GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Identification of British Plays
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
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Example Questions
Example Question #2 : Identification Of British Plays 1660–1925
“True, 'tis an unhappy circumstance of life that love should ever die before us, and that the man so often should outlive the lover. But say what you will, 'tis better to be left than never to have been loved. To pass our youth in dull indifference, to refuse the sweets of life because they once must leave us, is as preposterous as to wish to have been born old, because we one day must be old. For my part, my youth may wear and waste, but it shall never rust in my possession.”
Identify the title of the work from which the passage is adapted.
Doctor Faustus
The Tempest
As You Like It
The Way of the World
The Alchemist
The Way of the World
These lines are adapted from of William Congreve's play The Way of the World, first performed in 1700. The play's main characters, Mirabell and Millamant, are lovers attempting to marry, but Millamant's aunt, Lady Wishfort, tries to foil their plans by getting her own nephew, Sir Wilfull, to marry Millamant instead.
Adapted from The Way of the World by William Congreve, II.i (1700)
Example Question #161 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English
“How you can sit there, calmly eating muffins when we are in this horrible trouble, I can’t make out. You seem to me to be perfectly heartless."
"Well, I can’t eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them."
"I say it’s perfectly heartless your eating muffins at all, under the circumstances.”
Identify the title and author of the passage.
The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter
Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
The Way of the World by William Congreve
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
These lines, exchanged between Jack and Algernon, are from Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest. The play, whose full title is The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, was first performed in 1895. It is a satirical look at Victorian social rules and obligations. The word "bunburying" is famously used in its plot to mean to assume an alter ego in a different locale so as to get out of social obligations. Much of the play's plot and repartee centers around identity, and in particular, confusion surrounding the name "Ernest."
Passage adapted from Act II of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (1895)
Example Question #161 : Identification
"You silly Arthur! If you knew anything about . . . anything, which you don't, you would know that I adore you. Everyone in London knows it except you. It is a public scandal the way I adore you. I have been going about for the last six months telling the whole of society that I adore you. I wonder you consent to have anything to say to me. I have no character left at all. At least, I feel so happy that I am quite sure I have no character left at all.”
Identify the title and author of the excerpt based on the content and style of the writing.
A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt
An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestly
Amadeus by Peter Shaffer
The Way of the World by William Congreve
An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
These lines, spoken by Mabel Chiltern, are from Oscar Wilde's 1895 comedic play An Ideal Husband. The play centers on themes of political corruption and honor.
Passage adapted from Act IV of An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde (1895)
Example Question #162 : Identification
I will attend her here,
And woo her with some spirit when she comes.
Say that she rail; why, then, I'll tell her plain,
she sings as sweetly as a nightingail:
Say that she frown; I'll say she looks as clear
As morning roses newly washt with dew:
Say she be mute and will not speak a word;
Then I'll commend her volubility,
And say she uttereth piercing eloquence:
If she do bid me pack, I'll give her thanks,
As though she bid me stay by her a week:
If she deny to be wed, I'll crave the day
When I shall ask the banns, and when be married.
This excerpt is adapted from which of the following Shakespearean plays?
The Taming of the Shrew
Much Ado About Nothing
The Comedy of Errors
As You Like It
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Taming of the Shrew
These are lines spoken by Petruchio in William Shakespeare's comedy The Taming of the Shrew. A major clue as to the source work of the lines is their content; here, Petruchio is soliloquizing about how he will woo Katherine ("Kate") despite the fact that she is not interested in him.
(Passage adapted from The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, II.i.168-180)
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
