Literary Devices Quiz Exam Questions And Answers 2024

Allusion - correct answer-A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance. It does not describe in detail the person or thing to which it refers. It is just a passing comment and the writer expects the reader to possess enough knowledge to spot the allusion and grasp its importance in a text. Allusion Examples - correct answer--"Don't act like a Romeo in front of her." - "Romeo" is a reference to Shakespeare's Romeo, a passionate lover of Juliet, in "Romeo and Juliet". -The rise in poverty will unlock the Pandora's box of crimes. This is an allusion to one of Greek Mythology's origin myth, "Pandora's box". -"This place is like a Garden of Eden." - This is a biblical allusion to the "garden of God" in the Book of Genesis. -"Hey! Guess who the new Newton of our school is?" - "Newton", means a genius student, alludes to a famous scientist Isaac Newton. -"Stop acting like my ex-husband please." - Apart from scholarly allusions we refer to common people and places in our speech. Antagonist - correct answer-a character or a group of characters which stand in opposition to the protagonist or the main character. The term antagonist comes from Greek word "antagonistēs" that means opponent, competitor or rival. -It is common to refer to an antagonist as a villain (the bad guy) against whom a hero (the good guy) fights in order to relieve himself or others. In some cases, an antagonist may exist within the protagonist that causes an inner conflict or a moral conflict inside his mind. This inner conflict is a major theme of many literary works e.g. Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, and A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce etc. Generally, an antagonist appears as a foil to the main character embodying qualities that are in contrast with the qualities of the main character. Antagonist Examples - correct answer-Example #1 A classical example of an antagonist is that of King Creon in Sophocles' tragedy "Antigone". Here, the function of the antagonist is to obstruct the main character's progress through evil plots and actions. Antigone, the protagonist, struggles against King Creon, the antagonist, in her effort to give her brother a respectable burial. Through his evil designs, Creon tries to hamper her in this attempt by announcing that her brother is a traitor and decreeing that "he must be left to the elements." This protagonist-antagonist conflict becomes the theme of this tragedy. Example #2 Another example of an antagonist is the character of "Iago" in Shakespeare's "Othello". Iago stands as the most notorious villains of all time who spends all his time in plotting against Othello, the protagonist, and his wife Desdemona. Through his evil schemes, he convinces Othello that his wife has been cheating on him and even convinces him to kill his own wife despite her being faithful to him. The thing that separates Iago from other antagonists is that we do not really know why he wants to destroy Othello. Example #3 In his novel "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", Robert Louis Stevenson explores the theme of doppelganger in which "Hyde" is not only an evil double of the honorable Dr. Jekyll but his antagonist. "Jekyll" creates "Hyde" by a series of scientific experiments in order to prove his statement: "Man is not truly one, but truly two." He means that a human soul is a mixture of evil and good. In other words, every man's antagonist exists within himself. Hyde is the manifestation of the evil that existed in the honorable Dr. Jekyll. Well-known as a respectable Victorian gentleman, Jekyll could never have fulfilled his evil desires. He separates his "evil-self" and gave him a separate identity and thus inventing his own antagoni Climax - correct answer-a Greek term meaning "ladder", is that particular point in a narrative at which the conflict or tension hits the highest point. -turning point in a storyline at which the rising action turns around into a falling action. Thus, a climax is the point at which a conflict or crisis reaches its peak that calls for a resolution or denouement (conclusion). In a five-act play, the climax is close to the conclusion of act 3. Later in the 19th century, the five-act plays were replaced by three-act plays and the climax was placed close to the conclusion or at the end of the play. Climax Examples - correct answer-Climax Examples in Literature Example #1 In William Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet", the story reaches its climax in Act 3. In the first scene of the act, Romeo challenges Tybalt to a duel after he (Tybalt) killed Mercutio: "And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now! Now, Tybalt, take the 'villain' back again That late thou gavest me; for Mercutio's soul Is but a little way above our heads," As soon as he killed Tybalt, Romeo says: "O! I am Fortune's Fool!"