Your Hand in Marriage Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bertie Wooster to Madeleine Bassett

Surely such eloquence would melt any girl's heart?

The only trouble is that the aching heart Bertie is talking about actually belongs to his friend Gussie Fink-Nottle. Gussie is so timid and diffident that he is tongue-tied in the presence of Madeleine and despairs of being able to declare his love for her.

So Bertie agrees to help him by bringing up the subject of love and aching hearts while strolling in the garden at sunset with Madeleine. Unfortunately the drippy Madeleine jumps to the conclusion that Bertie is referring to his own feelings.

One of the best and most well-known of P.G. Wodehouse's stories, "Right Ho, Jeeves" (1934) is the one that begins the incredibly tangled matter of Madeleine Basset and Gussie Fink-Nottle's engagement. Bertie knows he will never feel safe until they are actually married because of Madeleine's firm belief that he is standing by, ready to marry her if she and Augustus (Gussie) fall out. Which of course they are constantly doing.... The saga continues in "The Code of the Woosters" and "Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves".

The characters Lupin Pooter and Daisy Mutlar are from "The Diary of A Nobody" (1892) by George and Weedon Grossmith. Seth Starkadder and Flora Poste appear in "Cold Comfort Farm" (1932), by Stella Gibbons. The History of Mr Polly (1910) is by H.G. Wells. All these are very good comic novels which are worth seeking out if you have never read them!

Answer: Jack Worthing to Gwendolen

The play is, of course, that masterpiece of the English stage, "The Importance of Being Earnest". The reason Jack is so anxious to be christened is that Gwendolen has just declared she could never love any man not called Ernest. Jack is known to all his friends in town as Ernest, but his true name (or so he believes) is John. Therefore he is understandably nervous when Gwendolen makes her prejudice known. Curiously enough, the other heroine, Cecily, also has the same preference for the name Ernest. "I pity any poor married woman whose husband is not called Ernest", she declares, and Algernon, who falls in love with her at first sight, is also obliged to assume the pseudonym.

But Jack Worthing is a foundling, having been discovered in the famous handbag as a baby, and at the end of the play, his true name is actually revealed to be Ernest Moncrieff. This gloriously silly plot has been delighting audiences ever since it was first produced in 1895 at the St James theatre with George Alexander and Allan Aynsworth in the leading roles.

The title of the play is spelled Earnest, giving a double meaning of being in earnest.

Like Wodehouse, Oscar Wilde has had many imitators and inspired a form of typically English wit and comedy. Although he was actually Irish by birth, he was accepted into English upper-class society in the 1890s, when the cynical, fin-de-siècle, 'man of the world' style was all the rage.

As well as his brilliant drawing-room comedies, which are still played successfully today, he is remembered for his perennially popular children's stories such as "The Selfish Giant" and "The Happy Prince", in which a more sentimental and religious side of Wilde is revealed. The characters Lord Windermere and Lord Arthur Savile are other creations of Wilde's.

Answer: Maxim De Winter

Daphne Du Maurier's "Rebecca" (1938) is written in the first person from the heroine's point of view, but we never learn her name. Endless interpretations, some very sinister, have been read into the novel, including relating it to the life and experiences of the authoress. However, Daphne Du Maurier was born into a privileged upper-class family, the daughter of the celebrated actor Gerald Du Maurier, and the grand-daughter of George Du Maurier (a well-known illustrator, and writer of the novel "Trilby"). Therefore it is not likely that the heroine, who is diffident, painfully self-conscious, and unsure of how to behave with servants, is an image of the authoress.

However, the story does contain unmistakable parallels with "Jane Eyre", very obvious to any reader: the heroines in both books are orphans, more or less plain and insignificant, they are both doing lowly jobs when the hero meets them, the hero in both books is much older and has a dark secret relating to an earlier marriage.

