Another One Bites the Dust Multiple Choice Quiz | Specific Subjects & Themes

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1. After her father was stabbed and killed, this young lady went insane with grief, and eventually drowned in the nearby river. In which play is she found?

Answer: Hamlet

One of Shakespeare's greatest achievements, "Hamlet" examines the force that exists behind one's emotions, particularly jealousy, grief, and rage. Ophelia, the object of Prince Hamlet's desire, goes mad when her father, Polonius, is accidentally killed by Hamlet in his mother's room.

She is later found dead, tragically drowned in the river. Ophelia's insanity causes us to further question Hamlet's condition - is he really mad, or just acting?

2. This young actress, who beautifully portrayed many of Shakespeare's greatest heroines on stage, dies in a somewhat mysterious incident. After being cast aside by the man she loves because of a sub-par performance that evening, she is found dead in her dressing room, having ingested a poisonous substance. Following an inquiry, the incident is deemed "death by misadventure." In which novel is she found?

Answer: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Sibyl Vane is a beautiful, talented actress who is immediately noticed and worshipped by Dorian Gray. However, when Dorian brings his friends (Lord Henry and Basil Hallward) to watch her perform, she is awful, leading him to question her health. She says that she has just been so affected by her love for him that she can no longer pretend to be in love on stage.

This enrages Dorian, who leaves her, promising that he will never see her again. The next morning Lord Henry informs him of the tragedy, and Dorian's cruelty towards Sibyl has caused his portrait to change.

3. This man willingly submitted to a horrible death by guillotine, sacrificing his life to save the husband and protect the family of the woman he loves. In which novel does this occur?

Answer: A Tale of Two Cities

Sydney Carton, the unlikely hero of Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities," is initally a gruff, heavy-drinking, seemingly hollow man. However, he is given his chance at redemption when his physical counterpart, Charles Darnay, is going to be executed at the guillotine in France. Carton loves Darnay's wife Lucie so unselfishly that he will do anything - even give his own life - to make her happy. "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known."

4. In a complicated love-twisted plot, this affluent man is shot dead while floating in his backyard pool. His distraught killer thought that he was having an affair with his wife, and he then turned the gun on himself. This is the tragic ending to which novel?

Answer: The Great Gatsby

Jay Gatsby was a rich, well-to-do man. However, his life was always lacking in that he had no one to really share it with. He loved Daisy Buchanan, who was already married (to Tom) and had a child. George Wilson's wife, Myrtle, was actually having an affair with Tom.

When Myrtle is hit and killed by a car, her husband George thinks that it was her lover who did it. He therefore tracks down the man who was driving the car and kills him (Gatsby). However, it was actually Daisy who was driving. Gatsby's death marks the end of what was a retrospectively tragic existence.

The man who had everything actually had nothing.

5. This lonely, mysterious servant throws herself from a rocky ledge, and dies in the "Shivering Sand," after enduring much suspicion from detectives and co-workers when a priceless gem goes missing. Which novel is she from?

Answer: The Moonstone

Wilkie Collins' Victorian mystery novel "The Moonstone," documents the events surrounding an investigation into the loss of a precious gem. Several different narrators take turns relaying the events from their point of view, allowing the story to slowly unravel piece by piece. Rosanna Spearman is a maid at Lady Verinder's estate, where she tries to hide her shameful past, which included theft and other crimes.

When the Moonstone goes missing, she seems somehow implicated, but when the case is finally resolved, the truth behind her involvement is very unexpected.

6. In this poem, this young lady's strange, seemingly insane lover strangles her to death with her own hair. In which Browning poem does this occur?

Answer: Porphyria's Lover

One of Browning's famous dramatic monologues, "Porphyria's Lover" addresses many of the issues circulating in Victorian society at the time it was written. Sexuality, violence, death, and aesthetics are examined in depth throughout Browning's poetry. Initially creating a classic Romantic image - a warm, simple interior contrasting with a stormy outdoors - Browning then departs from anything traditional, introducing themes of extramarital sex, obsession, and ultimately violence.

7. Many gruesome deaths in the final few scenes of this next play. Two young men have their throats slit, and their remains are then ground and fed to their mother in the form of a pie. A young girl who has been raped, and her tongue and arms removed, is killed by her own father. An empress is stabbed after unknowingly eating pie made of her own sons, leading to a brawl which kills two more - the title character, and the emperor. Which Shakespeare drama contains all of this bloodshed?

Answer: Titus Andronicus

Unquestionably one of Shakespeare's most brutal and gruesome plays, some people did not believe that he even wrote it. The final scenes are filled with murder after murder although, in some ways, this allows for the cycle of revenge to die out, and for the deep conflicts that are weakening Rome to be eliminated.

However, whether the new emperor will be able to create a new Rome - one not based on execution, rape, or violence - is ultimately left unresolved.

8. After enduring much disappointment and failure, this man takes his own life while behind the wheel, hoping to leave behind for his family the possibility a brighter future with the money they will receive from his life insurance policy. In which Arthur Miller play does this happen?

Answer: Death of a Salesman

Willy Loman is a modern tragic dramatic figure. He has high hopes for his sons, Biff and Happy, and for his own life. However, he is never able to achieve the "American Dream" he wants so badly, and is left surrounded by disappointment, humiliation, and desperation. Miller's play takes on the issue that has proved popular among many American writers (e.g. Fitzgerald, West); that is, what is the American Dream, and is it even possible to achieve?

9. This villain starves to death when he is trapped inside a cave that has been shut and bolted. In which novel does this occur?

Answer: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Injun Joe, the unforgettable villain in Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," commits crime after crime without ever being caught. However, once Tom and Becky escape after being lost in a cave following a town picnic, Judge Thatcher ensures that the cave is bolted from the outside, to prevent any further incidents. Tom tells the Judge that Injun Joe is still in there.

When the town opens the cave's door, they find him starved to death.

10. This shy, loving father-figure dies of a heart attack, induced by shock, after reading a notice that the bank where he keeps all of his money has failed. Which novel is he from?

Answer: Anne of Green Gables

Matthew Cuthbert is one of the most lovable literary characters ever written. In this first book of the "Anne" series by Lucy Maud Montgomery, readers witness the simple, beautiful, almost unspoken love that exists between Matthew and his adopted daughter, Anne Shirley. Matthew's death is heart-wrenching, particularly when Anne breaks down in the middle of the night from grief.

Source: Author PrincessJoey

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Another One Bites the Dust Trivia Quiz

Death, murder, and suicide seem to run rampant throughout every genre of literature. Here I describe some notable deaths, and you must identify the poem, play, or novel in question. GOOD LUCK!

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