History of English Literature – The Age of Hardy – Exam Based MCQs
1. The Age of Hardy broadly belongs to: (UGC NET / SET / PGTRB)
A) Early 18th century
B) Late 19th and early 20th centuries
C) 14th century
D) Early 17th century
Ans: B) Late 19th and early 20th centuries
2. The Age of Hardy is generally considered a: (SET)
A) Medieval age
B) Neo-classical age
C) Transitional period from Victorian to Modern literature
D) Pure Romantic age
Ans: C) Transitional period from Victorian to Modern literature
3. The age is named after: (UGC NET)
A) Thomas Hardy
B) Thomas Carlyle
C) Gerard Manley Hopkins
D) George Bernard Shaw
Ans: A) Thomas Hardy
4. Thomas Hardy is chiefly known as a: (PGTRB)
A) Dramatist only
B) Novelist and poet
C) Essayist only
D) Lexicographer only
Ans: B) Novelist and poet
5. Hardy’s fictional region is called: (SET)
A) Avalon
B) Utopia
C) Wessex
D) Elsinore
Ans: C) Wessex
6. Hardy’s novels are often set in: (UGC NET)
A) Industrial London only
B) Imaginary Wessex based on rural southwest England
C) Ancient Rome
D) Medieval France
Ans: B) Imaginary Wessex based on rural southwest England
7. A major feature of Hardy’s fiction is: (PGTRB)
A) Cheerful comedy only
B) Pessimism and tragic vision
C) Pure fantasy only
D) Courtly satire only
Ans: B) Pessimism and tragic vision
8. Hardy’s worldview is often associated with: (SET)
A) Blind fate and indifferent universe
B) Pure optimism
C) Religious certainty only
D) Augustan wit only
Ans: A) Blind fate and indifferent universe
9. Hardy’s phrase “President of the Immortals” occurs in: (UGC NET)
A) Jude the Obscure
B) Far from the Madding Crowd
C) Tess of the d’Urbervilles
D) The Mayor of Casterbridge
Ans: C) Tess of the d’Urbervilles
10. Thomas Hardy’s first major successful novel was: (PGTRB)
A) Jude the Obscure
B) Far from the Madding Crowd
C) The Return of the Native
D) Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Ans: B) Far from the Madding Crowd
11. Far from the Madding Crowd features the heroine: (SET)
A) Tess
B) Sue Bridehead
C) Bathsheba Everdene
D) Eustacia Vye
Ans: C) Bathsheba Everdene
12. The Return of the Native is set on: (UGC NET)
A) Egdon Heath
B) Salisbury Plain
C) Wimbledon Common
D) Dartmoor only
Ans: A) Egdon Heath
13. The heroine of The Return of the Native is: (PGTRB)
A) Tess Durbeyfield
B) Bathsheba Everdene
C) Eustacia Vye
D) Elfride Swancourt
Ans: C) Eustacia Vye
14. The Mayor of Casterbridge centers on: (SET)
A) Michael Henchard
B) Jude Fawley
C) Gabriel Oak
D) Angel Clare
Ans: A) Michael Henchard
15. Tess of the d’Urbervilles has as its heroine: (UGC NET)
A) Sue Bridehead
B) Tess Durbeyfield
C) Lucetta
D) Bathsheba
Ans: B) Tess Durbeyfield
16. The subtitle of Tess of the d’Urbervilles is: (PGTRB)
A) A Story of Wessex
B) A Pure Woman
C) A Tragedy of Fate
D) A Modern Heroine
Ans: B) A Pure Woman
17. Jude the Obscure mainly deals with: (SET)
A) Rural farming life only
B) Social institutions like marriage and education
C) Heroic warfare
D) Medieval romance
Ans: B) Social institutions like marriage and education
18. The protagonist of Jude the Obscure is: (UGC NET)
A) Michael Henchard
B) Gabriel Oak
C) Jude Fawley
D) Alec d’Urberville
Ans: C) Jude Fawley
19. Sue Bridehead appears in: (PGTRB)
A) Tess of the d’Urbervilles
B) Jude the Obscure
C) The Mayor of Casterbridge
D) Far from the Madding Crowd
Ans: B) Jude the Obscure
20. Hardy gave up novel writing after: (SET)
A) Tess of the d’Urbervilles
