William Faulkner – Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech – Exam Based MCQs
1. “Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech” is delivered by: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) Ernest Hemingway
B) T. S. Eliot
C) William Faulkner
D) John Steinbeck
Ans: C) William Faulkner
2. Faulkner received the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) 1948
B) 1949
C) 1950
D) 1951
Ans: B) 1949
3. Faulkner delivered the speech in Stockholm on: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) October 10, 1949
B) December 10, 1950
C) January 1, 1951
D) August 31, 1950
Ans: B) December 10, 1950
4. The speech is most properly categorized as a: (UGC NET 2017; SET 2018; PGTRB 2019)
A) dramatic monologue
B) acceptance speech / address
C) lyric poem
D) political manifesto
Ans: B) acceptance speech / address
5. At the beginning of the speech, Faulkner says the award was made not to him as a man, but to: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) his country
B) his readers
C) his work
D) his publishers
Ans: C) his work
6. Faulkner describes his work as a life’s work in the agony and sweat of: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) political struggle
B) industrial labor
C) the human spirit
D) historical research
Ans: C) the human spirit
7. Faulkner says writing should not be for glory and least of all for: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) fame
B) profit
C) politics
D) posterity
Ans: B) profit
8. One of Faulkner’s main concerns in the speech is that contemporary young writers have forgotten: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) grammar
B) mythology
C) the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself
D) plot construction
Ans: C) the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself
9. Faulkner criticizes young writers for writing under the shadow of: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) romantic love
B) universal fear
C) comic absurdity
D) medieval superstition
Ans: B) universal fear
10. The fear Faulkner especially refers to in the speech is: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) fear of poverty
B) fear of the atom bomb / general destruction
C) fear of religion
D) fear of history
Ans: B) fear of the atom bomb / general destruction
11. According to Faulkner, the writer’s duty is to help man endure by lifting his heart through reminding him of: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) wealth and comfort
B) ancient empires
C) courage, honor, hope, pride, compassion, pity, and sacrifice
D) politics and progress
Ans: C) courage, honor, hope, pride, compassion, pity, and sacrifice
12. Faulkner insists that the writer must teach himself that the basest of all things is: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) fame
B) idleness
C) fear
D) ambition
Ans: C) fear
13. Faulkner says the writer who has forgotten man’s spiritual questions writes not of the heart but of: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) social customs
B) glands
C) geography
D) architecture
Ans: B) glands
14. “The problems of the human heart in conflict with itself” are important because they alone can make: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) good propaganda
B) good writing worth the agony and sweat
C) political history
D) scientific truth
Ans: B) good writing worth the agony and sweat
15. Faulkner’s tone in the speech is best described as: (UGC NET 2017; SET 2018; PGTRB 2019)
A) comic and mocking
B) prophetic and exhortatory
C) casual and indifferent
D) purely academic
Ans: B) prophetic and exhortatory
16. The speech is famous for asserting that man will not merely endure; he will: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) surrender
B) vanish
C) prevail
D) be silent
Ans: C) prevail
17. Faulkner’s idea that man will “prevail” reflects his faith in: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) machines
B) military strength
C) human spiritual resilience
D) political institutions only
Ans: C) human spiritual resilience
18. Faulkner says the poet’s and writer’s privilege is to: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) entertain society only
B) help man endure by uplifting his heart
C) avoid moral issues
D) focus on style alone
Ans: B) help man endure by uplifting his heart
19. The speech belongs mainly to the genre of: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) autobiographical fiction
B) public oratory / literary address
C) pastoral lyric
D) historical novel
Ans: B) public oratory / literary address
20. Faulkner contrasts what is merely physical with what is truly literary by opposing “glands” to: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) politics
B) economics
C) the human heart in conflict with itself
D) religion only
Ans: C) the human heart in conflict with itself
21. A central theme of the speech is: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) despair without remedy
B) the moral responsibility of literature
C) political revolution only
D) urban alienation only
Ans: B) the moral responsibility of literature
22. Faulkner’s speech argues that literature should focus on: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) trivial sensation
B) fear alone
C) timeless human values and conflict
D) social gossip
Ans: C) timeless human values and conflict
23. The historical climate behind the speech includes anxiety created by: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) the Renaissance
B) the Cold War and nuclear threat
C) the Victorian age
D) the French Revolution
Ans: B) the Cold War and nuclear threat
24. Faulkner suggests that fear has made the young man or woman writing today forget: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) style
B) grammar
C) the old verities and truths of the heart
D) publication methods
Ans: C) the old verities and truths of the heart
25. The “old verities and truths of the heart” include all of the following except: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) love
B) honor
C) pity
D) machinery
Ans: D) machinery
26. The speech encourages writers to reject writing that is based merely on: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) imagination
B) moral seriousness
C) fear and physical appetite alone
D) memory and history
Ans: C) fear and physical appetite alone
27. Faulkner’s speech is often anthologized because it is a powerful statement on: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) literary purpose and human endurance
B) comic technique only
C) southern humor
D) experimental syntax only
