GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Contexts of British Plays
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #3 : Contexts Of British Plays After 1925
In what decade was Waiting for Godot published?
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1930s
1950s
The play was published in 1953.
Example Question #1 : Contexts Of British Plays After 1925
Who is the author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1966)?
Tom Stoppard
Samuel Beckett
Eugene O’Neill
Eugène Ionesco
Harold Pinter
Tom Stoppard
This play is written by Tom Stoppard.
Example Question #461 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Which of the following is not a character in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead?
Gertrude
Fortinbras
Ophelia
Polonius
Falstaff
Falstaff
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1966)shares many of its characters with Hamlet. Only Falstaff is not taken from Hamlet; he is a major character in Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part I (1600).
Example Question #1 : Contexts Of British Plays After 1925
Who wrote The Birthday Party?
Eugene O’Neill
Samuel Beckett
Edward Albee
Harold Pinter
Eugène Ionesco
Harold Pinter
The author is Harold Pinter. The Birthday Party (1958) is one of his most famous plays.
Example Question #462 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Who is the protagonist of The Birthday Party?
McCann
Meg Boles
Goldberg
Petey Boles
Stanley Webber
Stanley Webber
Pinter’s The Birthday Party (1958) follows a former piano player named Stanley Webber through the events that transpire after two menacing strangers arrive at his birthday party. The rest of the characters appear in the play as well, but they are not the protagonist.
Example Question #463 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Which of the following was not originally written by the author of The Birthday Party?
Betrayal
The Homecoming
The Room
The French Lieutenant’s Woman
The Caretaker
The French Lieutenant’s Woman
Although Harold Pinter produced a film adaptation of The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), the novel was originally written by John Fowles in 1969.
The Caretaker (1960), The Homecoming (1965), Betrayal (1978), and The Room (1957) were all written by Harold Pinter.
Example Question #9 : Contexts Of British Plays After 1925
Who is the author of Waiting for Godot?
Eugène Ionesco
Eugene O’Neill
Tom Stoppard
Samuel Beckett
Harold Pinter
Samuel Beckett
Waiting for Godot (1953) is one of Samuel Beckett’s most famous plays.
Example Question #464 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
What movement does Waiting for Godot belong to?
Modernism
Dadaism
theatre of the absurd
Neo-realism
Bretonian Surrealism
theatre of the absurd
Waiting for Godot (1953) is a prime exemplar of the theatre of the absurd movement, which features surreal situations, meaningless wordplay, examination of existential questions and nihilism, and a lack of clear resolutions.
Example Question #41 : Contexts Of Plays
Which of the following is not a character in Waiting for Godot?
Pozzo
Vladimir
Molloy
Lucky
Estragon
Molloy
Molloy is the title of a 1951 novel by Samuel Beckett, but it is not the name of a character in Waiting for Godot (1953).
Example Question #45 : Contexts Of Plays
What famous play do the protagonists of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead originally appear in?
A Streetcar Named Desire
Henry IV Part I
Death of a Salesman
Pygmalion
Hamlet
Hamlet
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are minor characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1603). Most of Stoppard’s play takes place “offstage” or behind the scenes of the actions in Hamlet, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (two of Hamlet’s friends and courtiers) acting confused about what is happening onstage without them. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead was first performed in 1966.
Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949), George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (1913), and William Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I (1600) were all used as alternate answer choices.
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
