Stories Of Disguise Quiz | Mixed Literature

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Already in the Bible there are instances of deceit by disguise. Which of these Biblical characters tricks his father by a clever disguise - and with his mother's help - into giving him what was due to his elder twin brother?

Answer: Jacob

Rebecca helps Jacob obtain Isaak's blessing by dressing him up as his elder twin brother Esau. Isaac had grown old and blind and was unable to see what his wife and Jacob were up to.

2. Already at the beginning of the Iliad, there is a mother who tries to keep her son from taking part in the Trojan War by dressing him up as a girl. The trick fails and the young man will turn out to be anything else but a sissy. Who is he?

Answer: Achilles

Every time humans try to escape their fates that have already been predicted by divine prophecies, the stratagems of defence ultimately fail. Nobody runs away from his fate, as is illustrated by the case of Oedipus. Patroclus is also spelled Patrocles.

3. When Odysseus returns to Ithaca he decides to secretly observe the situation at the court from where he has been absent for ten years by dressing up himself as __________________.

Answer: a shabby old beggar

Eumaus is the swineherd who receives Odysseus at his home but does not see through his disguise. Then Telemachus comes, does not recognize his father either, but then is told by Odysseus who is who.
Odysseus then discusses with Telemachus his plan to secretly visit his court and to observe his wife Penelope's wooers.

4. The only human to recognize Odysseus is ___________________.

Answer: his nurse Eurycleia

His former nurse Eurycleia recognized him when she was called upon to wash his feet. She knew him from an old scar on his leg. He was also recognized by his faithful dog Argus, whom Odysseus found dying on a dungheap.

5. In one of Aesop's fables a wolf dresses up in sheep's clothing. He manages to get himself locked up into the fold with the other sheep. What's the outcome of the story?

Answer: the wolf-sheep is selected by the shepherd as his evening-meal

Not in all of Aesop's fables are the sheep victorious over the wolf.

6. In the popular fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood", the wolf has disguised himself as the young girl's grannie. Being suspicious, Little Red Riding Hood tests "Grannie" with a few questions. At the third question, the wolf has had enough of it, reveals his true nature and devours his prey. Which of these was that third question?

Answer: Why do you have such long, sharp teeth?

Little Red Riding Hood - and also her grannie - are saved by a passing huntsman who shoots the bad wolf and then through some dexterous surgery cuts open the wolf's belly and delivers his two poor victims. In some versions the questions are: "Why do you have such big ears-such big hands-such a big mouth?" The story appears as "Rottkaeppchen" in Wilhelm and Jakob Grimm's "Kinder- und Hausmaerchen", published in 1812.

The story had already been published by Charles Perrault in his collection of fairy-tales from 1697.

7. In Shakespeare's plays "disguises" are very common. In one of his plays a Duke sends a "boy" to his beloved Countess in order to have him woo her by proxy, 1. not realising that the "he" is in fact a "she" who has fallen in love with him herself 2. not foreseeing that the Countess will prefer the bringer of the message to its sender. What's the name of the "girl" and in what play does the role occur?

Answer: Viola in "Twelfth Night"

Also Sylvia in "Two Gentlemen of Verona", and Nerissa and Jessica in "The Merchant of Venice" are roles in which a girl must disguise herself as a boy. For Shakespeare's audiences the "girl-is-boy" situations were even more complicated, as girls' roles were done by young boy actors rather than by actresses.
So the boy playing Viola was actually a boy-plays-girl-plays-boy role
in the larger part of the play.

8. It was not just characters-from-stories that disguised themselves into the opposite gender. A famous woman-posing-as-a-man situation occurs in French literature with the case of Aurore Dupin, the baroness Dudevant, lover of such celebrities as Frederic Chopin and Alfred de Musset, who not only occasionally dressed up as a gentleman, but also published her works under the "male pen-name" of George __________.

Answer: Sand

In choosing the pen-name "George Eliot" the English woman-author Mary-Ann Evans was probably inspired by her French example. "George Sand", apart from her "friendships" with men, had same-sex relations with female artists such as the actress Marie Dorval and the singer Pauline Garcia.

9. Even in children's stories "disguises" occur. Who dresses up as a washerwoman to escape from jail in Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind In The Willows"?

Answer: Toad

Toad has been found guilty of stealing a motor car. In jail the jailer's daughter helps him to escape, disguised in the clothes of his Aunt, the Washerwoman. The story has its origin in the author's own family life. Kenneth Grahame's only child, Alastair, was born blind in one eye and with a squint in the other.

The education of Alastair proved difficult because just as Toad, the boy had to learn to fit in, to behave and control himself and accept some degree of humility. Kenneth, in a way similar to Mole, is attrracted by the irrepressible energy, inventiveness, and bravado of Alastair-Toad.

At 20 Alastair committed suicide.

10. What is the title of Mark Twain's story in which a "prince" disguises himself as a "poor boy" and vice versa?

Answer: The Prince And The Pauper

"The Prince and the Pauper" is the story of Edward Tudor changing clothes with Tom Canty, and all the effects this quid-pro-quo has on their lives. It is not the only example of Mark Twain's using "characters that disguise themselves". There is a funny example in "Huckleberry Finn" of Huck trying to deceive somebody into believing he is a girl (see Chapters Ten and Eleven). The old woman whom Huck wants to get information from does not believe him. She finds him out by suddenly throwing something into his lap. From the way he claps his legs she deduces he is not a girl. She says his name cannot be Sarah (Williams) as he had told her, but rather something like Bill, Tom or Bob.
Princes in disguise can be found in the world of operetta too: "The Student Prince" by Sigmund Romberg is a possible example.
It of course should not be forgotten that also in fairy tales metamorphoses of princes take place. Frogs turn out to be handsome princes in disguise. And there are more variations on the theme of "The Beauty And The Beast". "Poor Tom" is the disguise used by Edgar in "King Lear".

Source: Author flem-ish

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Stories Of Disguise Trivia Quiz

Stories Of Disguise are as old as the hills. They occur in fairy tales, ballads, epic poems, modern novels and also in the real life of some authors. Here follows a selection of well-known cases.

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