GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Cultural and Historical Contexts
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #431 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Now my charms are all o’erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint: now, ’tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got,
And pardon’d the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands…
Which of the following dystopian novels takes its title from a line in this play?
1984
A Clockwork Orange
Lord of the Flies
Brave New World
Catch-22
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) takes its title from lines that Miranda speaks in Act V scene 1 of the play: “Oh, wonder! / How many goodly creatures are there here! / How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, / That has such people in ’t!”
Joseph Heller's Catch 22 (1961), Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange (1962), George Orwell's 1984 (1949), and William Golding's Lord of the Flies (1954) were all used as alternate answer choices.
Example Question #432 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Now my charms are all o’erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint: now, ’tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got,
And pardon’d the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands…
Which Caribbean writer wrote a 1969 post-colonial play based on this work?
Kamau Brathwaite
Jean Rhys
Derek Walcott
Aimé Cesairé
Jamaica Kincaid
Aimé Cesairé
The work in question is Martinican writer Aimé Cesairé’s Une Tempête (A Tempest) (1969). This play uses Shakespeare’s original characters but rewrites the work in order to investigate and deconstruct race, power, and colonialism.
Example Question #433 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
To be thus is nothing,
But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo.
Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature
Reigns that which would be fear’d. ‘Tis much he dares,
And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor
To act in safety. There is none but he
Whose being I do fear; and under him
My genius is rebuked, as it is said
Mark Antony’s was by Caesar.
In what decade was this play written?
1610s
1580s
1590s
1600s
1620s
1600s
Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in 1606. The play was first performed in 1611, and first published in 1623.
Example Question #434 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
The traces of the smallest spider's web,
The collars of the moonshine's watery beams…
Who is the author of this play?
Thomas Middleton
Ben Jonson
William Shakespeare
Christopher Marlowe
Thomas Kyd
William Shakespeare
This is Mercutio’s famous monologue in William Shakespeare’s 1597 The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (1597)
Example Question #435 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
The traces of the smallest spider's web,
The collars of the moonshine's watery beams…
This play is based in part on a work by which English author?
Geoffrey Chaucer
Christophe Marlowe
John Fletcher
Arthur Brooke
Thomas Kyd
Arthur Brooke
Although the story of Romeo and Juliet can be traced through multiple decades and countries, the direct inspiration for Shakespeare’s version was Arthur Brooke’s long, poorly received narrative poem The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet (1562).
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (1597)
Example Question #16 : Contexts Of Plays
O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
The traces of the smallest spider's web,
The collars of the moonshine's watery beams…
Which of the following films or plays is not based on this play?
The Bad Infinity
Shakespeare in Love
West Side Story
Angels in America
Killer Joe
Angels in America
Only Tony Kushner’s 1993 play Angels in America does not follow the storyline of Romeo and Juliet (1597). All the other works adopt the tragic story of two lovers whose families are sworn enemies, employing different character names and settings to investigate many of the same themes.
The similarities and resonances between Shakespeare in Love (1998) do not extend far past the use of Shakespeare's name in the title.
Arthur Laurents's West Side Story(1961), Tracy Letts' Killer Joe (1993), and Mac Wellman's Bad Infinity (1983) were all used as alternative answer choices.
Example Question #436 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
KING: … Hieronimo, it greatly pleaseth us
That in our victory thou have a share
By virtue of thy worthy son’s exploit.
… Bring hither the young prince of Portingale!
The rest march on, but, ere they be dismissed,
We will bestow on every soldier
Two ducats, and on every leader ten,
That they may know our largesse welcomes them.
Exeunt all [the army] but BALTHAZAR,
LORENZO, and HORATIO.
Who is the author of this play?
Thomas Kyd
Ben Jonson
William Shakespeare
Christopher Marlowe
Thomas Middleton
Thomas Kyd
This is Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimo is Mad Again. The presence of several main characters (Hieronimo, Lorenzo, Balthazar, and Horatio) in these lines is the main clue to determining the identity of the work.
Passage adapted from Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy (1587)
Example Question #437 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
KING: … Hieronimo, it greatly pleaseth us
That in our victory thou have a share
By virtue of thy worthy son’s exploit.
… Bring hither the young prince of Portingale!
The rest march on, but, ere they be dismissed,
We will bestow on every soldier
Two ducats, and on every leader ten,
That they may know our largesse welcomes them.
Exeunt all [the army] but BALTHAZAR,
LORENZO, and HORATIO.
When was this play first published?
1570s
1590s
1580s
1600s
1570s
1580s
The Spanish Tragedy was first performed in 1587, and it was written during the 1580s (exact date uncertain, it was a long time ago).
Passage adapted from Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy (1587)
Example Question #438 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
KING: … Hieronimo, it greatly pleaseth us
That in our victory thou have a share
By virtue of thy worthy son’s exploit.
… Bring hither the young prince of Portingale!
The rest march on, but, ere they be dismissed,
We will bestow on every soldier
Two ducats, and on every leader ten,
That they may know our largesse welcomes them.
Exeunt all [the army] but BALTHAZAR,
LORENZO, and HORATIO.
What genre of play is this?
morality
Restoration comedy
blackface minstrel
mystery
revenge
revenge
Revenge plays are works typically written during the Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods wherein a protagonist seeks vengeance, pursuing a path that often leads to madness and/or ruin. The Spanish Tragedy features the character Hieronimo’s attempts to avenge his son Horatio, who was killed by Lorenzo, the scheming nephew of the king of Portugal.
Passage adapted from Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy (1587)
Example Question #677 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English
KING: … Hieronimo, it greatly pleaseth us
That in our victory thou have a share
By virtue of thy worthy son’s exploit.
… Bring hither the young prince of Portingale!
The rest march on, but, ere they be dismissed,
We will bestow on every soldier
Two ducats, and on every leader ten,
That they may know our largesse welcomes them.
Exeunt all [the army] but BALTHAZAR,
LORENZO, and HORATIO.
Which of the following plays is not another example of this genre?
Hamlet
The Duchess of Malfi
Gorboduc
Volpone
Titus Andronicus
Volpone
Main characters spend the play seeking revenge in all of the above works except Ben Jonson’s 1606 satire Volpone, which is a vicious, incisive comedy. While mean-spirited, Volpone is more concerned with satirical skewering than revenge plots.
William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (1594) and Hamlet (1603), Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville's Gorboduc (1561), and John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi (1614) were all used as alternative answer options. They are all revenge tragedies.
Passage adapted from Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy (1587)
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