy weather

  2. Spring season

  3. Few trees

  4. Few people
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Desolate setting means uninhabited, giving an impression of emptiness or feeling or showing great unhappiness or loneliness. Options A, C and D provide a similar mood of emptiness and loneliness. 

Option B does not create a desolate setting because spring season is all about cheerfulness, brightness and colour. Therefore option B is the correct option.

Multiple choice

The contest known as the Hunger Games commemorates:

  1. The armistice between the Capitol and the Districts

  2. The District's victory over the Capitol

  3. The Capitol's victory over the Districts
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The Hunger Games are held annually by the Capitol as a reminder of the failed rebellion by the Districts and the Capitol's subsequent victory over them.

Multiple choice

May the odds be ever in your favor.

  1. The Hunger Games

  2. Divergent

  3. Maze Runner

  4. Passengers
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

This quote is the signature catchphrase from The Hunger Games series, spoken by Effie Trinket during the Reaping.

Multiple choice

"Then I defy you stars!"

  1. Romeo

  2. Juliet

  3. Nurse

  4. Tybalt
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Romeo says this in Act 5, Scene 1 upon hearing the news of Juliet's death.

Multiple choice

"O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"

  1. Rosaline

  2. Lady Montague

  3. Janet

  4. Juliet
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

This famous line is spoken by Juliet in Act 2, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. She is lamenting the fact that Romeo belongs to the rival Montague family.

Multiple choice

Tom's got some woman in New York."

  1. Jordan

  2. Gatsby

  3. Catherine

  4. Daisy
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Jordan Baker tells Nick about Tom's affair during their first meeting at the Buchanans' house.

Multiple choice character sketch writing english

Which of the following could best help in writing a character sketch?
Select the best option. 

  1. the character's favorite song

  2. the character's favorite movie

  3. the way the character talks

  4. the character's dog's name
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

"A character sketch is a description made for the purpose of guiding the writer on such assignments as introducing a particular character to the reader in such a way that both the writer and readers can have a quick overview of the character's attributes; including but not limited to physical appearance, idiosyncratic (individual) tendencies in different circumstances, state of mind as shaped by former experiences and how these will affect their future actions."

The closest way of portraying a character, from these options, is 'the way the character talks'. This is the trait of a character, and can help the reader form an image of the character in mind.
His favourite song, movie, or dog's name are external factors that do not shape the character.
Hence option C is correct and A, B and D are wrong.

Multiple choice novels, society and history history

Which one is the novel of Henry Fielding?

  1. Tom Jones

  2. Pamela

  3. Germinal

  4. Ramona
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation
Henry Fielding, a novelist of the early eighteenth century, claimed he was ‘the founder of a new province of writing’ where he could make his own laws. The novel allowed flexibility in the form of writing. Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones (1749) was issued in six volumes priced at three shillings each – which was more than what a labourer earned in a week.