B) Jude the Obscure
C) The Mayor of Casterbridge
D) Under the Greenwood Tree
Ans: B) Jude the Obscure
21. Hardy turned mainly to poetry in the later part of his career because: (UGC NET)
A) He had never written poetry before
B) He stopped fiction after controversy over Jude the Obscure
C) He disliked rural life
D) He became a dramatist
Ans: B) He stopped fiction after controversy over Jude the Obscure
22. Hardy’s poetry is notable for: (PGTRB)
A) Pure classical imitation only
B) Simplicity, irony, and philosophical sadness
C) Comic wit only
D) Heroic couplets only
Ans: B) Simplicity, irony, and philosophical sadness
23. Hardy’s important poetic collection includes: (SET)
A) Wessex Poems
B) Lyrical Ballads
C) Men and Women
D) The Princess
Ans: A) Wessex Poems
24. Hardy also wrote a dramatic epic on the Napoleonic wars titled: (UGC NET)
A) The Dynasts
B) Pippa Passes
C) The Ring and the Book
D) Aurora Leigh
Ans: A) The Dynasts
25. The Dynasts is: (PGTRB)
A) A pastoral elegy
B) An epic-drama in verse
C) A social comedy
D) A novel in dialogue
Ans: B) An epic-drama in verse
26. A major prose writer of the broader age is: (SET)
A) George Bernard Shaw
B) Thomas Hardy
C) Both as part of the period’s literary richness
D) Neither
Ans: C) Both as part of the period’s literary richness
27. George Bernard Shaw is important in the age chiefly as a: (UGC NET)
A) Novelist only
B) Playwright
C) Epic poet
D) Lexicographer
Ans: B) Playwright
28. Another major dramatist of the age is: (PGTRB)
A) Oscar Wilde
B) Ben Jonson
C) Thomas Kyd
D) John Dryden
Ans: A) Oscar Wilde
29. Oscar Wilde wrote: (SET)
A) The Importance of Being Earnest
B) Pygmalion
C) Saint Joan
D) Riders to the Sea
Ans: A) The Importance of Being Earnest
30. The Age of Hardy also saw the rise of literary movements leading toward: (UGC NET)
A) Modernism
B) Medievalism only
C) Neo-classicism only
D) Restoration comedy
Ans: A) Modernism
31. Hardy’s novels often present conflict between: (PGTRB)
A) Man and indifferent circumstances
B) Only kings and nobles
C) Myth and religion only
D) Comedy and wit only
Ans: A) Man and indifferent circumstances
32. Hardy’s fiction often attacks: (SET)
A) Social hypocrisy and rigid moral codes
B) Nature only
C) Classical learning
D) Poetry itself
Ans: A) Social hypocrisy and rigid moral codes
33. A major feature of Hardy’s style is: (UGC NET)
A) Regional realism
B) Pure fantasy
C) Artificial epic diction only
D) Urban satire only
Ans: A) Regional realism
34. Hardy’s age reflects the decline of: (PGTRB)
A) Rural traditional life
B) Science
C) Urbanization
D) Novel writing
Ans: A) Rural traditional life
35. Hardy’s treatment of love is generally: (SET)
A) Comic and light only
B) Serious and tragic
C) Entirely pastoral
D) Purely satirical
Ans: B) Serious and tragic
36. Hardy belongs to the later phase of the: (UGC NET)
A) Victorian age
B) Restoration age
C) Puritan age
D) Augustan age
Ans: A) Victorian age
37. Which pair is correctly matched? (PGTRB)
A) Hardy — Tess of the d’Urbervilles
B) Hardy — Middlemarch
C) Hardy — Jane Eyre
D) Hardy — The Way of the World
Ans: A) Hardy — Tess of the d’Urbervilles
38. Which statement is TRUE about the Age of Hardy? (SET)
A) It is mainly an age of heroic couplets and satire
B) It is a late Victorian and early modern transition marked by realism, pessimism, social criticism, and experimentation
C) It is the age of Shakespearean romance
D) It rejects the novel form
