Literary Characters Trivia

1. In which novel does Walter Eberhart, who is either a loving husband or wants to replace his wife with a robot, appear?

From Quiz Moral Ambiguity Suits You

Answer: "The Stepford Wives" by Ira Levin

In Ira Levin's "The Stepford Wives", Joanna and Walter Eberhart are a new couple to the town of Stepford. During their first weeks in town, Joanna becomes concerned because the other women in town seem to be robotic in personality and have no interests outside the house. Joanna and her friend Bobbie become convinced that the husbands in town have killed their wives and replaced them with robots. Walter rejects that idea but seems, initially, genuinely concerned about Joanna's feelings. However, by the end of the novel he becomes totally dismissive and Joanna believes Walter will try to kill her and replace her with a robot. We never do find out if Walter is the loving husband or a wife killer.

From Quiz I Wish You Would

Answer: Jane Eyre ('Jane Eyre')

The quote in the question is something Jane Eyre said in response to Rochester. He told her to be still and compared her to a wild bird. Jane answered back, 'I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being, with an independent will; which I now exert to leave you.' There were numerous occasions in 'Jane Eyre' where Rochester tried to change Jane. Throughout the book he referred to her as Janet. He also gave her expensive gifts, despite claiming that he liked her simple way of life. She felt uncomfortable accepting gifts from him because of the difference in their social statuses.

From Quiz Strangers in Strange Lands

Answer: Valentine Michael Smith

Heinlein used "The Heretic" as a working title while writing the book. He worked on it for over a decade. Raised by Martians, Valentine Michael Smith uses his Martian "culture" in founding a new religion called the "Church of All Worlds." Malachi Constant and Winston Niles Rumfoord are characters in Kurt Vonnegut's "Sirens of Titan". Hawthorne Abendsen is the so-called "man in the high castle" in the novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick.

From Quiz Characters From All Walks of Literature

Answer: Nicholas Nickleby

First published in serial form in 1838 and 1839, the full title of this novel was "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby". The story relates the adventures of the title character who must support his mother (Catherine) and sister (Kate) following the death of his father. Wackford Squeers is a nasty piece of work who runs Dotheboys Hall, a boarding school for unwanted children. Smike is one of his unfortunate charges. Newman Noggs is Nicholas's friend who works for the story's evil antagonist, Nicholas's Uncle Ralph.

From Quiz Why did they do that?

Answer: To confirm for himself the king's guilt in killing Hamlet's father

The possibility of the king having committed this horrible crime came to Hamlet in a dream, brought by a ghost. He was obsessed by it and his own possible madness, therefore he wanted tangible confirmation. The play within the play, which acts out a similar scenario, brought great agitation to the king, thus giving Hamlet his evidence. "Hamlet" is Shakespeare's longest play, with 4,042 lines. If not edited down, a performance can last up to five hours.

From Quiz That Was NOT Supposed to Happen

Answer: The hare took a nap

The moral of the story is "slow and steady wins the race." The determined tortoise knew he wasn't very fast but still gave it a whirl and ended up on top.

From Quiz Inspired Identities

Answer: Huckleberry Finn

Huckleberry "Huck" Finn narrates a story that tells of his own escape from his father's oppression only to meet Jim, a runaway slave, also trying to escape oppression. The "Autobiography of Mark Twain" was published after his death from notes left by Twain. One of the notes says "In Huckleberry Finn, I have drawn Tom Blankenship exactly as he was. He was ignorant, unwashed, insufficiently fed; but he had as good a heart as any boy had. His liberties were totally unrestricted. He was the only really independent person-boy or man-in the community, and by consequence he was tranquilly and continuously happy and was envied by all the rest of us. We liked him; we enjoyed his society. And as his society was forbidden by our parents, the prohibition trebled and quadrupled its value, and therefore we sought and got more of his society than of any other boy's." Tom, in a house with six sisters, was pretty free to come and go as he chose, and while this made the adults want their children to avoid him, it made him more popular with their children. Like Huckleberry Finn and his fictional friends, Tom and his friends would have swum the river, explored caves and the river banks, and fished.

From Quiz Dick Turpin in Literature

Answer: Beetles

It was unusual to see black people on 18th century England, but some nobles liked to have black servants to show their status. Maybe Beetles was one of them before joining the gang. In spite of his uniqueness, Beetles is a very valuable member of the gang, as is seen in the numerous, although anonymous, stories told about them.

