Fathers and Children in Literature Quiz

Answer: Biff

From "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller. Willy's two sons are Biff and Happy. There aren't many other happy things in the play.

Answer: Antigone

The original play "Antigone" is by Sophocles; a modern version was written in the 1940's by Jean Anouilh. Antigone and her sister Ismene struggle with questions of law and loyalty.

Sophocles is the original author; Creon is Oedipus' brother-in-law; Jocasta is Oedipus' wife -- and mother.

Answer: Bilbo

In J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit", we learn the names of Bilbo's parents: Beladonna Took, "one of the three remarkable daughters of the Old Took", and Bungo Baggins, Bilbo's "solid and comfortable father".

Answer: Seymour

In the novels and stories of J.D. Salinger, Seymour has six precocious younger siblings, but none with the names listed here.

Answer: Miranda

In Shakespeare's "The Tempest", Prospero the magician is raising his daughter Miranda on an island, accompanied by Ariel, a spirit, and Caliban, a savage.

Bianca, Portia, and Beatrice are also Shakespearean characters, in "The Taming of the Shrew", "The Merchant of Venice", and "Much Ado About Nothing", respectively.

Answer: Scout

In Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird", Scout Finch narrates her father's fight for justice and her own coming of age.

Gregory Peck won an Academy Award for his portrayal of the wise Atticus in the 1962 movie.

Answer: Dmitri

Fyodor Dostoyevski's "The Brothers Karamazov" is an account of patricide and big ideas. Other brothers are Ivan and Alexi.

Zosima is another character in "The Brothers Karamazov"; Anna and Stepan are characters in Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina".

Answer: Jessica

Shylock, in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice", has been played over the centuries sometimes with compassion and sometimes with viciousness. He does demand a pound of flesh from his debtor, which seems a bit harsh, but he has been treated mighty badly, too.

Katherine is from "The Taming of the Shrew", Cordelia from "King Lear", and Ophelia from "Hamlet". They all have problems with their fathers, to a greater or lesser degree.

Answer: Huck Finn

From Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". Twain originally planned the latter as "Huckleberry Finn's Autobiography", in which he would follow Huck's story into adulthood.

Pip is from Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations"; Charlie Bucket is from Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"; Penrod is from Booth Tarkington's book of the same name.

Answer: Eliza

From George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" and Lerner and Lowe's "My Fair Lady." A professor of linguistics teaches a poor girl with a Cockney accent to speak like a duchess.

Henry is mentioned in the context of the play: the professor's name is Henry Higgins. Jimmy Doolittle was a general in the US Air Force during World War II and a leading figure in the history of aviation. Dr. John Doolittle is a character created by Hugh Lofting in the children's "Dr. Doolittle" series. He talks to the animals.