Ans: B) It is a late Victorian and early modern transition marked by realism, pessimism, social criticism, and experimentation
39. Hardy’s importance in English literature lies especially in his: (UGC NET)
A) Tragic rural novels and later poetry
B) Lexicography
C) Courtly drama only
D) Restoration satire
Ans: A) Tragic rural novels and later poetry
40. The Age of Hardy is important for the growth of: (PGTRB)
A) Psychological and social realism
B) Mystery plays
C) Pure pastoral lyric only
D) Epic romance only
Ans: A) Psychological and social realism
41. The age also includes poets like: (SET)
A) Gerard Manley Hopkins
B) Alexander Pope
C) John Dryden
D) Ben Jonson
Ans: A) Gerard Manley Hopkins
42. Gerard Manley Hopkins is known for innovations such as: (UGC NET)
A) Sprung rhythm
B) Heroic couplets
C) Blank verse epic
D) Comedy of manners
Ans: A) Sprung rhythm
43. A general mood of the age is: (PGTRB)
A) Confidence mixed with uncertainty and anxiety
B) Purely medieval devotion
C) Simple romantic optimism only
D) Courtly laughter only
Ans: A) Confidence mixed with uncertainty and anxiety
44. The Age of Hardy reflects social issues such as: (SET)
A) Class, marriage, morality, and changing rural life
B) Only feudal warfare
C) Only mythological symbolism
D) Only court entertainment
Ans: A) Class, marriage, morality, and changing rural life
45. Which statement best suits Hardy’s fictional method? (UGC NET)
A) He combines realism with symbolism and tragic irony
B) He writes only fantasy
C) He rejects characterization
D) He writes only comedy
Ans: A) He combines realism with symbolism and tragic irony
46. Which statement best suits the literary place of the Age of Hardy? (PGTRB)
A) It is a bridge between Victorianism and Modernism
B) It is purely neo-classical
C) It is the age of medieval allegory
D) It is only a dramatic age
Ans: A) It is a bridge between Victorianism and Modernism
47. Which statement best suits Hardy’s poetry? (SET)
A) It is often meditative, ironic, and bleakly humane
B) It is purely humorous
C) It is only romantic nature lyric
D) It uses only classical diction
Ans: A) It is often meditative, ironic, and bleakly humane
48. Which statement best suits The Age of Hardy? (UGC NET)
A) It is an age of realism, doubt, social criticism, and emerging modern consciousness
B) It is the age of Restoration wit
C) It is purely Romantic idealism
D) It is mainly an age of epic poetry
Ans: A) It is an age of realism, doubt, social criticism, and emerging modern consciousness
49. Which statement best suits The Age of Hardy? (PGTRB)
A) It is an age of transition, complexity, and tragic realism
B) It is an age of heroic couplets only
C) It is purely medieval in spirit
D) It rejects prose fiction completely
Ans: A) It is an age of transition, complexity, and tragic realism
50. Which statement best describes The Age of Hardy? (UGC NET)
A) It is the late 19th- and early 20th-century age centered on Thomas Hardy, Wessex fiction, pessimism, realism, social criticism, and transition from Victorian to Modern literature
B) It is the medieval age of Chaucerian realism
C) It is the Restoration age of satire and heroic couplets
D) It is the Romantic age of Wordsworth and Coleridge
Ans: A) It is the late 19th- and early 20th-century age centered on Thomas Hardy, Wessex fiction, pessimism, realism, social criticism, and transition from Victorian to Modern literature
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