The girl's reaction to Maxim's proposal is also very similar to Jane Eyre's to Mr Rochester. "This sudden talk of marriage bewildered me, even shocked me, I think. It was as though the King asked one. It did not ring true." ("Rebecca")

The story is all the more eerie for being set against the civilised background of English country house life (excellently portrayed). The other characters mentioned are all from the same novel. Frank Crawley is Maxim's land agent and right hand man, Jack Favell is Rebecca's cousin and could be classed as the villain, and Giles Lacy is Maxim's brother-in-law.

Answer: Guppy to Esther Summerson

Can you tell it is a lawyer speaking?

Mr Guppy's passion for Esther Summerson is one of the sources of comedy in the dramatic novel "Bleak House" (1853), by Charles Dickens. Mr Guppy is not only a comic character, but he also provides a minor link in the plot: because of his interest in Esther, he looks into her background and discovers who her real mother is (a secret that Esther herself is unaware of). He is full of self-importance about his profession as a lawyer in Kenge and Carboy's, and sees everything in legal terms. He "likes nothing better than to model his conversation on forensic principles" and practices cross-examining techniques even when talking to his close friends.

Later in the novel, Esther has just recovered from a near-fatal attack of smallpox, a disease which often left the sufferer severely disfigured. She has lost her looks completely, and she visits Mr Guppy on a business matter. Mr Guppy is now terrified she is going to take him up on his earlier proposal, perhaps sue him for breach of promise, and hastily reminds her that she refused the offer. "You wouldn't perhaps object to admit that? Though no witnesses are present. You wouldn't perhaps be offended if I was to mention that such a declaration on my part was final, and there terminated?"

Sir Abraham Haphazard is a creation of Anthony Trollope. He first appears in "The Warden" (1855), one of the "Chronicles of Barchester" series of novels. He is applied to for legal help by the warden of the title, who is Eleanor's father; but it is another character, John Bold, who seeks her hand in marriage.

Mr Wemmick is clerk to the lawyer Mr Jaggers in "Great Expectations" (1861), by Charles Dickens who does eventually marry Miss Skiffins.

Sir Edward Leithan, another lawyer, is the narrator of "The Power House" (1913), by John Buchan (author of "The Thirty-Nine Steps"). Ethel Pitt-Heron is "the only person who has ever captured his stony heart."

Answer: Levin to Kitty Scherbatsky

The letters stand for: "When you answered it could not be, did you mean then or never?"
The initial letters of her answer mean: "Then, I could not answer otherwise. Try and forgive what happened."

The book is "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy (1873). The story behind Levin's second proposal is this: A few months previously, the idealistic Levin, overcome with love and longing for Kitty Scherbatsky, asks her simply,

"Will you be my wife?"

She replies "No, that can never be." He goes away in despair, convinced that he can never love any one else and that his life is over. Kitty imagines she is in love with Alexei Vronsky, a smart young officer, and also believes he returns her love and is about to make her an offer. However Vronsky has been just enjoying flirting with Kitty and has no intention of marrying yet. Perhaps the match might have come to something, though, if Vronsky had not met Anna at this stage and become fascinated by her. He forgets all about Kitty, and follows Anna to St Petersburg.

Kitty pines away after this humiliation, and is taken abroad by her father to recover. Eventually she meets Levin again at an evening party given by her sister and brother-in-law. After dinner, he joins Kitty, who is sitting at a table prepared for cards. She begins to scribble nervously on the tablecloth with a piece of chalk. He seizes the opportunity to find out what her feelings are by writing his message down and hoping she will understand. Several messages pass between them in this fashion, until eventually: "He wrote down three letters. But before he had finished writing she read it under his hand, finished the sentence herself, and wrote the answer 'Yes'."

A very touching scene!

Raskolnikov and Sonia are the main characters in "Crime and Punishment" (1866) by Fyodor Dostoevsky. She follows him to Siberia after he is found guilty and they plan to marry after he has served his sentence.

Emma is the "Madame Bovary" of the book by Gustave Flaubert (1956). Charles marries her after his first wife dies. He is actually too shy and afraid of "not being able to find the right words" to propose to Emma, so he broaches the subject with her father.

