You Go, Girl! Eponymous Female Characters Quiz

Answer: Emma

The book "Emma" was written by Jane Austen in 1815.

Emma Woodhouse lives in southern England in the early 19th century and is described as a handsome, clever, and spoiled girl who is almost 21 years old. Emma's previous governess had just gotten married and Emma takes credit for this fact since she introduced them. She then considers herself an expert at matchmaking. Against the advice of her friend, Mr. Knightley, she proceeds to involve herself in the business of others.

Emma upsets her friend Harriet when she tries to set Harriet up with a vicar, even though Harriet is in love with a farmer. The vicar, however, turned out to be in love with Emma. After this disastrous attempt, Emma tries again by setting up Harriet with a man named Frank Churchill, who is in her social circle. This also goes nowhere as it is revealed Frank is secretly engaged to a rival of Emma.

Harriet admits she may have fallen in love with Mr. Knightley. This only serves to make Emma realize it is she, herself, who loves Mr. Knightley. After people confess their true feelings, Harriet is married to her original farmer love and Emma and Mr. Knightley are engaged.

Answer: Carrie

"Carrie" is the first novel by Stephen King and was published in 1974.

Carrie is a sixteen year old girl in Maine who lives with her fanatically religious mother and is bullied by her classmates. One day in gym class at school, she starts her period and is terrified because she was never informed about that from her mother. The other girls, led by Chris, torment her until they are reprimanded. During this time, Carrie realizes she has telekinetic powers she inherited from her grandmother.

Chris maliciously sets up Carrie by inviting her to the school prom (in the gym) and helping her win Prom Queen. When Carrie wins, Chris has a whole bucket of pig blood fall down onto Carrie. Mortified and furious, Carrie leaves the gym. Outside, she uses her special powers to eventually ignite the entire building and ends up killing most of the people inside. Carrie loses the last of her sanity and begins to destroy things all the way home.

Back at her house, she and her mother have a fight in which both are mortally wounded. As one of her last acts, Carrie kills Chris who started all of the torments. Carrie dies in the woods and eventually the town itself shuts down over time.

Answer: Lorna Doone

"Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor" was written by R.D. Blackmore and published in 1869.

Lorna is introduced as a granddaughter of Sir Ensor, Lord of the Doones. The Doones are a clan that live in Somerset, England and were once nobles but now outlaws. One day, Lorna meets a young man named John Ridd, whose family are sworn enemies against the Doones. Lorna and John fall in love. This is especially complicated because a Doone man named Carver wants to eventually marry Lorna.

While Lorna is staying with John's family a piece of her jewelry is stolen. It then turns out the necklace belonged to a wealthy lady who was robbed and murdered with only her daughter surviving. So Lorna learned that she is not a Doone, but a wealthy heiress and is returned to London. John also goes to London to clear his name after a faulty arrest and eventually gets pardoned and gets a title.

At the end of the novel, Lorna is about to marry John when Carver busts into the ceremony and shoots Lorna. John chases Carver into a mire outside where Carver dies. John learns that Lorna survived the wound and they live happily ever after.

Answer: Evangeline

"Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie" is an epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written and published in 1847.

Evangeline Bellefontaine is a young Acadian living in Nova Scotia in 1755 and engaged to a man named Gabriel. Because the Acadians refused to swear an unconditional oath of allegiance to the British Crown, the British began expelling them from the country. The British military arrived on the day of Evangeline's wedding and tore the young couple apart.

Evangeline and other Acadians are sent to Louisiana. She learns Gabriel had been there but moved on, so she starts searching for him throughout the region and along the Mississippi River. This fruitless search goes on for years and across multiple states as, unknowingly, she often misses him when he is nearby.

At the end of the story, Evangeline is an "old woman" when she finds Gabriel on his deathbed in a Philadelphia almshouse during an epidemic. She calls out his name, and he recognizes her before he dies in her arms. Evangeline cried and thanked God that she had found him, even at this cost. They were ultimately buried together in a nameless grave.

Answer: Mary Poppins

The book "Mary Poppins" was written by P.L. Travers in 1934 and was the first in a series of eight children's books.

The book introduces the Banks family which is made up of the parents and four children named Jane, Michael, John, and Barbara. Their nanny leaves one day as she is fed up with the misbehaving children. She is replaced by a magical nanny named Mary Poppins who arrives at their home, complete with her travelling carpet bag, blown in by a very strong east wind.

Mary has magical powers, such as sliding up banisters, pulling objects from her carpetbag, and talking to animals. She takes the children on a series of adventures. These include a tea party on the ceiling, a trip around the world with a magical compass, a party at the zoo where the animals are hosts, and placing stars in the sky.

In the end, in what is perhaps the most iconic image associated with Mary Poppins, she opens her umbrella and the west wind carries her away. She leaves behind a note letting the children know that they will meet her again someday.

Answer: Jane Eyre

"Jane Eyre" was written by Charlotte Bronte and was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" in 1847.

The book follows Jane Eyre through five stages in her life. It starts when she is a ten year old orphan and living with the Reed family in northern England in Gateshead Hall in the early 19th century. Here she is treated as a burden and feels unloved. She is eventually sent away to a charity school for girls. In this stage of her life, Jane is at the Lowood Institution. The school is a harsh place with much punishment, poor food, and unsafe conditions. After several years, an epidemic strikes the school and Jane's best friend dies in her arms.

