Incidents From Literary Plots Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Miller's Tale

Alison is married to a much older man, an Oxford carpenter. Nicholas, a student of astrology is their lodger. When Nicholas and Alison arrange a stratagem to be able to make love without old John noticing, a rival of Nicholas's, one Absalom, wants his share too.

But this nightly visitor, appearing at a small window, only gets Alison's rear end to kiss. When Nicholas wants to play a similar trick on his rival, this time Absalom is smarter and Nicholas gets his arse burned with a red-hot poker.

Answer: Othello

Desdemona, the rich daughter of a Venetian senator, falls in love with a Moor. When she loses her handkerchief, it falls into the hands of villainous Iago, via his wife Emilia. Desdemona is supposed to have given it away to Cassio, a handsome colleague of her husband's, who she is believed to be having an affair with. This leads to a series of misunderstandings and a groundless accusation of adultery, and ultimately to Desdemona's being strangled by her furious husband.
"Twelfth Night" is the story of Duke Orsino of Illyria who thinks he is in love with lady Olivia. Viola who has disguised herself as the boy Cesario is sent to Olivia as Orsino's love-messenger. Alas she herself has fallen in love with Orsino, but must hide her feelings. No killings in this story.

"As You Like It" is situated in the Forest of Arden. The main characters include Orlando, mistreated by his oldest brother Oliver, as well as a banished Duke, and his daughter Rosalind, who has remained on good terms with Celia, the daughter of the Duke's enemy. Rosalind falls in love with Orlando. Lots of quiproquos and lots of complications, but apart from the killing of a deer no casualties.

Answer: The Taming of the Shrew

A "Winter's Tale" is the story of Polixenes, King of Bohemia who stays at the court of Leontes, King of Sicily, but is suddenly accused of having had an affair with Leontes' wife Hermione. Leontes is so suspicious that he does not even want to acknowledge Hermione's baby as his legitimate child. In the same way as Desdemona, Hermione, though wrongly accused, goes on loving her husband. Leontes gives orders that the baby girl she has borne must be killed. The baby is saved, however, and will turn up again at the end of the play as Perdita. Hermione, who was supposed to have died, re-surfaces as well.
"Much Ado About Nothing" comprises the story of Beatrice and Benedick, the two lovers "who play at hating each other".
"Midsummer Night's Dream" is the well-known story of Theseus and Hyppolita, the Queen of the Amazons, and two couples of somewhat maverick lovers: Hermia-Lysander and Helena-Demetrius. It also involves such creatures as as Titania, Oberon, Puck and ...of course the down-to-earth characters of Quince and Bottom.
The "Taming of The Shrew" demonstrates that the toughest and most untreatable young ladies may make the most faithful wives. Kate is the catty girl and Petruchio is the one who tames her.

Answer: Macbeth

The witches' prediction that "None of woman born shall harm Macbeth" reassures the murderer of King Duncan that his enemies are powerless. Until Macduff reveals that "from his mother's womb He was untimely ripped".
The term Caesarean itself was taken from the fact that Julius Caesar had allegedly been born that way.

Answer: Daniel Defoe's "Moll Flanders"

"Clarissa Harlowe" (1747-48) is the title of the novel in letter-form about the beautiful and virtuous daughter of a rich middle-class family, who is taken advantage of by the villain Lovelace. Fielding's "Shamela" is a parody of another novel-in-letters by Richardson: "Pamela or Virtue Rewarded" (1740).
"Moll Flanders" (1722) is the prototype of the "confessions" of a "converted" bad woman. "Roxana" (1724) is a similar story about the beautiful daughter of French protestant refugees, who after some misadventures enters upon a career of "prosperous wickedness".

Answer: Jane Austen's 'Emma'

Mary Ann Evans aka George Eliot(1819-1880) published the "Mill on the Floss" in 1860.
Charlotte Bronte's (1816-1855) "The Professor" was based on her own experience, a stay which she made in a boarding school in Brussels, where she fell in love with Monsieur Heger.
Anne Bronte (1820-1849), the youngest of the Brontes, portrays in "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall"(1848) one Arthur Huntingdon, a violent drunkard, who to some extent seems to have been drawn from her brother Branwell.
Jane Austen (1775-1817) wrote most of her novels between 1796 and 1816, and, remaining unimpressed by the great upheavals of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, focused on the quaintness of ordinary human lives. "Emma" was published in 1816. In this story Jane Austen exposes the blunders made by a heroine who first prevents her 'friend' Harriet from marrying Robert Martin, who genuinely loves the girl, then directs Harriet to Mr. Elton, the young vicar who happens to fancy Emma herself. Emma then mistakenly believes one Frank Churchill is making passes at her, and only notices Mr. Knightley is the one who really fancies her, after Harriet has started being infatuated with him.

Answer: Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas's "Under Milkwood" was published posthumously in 1954. The author, born in 1919, had died the year before, at age 35. Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) has a Captain Charles Ryder in his "Brideshead Revisited" (1945).
Stevenson's "Treasure Island" includes Captain Kidd. Melville is the creator of Captain Ahab. And a whole study could be made on the tens and tens of other captains in English literature. Outside English literature there are a few more such as Captain Nemo from "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", and we might even include "Captain Haddock" from the stripcartoon Tintin.
Stevenson was born in Edinburgh 1850 and died on Samoa 1894.
Melville (1819-1891) published "Moby Dick" in 1851.

Answer: J.M. Synge 's "The Playboy of the Western World"

"The Rivals" (1775) is the play by R.B.Sheridan(1751-1816) in which the famous Mrs. Malaprop occurs.
J.M. Synge(1871-1909) gave the Irish stage some of its best drama. "Riders to the Sea" (1904) was a tragedy; "The Playboy of the Western World" shows Synge's talent for comedy.
Sean O'Casey(1880-1964) is the author of "Juno and the Paycock" (1924).
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) published his "Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant" in 1898. One of the plays included was "Mrs. Warren's Profession".
All the above-mentioned authors were Irish-born.

Answer: Brighton Rock

In "Brighton Rock" (1938), Hale is murdered with a razor. Colleoni and Pinkie both are gang leaders, though on different scales. Ida is the woman who wants to get Pinkie arrested. Rose is the girl "who knows too much", and must be silenced. She will be silenced by Pinkie's marrying her.
"A Gun for Sale" (1936) takes place in "Notwich", a nom de guerre for "Nottingham". Raven, cold-bloodedly kills the Minister of War. Greene himself has called Raven,the killer in this novel, "a first sketch for Pinkie in 'Brighton Rock'"
"Stamboul Train"(1932) is a spy thriller which unfolds on board the Orient Express. It deals with the relationship between Myatt, a pragmatic Jew, and a chorusgirl, Coral Musker.
In "The Quiet American" (1955), Arden Pyle, an innocent and naive American desk soldier in 1950s Vietnam, tries to usurp the affection of Phuong, a local woman, who is involved in a tired but comfortable relationship with Thomas Fowler, a British war-correspondent. When Pyle becomes a danger for the people around him, he gets murdered.

Answer: John Wyndham's "The Day Of The Triffids "

John Wyndham (Parker Lucas Beynon Harris) (1903-1969) wrote "The Kraken Wakes" (1953), "The Midwich Cuckoos" (1957), The Day of the Triffids (1951) and "The Chrysalids" (1955).
Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" created a sensation in 1932. Huxley was born in 1894 and died in 1964.
Ray Bradbury was born in 1920. He wrote "Fahrenheit 451" (1951), The Martian Chronicles'(1950) and "The Golden Apples of the Sun" (1953).