What is it You Want Most? Quiz | Literature

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In "Snow White", what did Snow White's stepmother want most in the world?

Answer: To be the most beautiful

The fairy tale is one of the most popular in the Western world. The stepmother is also known as the "evil stepmother" because after consulting her magic mirror, that always told her she was the most beautiful in the past, she is shocked to find out that her stepdaughter, Snow White, has exceeded her own beauty.

As a result, she plots to have her killed by a huntsman. When this plan fails, she attempts to infiltrate her new life in exile to eliminate the perceived threat.

2. In "The Little Mermaid", by Hans Christian Andersen, what did the title character want most in the world?

Answer: To be human

The little mermaid watches the humans from the sea and longs to be like them, because she is told that mermaids become sea foam while humans go to heaven after they die. After visiting an evil sorceress, she gains the ability to become human, but her new legs come at the cost of her beautiful voice.

3. What type of wife does the queen in "The Princess and the Pea" desperately desire for her son?

Answer: Sensitive

The queen gives the princess twenty mattresses to sleep on, with a hard-cooked pea underneath them all. When the princess is unable to sleep through the night, the queen is satisfied that only a princess would be sensitive enough to feel a pea through all the mattresses.

While that may sound ridiculous to you, the queen was clearly a princess in the past, so she must know something we don't.

4. In "Beauty and the Beast", what does the Beast desperately desire in order to break a curse placed on him?

Answer: Love

There are many versions of this tale, but in the original and in most common versions, a handsome prince was transformed into a beast by an evil fairy. If the beast was able to get a fair maiden to fall in love with him, the curse would be broken and his appearance would change back to that of a prince.

However, any mention of his condition to any of the women he is trying to court would result in him remaining a beast forever.

5. In "Rumpelstiltskin", a miller's daughter, victim of her father's boastfulness, is desperate to spin what into gold?

Answer: Straw

A father boasts about his daughter's prowess but his boastfulness gets his daughter locked up and forced to spin straw into gold. As she cannot do so, she cries, knowing the king will have her killed for failing. Luckily for her, an imp shows up that helps her with her impossible mission, but demands a price in return.

6. What does the blonde long-haired Rapunzel desire most?

Answer: Freedom

Rapunzel is taken as a child by a sorceress as revenge for her father's theft - an attempt to save her mother's life. The sorceress keeps the young woman trapped in a tower; Rapunzel would use her hair to allow only the sorceress to climb up into the room where she is trapped. One day, a prince walks by and meets her.

After she falls in love with him, she only desperately desires to be free of the sorceress and start a life with him.

7. When they finally find the evil witch's house, what are Hansel and Gretel desperately in need of?

Answer: Food

Hansel and Gretel escape their home after their evil stepmother convinces their father to leave them out in the woods to fend for themselves, as the family is too poor to properly take care of them. The two children attempt to find their way back home, but eventually fail. Tired and hungry after three days without food and lost in the woods, they find a gingerbread house and begin to eat it.

The evil witch inside lures them in because she wants to enslave and eat them.

8. In "The Fisherman and his Wife", what does the woman desperately desire?

Answer: Riches and power

The fairy tale is a cautionary tale about greed and dissatisfaction. The poor fisherman catches a flounder that begs to be set free and it will grant him wishes. His wife encourages him to keep asking for things, even as the couple grow richer and more powerful than anyone else in the land. Finally, having had enough, the flounder returns the two to their previous state of squalor.

9. In "The Ugly Duckling", what does the title bird desperately need?

Answer: Acceptance

The story follows a hatchling that is mercilessly teased for its ugliness by the other ducklings he hatches with. Even the other animals do not accept what they consider to be an ugly bird. After spending some time alone, the ugly duckling decides to attack a flock of swans, hoping to be killed by such beautiful creatures rather than endure a life of ugliness and loneliness. To his utter amazement, the now-adult ugly duckling realizes he has been a swan all along.

10. In "The Little Match Girl", what would have saved the title character's life?

Answer: Warmth

The tragic story of a young poor girl who is outside in the cold selling matches, unable to return home because her father would beat her. Sitting in the cold on the street by herself, she begins to hallucinate her grandmother, the only woman who ever treated her kindly.

She freezes to death in the street and is carried to heaven by her grandmother - she died with a smile on her face as onlookers pitied her.

Source: Author dim_dude

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor looney_tunes before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

What is it You Want Most? Trivia Quiz

We all want different things out of life, and fairy tale characters are no exception. This is a quiz on fairy tale characters and their deepest (and sometimes darkest) desires.

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>