From Quiz Literary Heavyweights

Answer: Julius Caesar

"Let me have men about me that are fat, Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights. Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look: He thinks too much; such men are dangerous." Caesar seems to take the conventional view that fat people are easy-going, indolent and unlikely to cause trouble, while their thinner counterparts are likely to be more active, ambitious and unscrupulous. He is certainly right to distrust Cassius: just before he speaks these words, we have seen Cassius sowing the seeds of conspiracy in Brutus' ear.

From Quiz Pi's Who's Who in Haiku

Answer: Shylock

Shylock is the villain in the play 'The Merchant of Venice' by William Shakespeare. Bassanio is a young nobleman who, having wasted all his fortune, wants a loan from his friend, Antonio, who is the merchant in the title. The reason that Bassanio wants the money is to court Portia, a rich heiress. Antonio does not have the money but agrees to be the guarantor when Bassanio borrows it from Shylock, the moneylender. Shylock is reluctant to enter into the transaction because Antonio, who hates Jews, has treated him harshly in the past. Finally he agrees but only on condition that if Antonio defaults he must give the moneylender a pound of his flesh. Things go wrong when the merchant's ships are lost at sea and Shylock demands his fee. A dramatic court case ensues, which contains two of Shakespeare's most famous speeches, '"Hath not a Jew eyes'" spoken by Shylock and "The quality of mercy" spoken by Portia. Antonio is saved and Bassanio succeeds in the test that those who want to marry Portia must go through: a test in which they must pick from a gold, a silver or a lead casket. Bassanio picks the correct one, the lead casket, and the marriage takes place. Question by Calpurnia09

From Quiz Angels and Demons

Answer: Faust

The name Mephistopheles is famous and generally means a person associated with lies. In Greek it actually meant a person who didn't love light. Many readers have found that perhaps he is not so much Faust's opposite as his alter ego, perhaps a doppelganger. Goethe's Faust has two parts: Part I and Part II. In Part I, Faust makes his deal with the Devil, who incidentally can turn into a poodle. 'The Sorrows of Young Werther', with the immediacy of an epistolary form, became a international classic about about the feelings of a young artist. Mann's 'Death in Venice' explores issues of death and homosexual love. 'The Tin Drum' by Günter Grass is a shatteringly honest exploration of the disturbing life of Oskar Matzerath.

From Quiz Alliterative Literary Characters

Answer: Hermann Hesse - Harry Haller

A Nobel laureate in Literature, Herman Hesse was one of the most influential German writers of the 20th century. While "Siddhartha" may be his most famous work, "Steppenwolf" has influenced a number of artists, including the Canadian-American rock band responsible for "Born to be Wild", who took their name from the novel's title.

From Quiz Novel Characters

Answer: Treasure Island

"Treasure Island" was originally a serialized novel about pirates and buried treasure. It was written by Robert Louis Stevenson and published between 1881 and 1882 in a children's magazine called "Young Folks".

From Quiz It's All In the Money--Characters and Currency

Answer: Wilkins Micawber

The epigraph on Charles Dickens' tombstone reads, "He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." Some say that McCawber is based somewhat on Dickens' father. Mr. McCawber over and over repeats plaintively, "Something will turn up."

From Quiz "Also Known As..." (Nicknames and Dual Identities)

Answer: The Golden Thread

"The Golden Thread" is actually the title of Book The Second in "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens. Lucie Manette is the golden thread because she ties all of the characters and many of the book's events together. 'Golden' also refers to her defining physical characteristic: her golden hair.

From Quiz Which Fictional Characters Lived Here?

Answer: Lew Archer

Lew Archer was the creation of Keith Millar who wrote his Archer novels under the names of John Ross Macdonald, Ross Macdonald and John Macdonald. His novels have featured on film (Paul Newman starred in 'Harper' called that rather than 'Archer' because the studio thought he had had a run of successes with films whose titles were one words beginning with H), television and radio. The 'Lew Archer' novels are thought by many to be among the most literary of the private eye genre.

From Quiz Imaginary People in Literature, TV and Film 2

Answer: Gwendolen Harleth

Novelist George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) created this character who loses out to another woman dedicated to the cause of Jewish nationalism.

From Quiz Imaginary People in Literature, TV and Films 1

Answer: Cuff

A novel by Wilkie Collins, published 1868.