Ans: A) literary purpose and human endurance
28. The speech is NOT mainly about: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) the function of literature
B) human courage
C) the writer’s responsibility
D) romantic courtship
Ans: D) romantic courtship
29. Faulkner’s repeated emphasis on the “human heart” suggests literature must remain: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) abstract and detached
B) deeply human and moral
C) purely technical
D) politically neutral only
Ans: B) deeply human and moral
30. The overall movement of the speech is from: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) despair to affirmation
B) comedy to tragedy
C) politics to economics
D) history to geography
Ans: A) despair to affirmation
31. The speech is best described as: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) a moral-literary manifesto in prose
B) a dramatic tragedy
C) a pastoral sketch
D) a private diary
Ans: A) a moral-literary manifesto in prose
32. Faulkner’s view of the writer is that he or she must be: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) morally serious and courageous
B) commercially successful first
C) politically partisan
D) indifferent to readers
Ans: A) morally serious and courageous
33. The line “the poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props” means literature can: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) entertain without consequence
B) actively support human endurance
C) replace religion completely
D) ignore social reality
Ans: B) actively support human endurance
34. Faulkner’s speech remains important because it affirms that literature must preserve: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) political power
B) the old universal truths
C) aristocratic values only
D) formal experiment only
Ans: B) the old universal truths
35. Which statement is TRUE about the speech? (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) It is Faulkner’s 1950 Nobel banquet/acceptance speech centered on the writer’s duty
B) It is a poem written during World War I
C) It rejects humanism
D) It celebrates fear as useful
Ans: A) It is Faulkner’s 1950 Nobel banquet/acceptance speech centered on the writer’s duty
36. Faulkner’s speech can best be connected with the belief that literature should: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) focus only on sensation
B) defend human dignity
C) avoid suffering
D) remain politically decorative
Ans: B) defend human dignity
37. The speech’s strongest rhetorical quality is its: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) simplicity of plot
B) lofty moral intensity
C) comic dialogue
D) scientific precision
Ans: B) lofty moral intensity
38. Faulkner’s opposition between fear and the old verities implies that true art must be based on: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) panic and immediacy
B) permanent human values
C) physical instinct only
D) social fashion
Ans: B) permanent human values
39. The speech is optimistic because Faulkner believes: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) writers will disappear
B) mankind is doomed
C) human beings possess a soul capable of compassion and endurance
D) fear is stronger than hope
Ans: C) human beings possess a soul capable of compassion and endurance
40. The phrase “the agony and sweat of the human spirit” points to Faulkner’s view that literature is: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) effortless entertainment
B) serious, difficult creative labor
C) merely academic study
D) casual amusement
Ans: B) serious, difficult creative labor
41. The speech is especially relevant to discussions of: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) the ethics and purpose of art
B) medieval romance
C) pastoral scenery
D) comic farce
Ans: A) the ethics and purpose of art
42. Faulkner’s statement that man will “prevail” is more than survival because it implies: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) mere biological continuation
B) moral and spiritual triumph
C) economic success
D) political victory only
Ans: B) moral and spiritual triumph
43. The speech is NOT mainly concerned with: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) literary responsibility
B) human courage
C) old verities of the heart
D) romantic comedy
Ans: D) romantic comedy
44. The best short critical label for the speech is: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) humanist literary credo
B) detective confession
C) war reportage
D) sentimental memoir
Ans: A) humanist literary credo
45. Faulkner’s message to writers is that they should write from: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) fear and despair only
B) the enduring truths of human experience
C) fashion and publicity
D) profit motives
Ans: B) the enduring truths of human experience
46. The speech implies that the writer’s highest function is to: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) mirror despair passively
B) strengthen the spirit of humanity
C) avoid moral judgment completely
D) focus on profit
Ans: B) strengthen the spirit of humanity
47. Faulkner’s “Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech” is often remembered for its faith in: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) despair
B) human endurance and dignity
C) political propaganda
D) pure technique
Ans: B) human endurance and dignity
48. Which phrase best sums up the spirit of the speech? (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) art for profit
B) fear without hope
C) the writer must affirm the human spirit
D) literature is only private expression
Ans: C) the writer must affirm the human spirit
49. Which statement is TRUE about William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech? (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) It was delivered in Stockholm in 1950 and urges writers to reject fear and affirm the human heart
B) It is a short lyric poem about nature
C) It denies the value of compassion
D) It says man will merely endure but not prevail
Ans: A) It was delivered in Stockholm in 1950 and urges writers to reject fear and affirm the human heart
50. The overall message of the speech is that: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) literature must help humanity endure and prevail by recalling timeless moral truths
B) writers should only describe fear
C) profit is the main aim of art
D) the human spirit is weak and doomed
Ans: A) literature must help humanity endure and prevail by recalling timeless moral truths
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