GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Identification of British Plays After 1925

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English

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All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

1 Diagnostic Test 158 Practice Tests Question of the Day Flashcards Learn by Concept

Example Questions

Example Question #131 : Identification

This play's title is taken from a line in Shelley's poem "To a Skylark."

Possible Answers:

Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill 

Love on the Dole by Ronald Gow 

Night Must Fall by Emlyn Williams 

The Royal Hunt of the Sun by Peter Shaffer 

Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward

Correct answer:

Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward

Explanation:

The title of Noel Coward's 1941 comic play, Blithe Spirit, is taken from a the first line of Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "To a Skylark":

"Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
                Bird thou never wert,
         That from Heaven, or near it,
                Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art."
 
The play itself focuses on novelist Charles Condomine and medium Madame Arcati's failed attempt to conduct a seance.
 
Passage adapted from "To a Skylark" l.1-5 by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1820)

Example Question #132 : Identification

What play centers on two hit-men, Ben and Gus, who are awaiting their next assignment in a windowless basement?

Possible Answers:

No Exit by Jean-Paul-Sartre

The Balcony by Jean Genet

The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter

Endgame by Samuel Beckett

Underground Lovers by Jean Tardieu

Correct answer:

The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter

Explanation:

This overview describes the one-act play The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter.

Example Question #133 : Identification

This play switches back and forth between the year 1809 and the present. Some of the main characters include Thomasina Coverly, Septimus Hodge, Hannah Jarvis, and Bernard Nightingale.

Possible Answers:

Ashes to Ashes by Harold Pinter

Narrow Road to the Deep North by Edward Bond

Arcadia by Tom Stoppard

Translations by Brian Friel

Chips with Everything by Arnold Wesker

Correct answer:

Arcadia by Tom Stoppard

Explanation:

This is a brief overview of Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, a play first performed in 1993.

Example Question #134 : Identification

The Common Man, Sir Thomas More, and Thomas Cromwell are characters in which of the following plays?

Possible Answers:

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill

The Way of the World by William Congreve

Arcadia by Tom Stoppard

A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt

Correct answer:

A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt

Explanation:

The Common Man, Sir Thomas More, and Thomas Cromwell are characters from the 1960 play A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt. The play follows the life of Sir Thomas More, the sixteenth-century Chancellor of England—a "man of conscience."

Example Question #135 : Identification

Anthonio Salieri, Constanze Weber, and Emperor Joseph II are characters from which of the following plays?

Possible Answers:

Amadeus by Peter Shaffer

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward

Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw

Correct answer:

Amadeus by Peter Shaffer

Explanation:

Anthonio Salieri, Constanze Weber, and Emperor Joseph II are characters in Peter Shaffer's 1979 play Amadeus, which creates a fictionalized plot centering on composers, Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. The play is based on the 1830 play by Alexander Pushkin, Mozart and Salieri.

Example Question #136 : Identification

Which of the following is an absurdist, existentialist play that focuses on characters from a Shakespearian tragedy?

Possible Answers:

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Becket

The Homecoming by Harold Pinter

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard

A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt

The Zoo Story by Edward Albee

 

Correct answer:

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard

Explanation:

This brief overview describes Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, first performed in 1966. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet who are presumably killed off-stage over the course of the play.

All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

1 Diagnostic Test 158 Practice Tests Question of the Day Flashcards Learn by Concept
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