From Quiz Popular Characters From Popular Stories

Answer: Sir Launcelot of the Lake

In French literature he is sometimes called Le Chevalier à la Charette. Pendragon is King Arthur's title. The Knight with the Swan is Lohengrin, but that's not an Arthur story.

From Quiz Literary Children From My Favorite Books

Answer: Olivia

Her nickname is Liffey. It was given to her by Gerry Doyle, who, in the book, was in love with Clare.

From Quiz Characters' Names

Answer: Frodo

The movie is fabulous!

From Quiz Book Characters

Answer: Practical Magic

A good book by one of my favorite authors, Alice Hoffman.

From Quiz Lit Characters

Answer: borrowing money

He did this for nothing, it would seem...

From Quiz Moral Ambiguity Suits You

Answer: Arthur Dimmesdale

Arthur Dimmesdale, the local reverend, is the father of Hester Prynne's daughter Pearl. Dimmesdale and Prynne have an affair that results in Hester's pregnancy and her being ostracized from society. He tries to relieve the guilt he feels because of his questionable moral behavior by carving an A on his chest. He also tries to confess this sin to the townspeople, but fails to do so until right before his death.

From Quiz I Wish You Would

Answer: Victor Frankenstein ('Frankenstein')

Victor Frankenstein built his 'monster' in a laboratory using a vague mixture of alchemy and chemistry. He was so repulsed by his creation, he ran away, leaving it to fend for itself.

From Quiz Strangers in Strange Lands

Answer: Carson Napier

In Burroughs' "Venus" series, the natives of that planet refer to it as Amtor. Burroughs' Venus is a water world on which Napier was stranded after an unsuccessful attempt to reach Mars on a solo journey from Earth. Marvel is an associate of the title character in H. G. Wells' "The Invisible Man". Artemis Fowl is the title character in a series of novels by Eoin Colfer. Gregor Clegane is a character in J.R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. He is also called "The Mountain That Rides" and is an enforcer for House Lannister.

From Quiz More Literary Characters

Answer: A Clockwork Orange

Published in 1962, Anthony Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange" examines the culture of extreme youth violence in an England of what was then the near future. Alex, the narrator and anti-hero of the novel, is the leader of a gang of troubled youths comprising George, his second-in-command, Pete, the least violent member, and the gormless and appropriately named Dim. Voted one of the "100 best English-language novels of the 20th century" in 2012, it apparently took Burgess just three weeks to write. Stanley Kubrick's classic film adaptation of the novel, starring Malcolm McDowell as Alex, was released in 1971. The alternatives are three more best-selling novels from 1962. Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" spawned the award-winning 1975 film of the same name which earned Oscars for Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's tale of life in the Gulag, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", was adapted for the screen in 1970 with Tom Courtney in the title role. "The IPCRESS File", Len Deighton's debut novel, produced a 1965 film starring Michael Caine.

From Quiz Characters From All Walks of Literature

Answer: Injun Joe

Published in 1876, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is the first of four novels featuring the title character, a young boy growing up alongside the mighty Mississippi. Sid is Tom's brother. Tom and his friend, Huckleberry Finn, witness Doctor Robinson being murdered in the graveyard. Muff Potter is accused but at the trial Tom testifies that Injun Joe is the killer. Injun Joe escapes but this is not the last that Tom will see of him... I won't spoil a great story for those of you who haven't yet read it, though.

From Quiz Why did they do that?

Answer: He's seeking revenge, because the whale bit off one of his legs

Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" (1851) is the quintessential American novel. The universal themes of obsession and revenge are woven into a gripping and timeless tale of adventure and drama, using a whaling voyage as the setting. Melville goes into great detail about the science of whaling and life at sea, based partly on his personal experience, but the heart of the novel is Ahab's quest and what it says about human motivation and behavior colliding with larger forces. The Starbucks coffee chain is named after Mr. Starbuck, chief mate on Ahab's ship, "The Pequod".

From Quiz Dick Turpin in Literature

Answer: The Rookwood

Although as a secondary character, Turpin's first incursion into fictional literature was in "Rookwood", a Gothic novel by William Harrison Ainsworth. Published in 1839, "Rookwood" is actually a novel about revenge and love in which Dick Turpin helps the main characters to fulfill their wishes and destiny. In this book appears also for first time the famous "Ride to York", in which Dick Turpin rode from London to York within one single day.

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