Eugene O’Neill – The Emperor Jones – Exam Based MCQs
1. The Emperor Jones is written by: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) Arthur Miller
B) Tennessee Williams
C) Eugene O’Neill
D) Edward Albee
Ans: C) Eugene O’Neill
2. The Emperor Jones was first produced in: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) 1918
B) 1920
C) 1925
D) 1933
Ans: B) 1920
3. The play was first staged at the: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) Globe Theatre
B) Provincetown Playhouse
C) Broadway Theatre
D) Yale Repertory Theatre
Ans: B) Provincetown Playhouse
4. The central character of the play is: (UGC NET 2017; SET 2018; PGTRB 2019)
A) Lem
B) Smithers
C) Jeff
D) Brutus Jones
Ans: D) Brutus Jones
5. Brutus Jones is originally a: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) plantation owner
B) Pullman porter
C) lawyer
D) schoolteacher
Ans: B) Pullman porter
6. Brutus Jones becomes emperor on: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) a West Indian island
B) a South African colony
C) a European kingdom
D) an American town
Ans: A) a West Indian island
7. Brutus Jones maintains power largely through: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) democratic elections
B) learning and kindness
C) fear, exploitation, and superstition
D) military alliances with Europe
Ans: C) fear, exploitation, and superstition
8. Jones tells the islanders that only a ____ can kill him. (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) golden bullet
B) silver bullet
C) poison arrow
D) magic knife
Ans: B) silver bullet
9. The rebellion against Jones begins when: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) the islanders discover his trick and rise against him
B) Smithers leaves the island
C) Jeff returns from prison
D) Lem becomes emperor officially
Ans: A) the islanders discover his trick and rise against him
10. The white trader in the play is: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) Lem
B) Smithers
C) Jeff
D) Congo Doctor
Ans: B) Smithers
11. Lem in the play is: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) a native chief
B) an American sailor
C) Jones’s brother
D) a missionary
Ans: A) a native chief
12. The play is best known for its strong use of: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) pastoral comedy
B) expressionistic technique
C) documentary realism only
D) poetic romance
Ans: B) expressionistic technique
13. Much of the action after the opening takes place in: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) a courtroom
B) the jungle
C) a palace hall
D) a prison cell
Ans: B) the jungle
14. The steady drumbeat in the play mainly symbolizes: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) comic rhythm
B) approaching punishment and rising terror
C) military parade only
D) divine blessing
Ans: B) approaching punishment and rising terror
15. The jungle journey becomes for Jones a descent into: (UGC NET 2017; SET 2018; PGTRB 2019)
A) comic misunderstanding
B) memory, fear, and guilt
C) political reform
D) religious peace
Ans: B) memory, fear, and guilt
16. Jones begins seeing visions in the forest because: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) he is calmly meditating
B) he is psychologically unraveling
C) he is reading magic books
D) Smithers follows him
Ans: B) he is psychologically unraveling
17. One of Jones’s earliest hallucinations is of: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) Jeff, the man he killed
B) Linda Loman
C) Ben Loman
D) his mother
Ans: A) Jeff, the man he killed
18. The hallucinations in the play move backward through: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) comic episodes
B) Jones’s personal and racial past
C) future dreams only
D) legal arguments
Ans: B) Jones’s personal and racial past
19. A major theme of the play is: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) romantic love
B) guilt and psychological disintegration
C) pastoral innocence
D) comic marriage
Ans: B) guilt and psychological disintegration
20. Another important theme is: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) imperial power and exploitation
B) detective mystery
C) pastoral religion
D) sea adventure
Ans: A) imperial power and exploitation
21. The play’s form is unusual because scenes 2 to 7 are mostly from: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) Smithers’s viewpoint
B) Jones’s viewpoint
C) Lem’s viewpoint
D) the audience’s detached viewpoint only
Ans: B) Jones’s viewpoint
22. The Emperor Jones is often regarded as one of O’Neill’s first major: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) failures
B) commercial successes
C) novels
D) radio plays
Ans: B) commercial successes
23. The play is generally considered part of: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) modern American drama
B) Restoration comedy
C) medieval morality play
D) absurdist farce
Ans: A) modern American drama
24. Jones is finally killed by: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) poison
B) hanging
C) a silver bullet
D) a knife
Ans: C) a silver bullet
25. The silver bullet is important because it: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) proves Jones’s magical power
B) fulfills the superstition Jones himself created
C) is given by Smithers as a gift
D) belongs to Jeff
Ans: B) fulfills the superstition Jones himself created
26. The title character is “emperor” mainly because he: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) inherits a throne lawfully
B) appoints himself and rules by manipulation
C) wins an election fairly
D) is chosen by Smithers’s government
Ans: B) appoints himself and rules by manipulation
27. O’Neill’s play is especially notable for its use of: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) inner psychological theater
B) strict realism only
C) happy ending conventions
D) romantic comedy devices
Ans: A) inner psychological theater
28. The play can be read as a critique of: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) colonial and racial power structures
B) pastoral poetry
C) medieval kingship only
D) domestic marriage alone