After teaching at Lowood for a while, Jane takes a job as a governess at Thornfield Hall. Here she met the mysterious master of the house named Edward Rochester. Strange noises and events began to happen at the house and Jane and Edward are drawn closer. After Jane almost loses Edward to another woman, the two admit their love for one another. However, to her horror, Jane learns that Edward was previously married and his insane wife is living in a locked room in the house. Jane leaves.

As Jane is running away, she loses her possessions and almost starves on the moor. She is taken in by a clergyman and his sisters. To her delight and shock, she discovers that she is related to them and she was left a large sum of money by her uncle. Jane almost marries the clergyman but then she thinks she hears Edward calling to her from far away. She returns to Thornfield to find it in smoking ruins. Learning he is blind and his wife dead, she soon marries him, and Edward goes on to heal enough to see their newborn child later.

Answer: Bridget Jones

"Bridget Jones' Diary" was written by Helen Fielding in 1996.

Written in the form of a personal diary, the book covers a year in the life of Bridget Jones, a thirty-something single working woman living in London in the 1990s. Bridget spends time worrying about the fact that she is smoking too much, that she is overweight (in her opinion), and that she is still single.

During the Christmas holidays, Bridget develops a crush on her boss, Daniel, even though he is a womanizer. At the same time her mother is trying to set her up with a lawyer named Mark Darcy. She and her boss juggle an ill-advised relationship against her better judgement. This ends when she finds out he had been cheating on her.

Over time, Bridget begins to realize how special Mark Darcy is in her life. He has stepped in a few times to help her out, including a subplot where Bridget's mother becomes involved in a fraud scandal with one of her suitors. Mark Darcy uses his legal expertise to help the Jones family resolve the issue, proving his reliability and good character to Bridget. The book ends with Bridget and Mark starting a relationship.

Answer: Mrs. Dalloway

"Mrs. Dalloway" was written by Virginia Woolf in 1925.

Clarissa Dalloway is a high-society woman in her fifties who is preparing to host a party in London in 1923. The novel begins with Clarissa leaving her home to buy flowers for a party she is hosting that evening. During these errands, she runs into old friends and acquaintances which make her reflect on her life. For instance, she had married the reliable, successful, Richard Dalloway instead of the enigmatic and demanding Peter Walsh. She also had unresolved feelings for another female named Sally.

Interwoven into Clarissa's day is the external story of a man named Septimus Smith, who was a verteran of the recent WWI. He is suffering from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and keeps reliving the death of a very close friend he had sexual feelings toward. He and his young wife visit a psychiatrist who suggests that Septimus be confined to an institution. Rather than do this, Septimus commits suicide.

The novel ends during Clarissa's party, which brings together many of the characters, including Peter and Sally. Even the psychiatrist shows up and talks about the death of Septimus. Though Clarissa had never met the man, she feels empathy and goes into a room by herself to reflect. She realizes that she has come to admire this stranger's act, which she considers an effort to preserve the purity of happiness. She rejoins the party with a new sense of life.

Answer: Heidi

"Heidi" was written by Johanna Spyri and was published between 1880 and 1881.

The book starts with a young orphaned girl named Heidi who is five years old and is sent to live with her grandfather in the Alps. She eventually changes the grumpy older man into someone she calls "Alm-Uncle" and the two become friends as well as family. She also befriends a local goatherd named Peter. The only downside is that her grandfather never sends her to school.

Several years later, Heidi's aunt sends her to Frankfurt, Germany to be a companion for a rich, invalid girl named Klara. Soon the two girls become fast friends. Klara loves hearing the stories of life in the Alps. In return, Heidi learns to read and write using a collection of Biblical stories. However, Heidi becomes so homesick that she is physically ill and is sent back to the Alps.

Once home, she is joyous again and her grandfather is thrilled with her new knowledge and allows her to join school. Soon they invite Klara to visit and Klara's health blooms under the mountain air and fresh goat milk. Peter, however, is jealous of the attention Klara is getting and destroys her wheelchair. However, this forces Klara to learn to walk without it. The story ends with the girls claiming everlasting friendship and the knowledge they have strong family ties.

Answer: Anna Karenina

"Anna Karenina" was written by Leo Tolstoy and was published in 1878.

There are two stories woven throughout the novel. The main story is about Anna Karenina, who is married to a high-ranking government official named Alexei Karenin. They live in St. Peterburg, Russia in the 1870s. One day, while visiting her brother, Anna meets a dashing cavalry officer named Count Alexei Vronsky, and they share an immediate attraction. They soon start an affair. Over time, Anna confesses her affair to her husband, who forgives her after she almost dies following the birth of her daughter with Alexei. Forgiveness aside, Anna leaves her husband and runs away to Italy with her lover.

Meanwhile, the book highlights a country landowner named Konstantin Levin. He is rejected by a princess who is infatuated with the count that was pursuing Anna. The princess is heartbroken over the rejection but soon returns and reconnects with Levin. They marry and have a son. They soon find peace through their faith and their strong family life.

This contrasts dramatically with what is happening to Anna. Missing her family in St. Petersburg, she returns from Italy to Russia with her lover only to find herself shunned in society. She becomes increasingly depressed and convinces herself that nobody really loves her. After a terrible argument with her lover she kills herself by throwing herself under a train.