GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Contexts Of British Plays To 1660
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 characters is not from this play?
Ariel
Prospero
Iago
Caliban
Miranda
Iago
Iago is a character in Shakespeare’s Othello (1622), not from The Tempest (1623).
Example Question #3 : Contexts Of British Plays To 1660
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.
Who is the author of this play?
Christopher Marlowe
Sir Walter Raleigh
Thomas Kyd
William Shakespeare
Ben Jonson
William Shakespeare
This is a monologue from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1623). Even if you weren’t familiar with the monologue itself, you could have recognized Banquo as one of the central characters in the play.
Example Question #7 : Contexts Of British Plays To 1660
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.
What genre does this play belong to?
tragedy
comedy
history
melodrama
problem play
tragedy
This play is a tragedy; in fact, the full title is The Tragedy of Macbeth (1623). In the play, Macbeth and his wife are ruined by their fatal flaws of weakness and ambition, a classic trope in tragedy.
Example Question #8 : Contexts Of British Plays To 1660
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.
What is the setting of this play?
Venice, Italy
ancient Egypt
Verona, Italy
Denmark
Scotland
Scotland
Macbeth (1623) is set in Scotland. (Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1604) is set in Denmark, Antony and Cleopatra (1623) is set in ancient Egypt, Romeo and Juliet (1597) is set in Verona, and Othello (1622) is set partly in Venice.)
Example Question #9 : Contexts Of British Plays To 1660
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.
What historical document served as a basis for this play’s storyline?
Herodotus’ Histories
The Domesday Book
Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
The Magna Carta
Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland
Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland
Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1587) contains an account of real Scottish historical figures called Macbeth, Macduff, and Duncan. The story of Shakespeare’s play differs considerably from Holinshed’s story, though.
Herodotus' The Histories (440 BCE), The Domesday Book (1086), Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776), and The Magna Carta (1215) were all used as alternate answer choices.
Example Question #10 : Contexts Of British Plays To 1660
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.
Which of the following is not a character in this work?
King Duncan
Macduff
Donalbain
Fleance
Cordelia
Cordelia
Cordelia is a central character in Shakespeare’s King Lear (1608), not Macbeth (1623).
Example Question #11 : Contexts Of British Plays
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…
When was this play first published?
The Tempest was first published in 1623 in the First Folio. Many scholars believe that it is the last play Shakespeare wrote. The play was probably first performed in 1611, but was not published until 1623.
Example Question #11 : Contexts Of British Plays To 1660
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 #12 : Contexts Of British Plays To 1660
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?
Aimé Cesairé
Jean Rhys
Derek Walcott
Jamaica Kincaid
Kamau Brathwaite
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 #13 : Contexts Of British Plays To 1660
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?
1580s
1600s
1590s
1610s
1620s
1600s
Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in 1606. The play was first performed in 1611, and first published in 1623.
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