Ans: A) colonial and racial power structures
29. The drumbeat grows faster through the play to show: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) comic excitement
B) intensifying pursuit and fear
C) marriage celebration
D) military victory
Ans: B) intensifying pursuit and fear
30. The visions of chain gangs, auctions, and witch-doctors suggest: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) comic fantasy
B) layered historical memory and racial nightmare
C) legal testimony only
D) ordinary village life
Ans: B) layered historical memory and racial nightmare
31. The best short description of the play is: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) an expressionist tragedy of fear, guilt, and power
B) a romantic comedy of manners
C) a detective thriller
D) a pastoral lyric
Ans: A) an expressionist tragedy of fear, guilt, and power
32. Which statement is TRUE about The Emperor Jones? (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) It is a 1920 play centered on Brutus Jones’s flight through the jungle
B) It is a Victorian comedy
C) It is written as a novel in letters
D) It avoids all experimental technique
Ans: A) It is a 1920 play centered on Brutus Jones’s flight through the jungle
33. Jones’s downfall is caused most directly by his: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) humility
B) greed, arrogance, and guilt
C) love for the islanders
D) devotion to democracy
Ans: B) greed, arrogance, and guilt
34. Smithers mainly functions as: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) a comic observer and framing character
B) Jones’s brother
C) a priest
D) the main tragic hero
Ans: A) a comic observer and framing character
35. The play is not mainly concerned with: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) racial history
B) guilt and fear
C) imperial domination
D) romantic domestic happiness
Ans: D) romantic domestic happiness
36. O’Neill’s dramatic innovation in this play lies especially in showing: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) a literal courtroom only
B) an external adventure as an inner psychic drama
C) a simple domestic quarrel
D) a pastoral love triangle
Ans: B) an external adventure as an inner psychic drama
37. The jungle in the play can symbolically represent: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) moral and psychological darkness
B) comic relief
C) peaceful retirement
D) democratic reform
Ans: A) moral and psychological darkness
38. The play belongs most clearly to: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) modernist American theater
B) Restoration satire
C) pastoral drama
D) epic romance
Ans: A) modernist American theater
39. The silver bullet at the end is ironic because: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) it proves Jones immortal
B) Jones is destroyed by the very myth he invented
C) Smithers fires it accidentally
D) it belongs to Jeff’s ghost
Ans: B) Jones is destroyed by the very myth he invented
40. The play’s treatment of power suggests that: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) tyranny rests on fear and illusion
B) dictatorship is noble
C) superstition is harmless
D) guilt never returns
Ans: A) tyranny rests on fear and illusion
41. The emotional power of the play comes mainly from: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) domestic comedy
B) Jones’s terrifying mental breakdown
C) courtroom suspense
D) romantic love scenes
Ans: B) Jones’s terrifying mental breakdown
42. The play is especially useful for discussing: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) expressionism, race, and imperialism
B) romantic lyricism only
C) detective logic only
D) medieval allegory only
Ans: A) expressionism, race, and imperialism
43. The character of Brutus Jones is tragic because he: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) is purely innocent
B) is ruined by the fears and crimes he cannot escape
C) is too passive to act
D) is defeated only by weather
Ans: B) is ruined by the fears and crimes he cannot escape
44. Jones’s journey through the forest is also a journey into: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) comic society
B) his unconscious and historical past
C) legal justice only
D) peaceful nature
Ans: B) his unconscious and historical past
45. The best critical label for the play is: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) an expressionist tragedy of power and fear
B) a sentimental comedy
C) a social farce
D) a documentary report
Ans: A) an expressionist tragedy of power and fear
46. O’Neill’s play is admired especially for its: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) experimental stagecraft and psychological depth
B) comic songs
C) domestic realism only
D) romantic ending
Ans: A) experimental stagecraft and psychological depth
47. The Emperor Jones is historically significant because it helped establish O’Neill as: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) a major playwright
B) a lyric poet
C) a novelist
D) a critic
Ans: A) a major playwright
48. Which statement is TRUE about the play? (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) It follows Brutus Jones’s rule, flight, hallucinations, and death on a silver-bullet myth
B) It is set in a New England farmhouse
C) It is a comic romance
D) It has no symbolic sound effects
Ans: A) It follows Brutus Jones’s rule, flight, hallucinations, and death on a silver-bullet myth
49. The play finally suggests that: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) the past can be permanently buried
B) fear and guilt inevitably return to punish tyranny
C) superstition has no power at all
D) comedy can solve political violence
Ans: B) fear and guilt inevitably return to punish tyranny
50. The overall message of The Emperor Jones is that: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) power built on fear, exploitation, and illusion leads to destruction
B) tyranny guarantees security
C) guilt can always be escaped
D) superstition is stronger than truth forever
Ans: A) power built on fear, exploitation, and illusion leads to destruction
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