As for "Manon Lescaut"(1731), she and the Chevalier initially "elope" when he is only seventeen and she sixteen, but they make serious plans to marry only right at the end of the book when Manon has been deported to New Orleans; however their plans end in tragedy.

Answer: St John Rivers to Jane

Of course it is from "Jane Eyre" (1847) by Charlotte Bronte. I was going to put Mr Rochester's proposal in, but I thought that would be too easy! However, here it is so you can compare his style to St John's:

"Jane, you strange, you almost unearthly thing! I love you as my own flesh. You - poor and obscure, and small and plain as you are - I entreat you to accept me as a husband. I must have you for my own, entirely my own. Will you be mine? Say yes, quickly."

Like the girl in my question 3, Jane thinks at first that Mr Rochester is making fun of her. ("I was silent: I thought he mocked me.")

However later in the book, when she has fled from Mr Rochester, she is revolted by St John Rivers's proposal, even though he is at least being totally honest with her. St John believes he is called to a missionary life in India, and he sees in Jane an ideal partner to accompany him in this task. He admits he does not love her and indeed is uninterested in love, except towards God, but that "Undoubtedly enough of love would follow upon marriage."

"I scorn your idea of love and I scorn you when you offer it," she replies. Of course she is still pining for Mr Rochester.

Ronnie Hislop and Adela appear in "A Passage to India" by E. M . Forster (1924). Adela's stay in India sees the beginning and end of their engagement, but I won't spoil the plot further for those who have not read it.

William Dobbin and Amelia Sedley appear in "Vanity Fair" by William Thackeray. The faithful Dobbin is not a missionary, but a major in the army. When he returns from India he offers his hand to Amelia in a very different manner from St John Rivers.

"Mrs Dalloway", by Virginia Woolf, was published in 1925. Peter Walsh is an old beau of Clarissa Dalloway's who has also returned unexpectedly from India. He had wished to marry her when they were young, thirty years previously, but she unaccountably chose Richard Dalloway.

Answer: Mr Casaubon to Dorothea Brooke

Strange to relate, when Dorothea receives this proposal, she trembles as she reads it, then falls to her knees and weeps. Not with horror, but with joy because she is so eager to become Mr Casaubon's life companion and assist him in what she thinks will be his masterly work, "The Key to All Mythologies".

Dorothea Brooke, or Casaubon, as she becomes, is the heroine of "Middlemarch" (1872) by George Eliot. She has a very unusual outlook on life for a young girl born into the upper class of a provincial Midlands town. She longs for a philosophy which will correspond to her need to be of use, to put her religion into practice by helping her fellows and denying herself. When she meets Mr Casaubon she is immediately attracted by his "great soul" and by the fact that he is a scholar, and so accepts his offer with delight.

Louisa Gradgrind appears in "Hard Times" (1853) by Charles Dickens, and has a very different motive for accepting the unattractive factory owner's hand.
Lord Peter, who first meets Harriet in "Strong Poison" (1930) by Dorothy L. Sayers, makes proposal after proposal to Harriet, some of them in a very original manner, for example telegraphing her in Latin.
Lucy Snowe is the heroine of Charlotte Bronte's last novel, "Villette" (1853). As plain and insignificant as Jane Eyre, she meets the quaint but fiery little professor M. Emanuel while employed at school in Brussels (disguised as the town of "Villette" in the novel).

Answer: Peggotty

Barkis, the carrier (the driver of a cart that carries goods and passengers) is taking young David Copperfield to Yarmouth in Charles Dickens's book of the same name. David describes him as being of phlegmatic temperament and not at all conversational.

They have only travelled half a mile from David's home, when Peggotty bursts out from behind a bush, jumps into the cart, hugs and kisses David goodbye, and presents him with paper bags full of cakes. After tasting one of the homemade cakes, Barkis comes out with his offer, which he asks David to pass on. David, without understanding his meaning, is so impressed by the importance of the message that he writes to Peggotty before he has even reached the awful Salem House where he is going to school.

