Take this Quiz: A-Level English Literature: context and criticism | Zestly

Question 1

Two sentences are offered as context for 'Jane Eyre', published in 1847. (A) 'Charlotte Bronte's mother died when she was five, and she was sent away to school.' (B) 'Under the law of the time a married woman could not hold property in her own name, so Jane's inheritance from her uncle alters what a marriage to Rochester would mean for her.' Which is a contextual point that changes how the novel reads, and why?

Accepted Answer

(B), because it explains why a legacy received before the proposal changes the terms on which Jane can accept it.

Answer

(A), because facts about an author's life are always the strongest kind of context.

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Both equally, since any true statement about the period or the author counts as context.

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Neither, because a novel should be read without reference to anything outside it.

Question 2

Consider the following claim: 'In Shakespeare's 'The Merchant of Venice', the legal status of Shylock as an alien in Venice is a crucial context for understanding his vulnerability in the trial scene.' Why is this a valid contextual argument?

Accepted Answer

It explains how the specific legal framework of the period directly dictates the power dynamics and the outcome of the scene.

Answer

It proves that Shakespeare was a lawyer.

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It is a biographical fact about the playwright's own legal troubles.

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It is a subjective opinion that cannot be verified by the text.

Question 3

Writing as editor in 1765, Samuel Johnson said of the end of 'King Lear': 'I was many years ago so shocked by Cordelia's death, that I know not whether I ever endured to read again the last scenes of the play till I undertook to revise them as an editor.' How should a candidate use a remark like this?

Accepted Answer

As an argument to be tested — evidence that the ending has struck readers as unbearable, which is a claim about the play's effect that the text can be examined for.

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As settled authority: Johnson was the greatest critic of his age, so the ending must be judged a fault.

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As a biographical fact about Johnson, of no relevance to reading the play.

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As proof that Shakespeare made an error which later editors were right to correct.

Question 4

Two readers disagree about why Hamlet does not kill Claudius sooner. One says conscience holds him back; the other says he doubts the Ghost. Hamlet himself says: 'The spirit that I have seen / May be a devil... I'll have grounds / More relative than this.' What does that line do to the disagreement?

Answer

It settles nothing, since a character's statement about himself can never be evidence.

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It supports the second reading: he states the doubt himself and then stages the play in order to get better evidence, which is what the doubt would require him to do.

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It supports the first reading, because conscience and doubt are the same thing.

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It shows both readers are wrong, since the delay is caused only by the practical difficulty of reaching the King.

Question 5

In 'The Tempest' (1.2) Caliban tells Prospero: 'This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, / Which thou tak'st from me.' A reading of the play from the position of the colonised takes this speech as central. By what standard should that reading be judged?

Answer

By whether it accounts for what is actually in the play — including Prospero's account of Caliban's attack on Miranda, and the fact that Caliban is given the island's most beautiful lines to speak.

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By whether it reaches a conclusion the reader already held before opening the play.

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By whether it avoids mentioning the author's own century altogether.

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By whether it can be stated without using any critical vocabulary.

Question 6

In 'Hamlet' (1.3) Polonius sends his son away with the advice: 'This above all: to thine own self be true, / And it must follow, as the night the day, / Thou canst not then be false to any man.' The line is often quoted as Shakespeare's own wisdom. What is wrong with quoting it that way?

Answer

Nothing: a memorable line in a play is the author speaking directly to the audience.

Answer

It is spoken by a character the play presents as a sententious meddler, who in the next act sends a servant to spread lies about that same son and spy on him — so the speech characterises the speaker as much as it states a truth.

Answer

It is wrong because Polonius is a villain who never means anything he says.

Answer

It is wrong because advice in plays is always ironic.