The next time he meets Barkis, going home for the holidays, Barkis complains that nothing has come of his message. "When a man says he's willin', its as much as to say that man's awaitin; for an answer."

Peggotty is David's old and beloved nurse, who is the most important person in his life, along with his mother. She is steadfast and devoted to him, and when she eventually marries Barkis, after her mistress's death, she promises she will always keep a bedroom in their small house "which was always to be mine, Peggotty said, and should always be kept for me in exactly the same state. I felt the truth and constancy of my dear old nurse, with all my heart." David repays this devotion with his sincere love and loyalty to Peggotty.

The wedding of Barkis and Peggotty is simple in the extreme. Davis remarks "I have often thought, since, what an odd, innocent, out-of-the the way kind of wedding it must have been!" The marriage is quite happy, except that Barkis turns out to be a little "near", that is stingy. He keeps a box full of money under his bed, and pretends it contains old clothes.

Mrs Medlock is the housekeeper from "The Secret Garden" (1911) by Frances Hodgson Burnett, a widow who wears her late husband's portrait on a brooch pinned to her blouse. Sairey Gamp is the drunken and incompetent nurse from "Martin Chuzzlewit" (1844), also a widow. Miss Pross is another devoted nurse-figure: the object of her devotion is Lucie Manette from "A Tale of Two Cities" (1859).

Answer: Gabriel Oak to Bathsheba

What a cosy picture of domestic life! If Bathsheba had accepted this very sincere and touching offer, the book "Far From the Madding Crowd" (1874) would never have been written. Gabriel proposes to her in Chapter Four, and she seems to be swayed by the idea of the piano and the announcement in the newspaper, but in the end she refuses him.

Gabriel Oak is twenty-eight and he has just risen from being a hired shepherd to having a farm of his own. His flock of sheep are killed in an accident soon after his unsuccessful courting of Bathsheba, and he finds himself working for her on the farm she inherits from her uncle.

Bathsheba then becomes disastrously entangled with two other men, and marries one of them, which leads to tragedy for her and her husband, as well as for the ill-fated Fanny Robbins. Gabriel remains faithful and supportive in the background through all this, and Bathsheba comes to rely on him as her only true friend.

Lorna Doone, in the book of that name, sub-titled "A Romance of Exmoor" and published in 1869, was loved and courted by John Ridd, who was also a farmer in the West Country.

Almanzo Wilder, as "Little House on The Prairie" fans will know, grew up on a farm in New York state. His childhood is described in Laura Ingalls Wilder's book, "Farmer Boy". His proposal to Laura can be found in the book "These Happy Golden Years".

In "Tess of the D'Urbervilles", by Thomas Hardy (1891), Angel Clare meets Tess on a Wessex farm where she is employed as a milking maid, and makes several proposals to her before he is accepted.

Answer: Sir Pitt Crawley to Becky Sharp

"And the old man fell down on his knees and leered at her like a satyr."

The book is "Vanity Fair" (1848) by William Thackeray. Sir Pitt Crawley is an unlikely member of the peerage. He is a vulgar old countryman with uncouth manners and stingy habits. Becky's first acquaintance with him is when she goes down to Queen's Crawley to be a governess to his two daughters. Sir Pitt certainly understands Becky's character when he realises that a hefty settlement and a licence to spend what she liked will tempt her more any avowals of love and devotion. Just before this speech, he complains; "I can't get on without you. The house all goes wrong. My accounts has all got muddled again." So it seems he wants her as a housekeeper and accountant as well as a wife.

Arthur Gride is a nasty old man in "Nicholas Nickleby" (1839), whom the self-sacrificing heroine Madeleine agrees to marry for her sick father's sake (perhaps she knows that Nicholas will turn up to save her just as the sacrifice is about to be made).

Isabel Archer is the lady depicted in Henry James's "Portrait of A Lady" (1881). Lord Warburton is only one of her suitors; in the end she fatally chooses Osmond.

Professor Higgins never did propose to Eliza in G.B. Shaw's "Pygmalion" (1912). The young man who fell in love with her was Freddy Eynsford Hill.