Moral Ambiguity Suits You Trivia Quiz

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.

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.

Answer: Frankenstein's monster

In Mary Shelley's classic novel "Frankenstein", Dr. Victor Frankenstein creates a monster made from the body parts of corpses. The monster is rejected by Dr. Victor because it is so hideous and the creature runs away. After being rejected yet again by another family, the creature grows uncontrollably angry and burns the family's cottage down.

The creature then decides to seek revenge on his creator for making him so hideous; he kills Dr. Victor's brother and frames the scientist. Throughout the novel, the reader starts to feel for the monster who often recounts his loneliness and depression and desire for a female companion.

Answer: Edward Rochester

In Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre", the title heroine falls in love with Edward Rochester only to find out that he is already married. Mr. Rochester can be seen as a morally ambiguous character because his feelings for Jane are sincere, but he lied to her about his first wife whom he locks in the attic. Mr. Rochester is also sometimes mean toward Jane as a way to deal with his feelings toward her.

Answer: Hamlet

In "Hamlet", the titular Prince of Denmark seeks out to avenge his father, the late king, who was killed by his brother (the current King Claudius), who has also married Hamlet's mother Gertrude. However, Hamlet's quest for vengeance drives several characters, including himself, to the brink of madness and brings about the deaths of many of the innocent characters.

He also mistakenly kills Polonius, which leads to a feud with Polonius' son Laertes.

Answer: Hercule Poirot

Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot faked his death in "The Big Four" via an explosion in order to deceive the culprit into believing Poirot was dead. This accomplished two things: Poirot was free to investigate without any problems, and it made the actual culprit believe they had been successful in killing Poirot and could continue on with their plans.

Poirot lets all twelve murderers go free in "The Murder on the Orient Express" because the victim was such an awful person and former kidnapper. Poirot even develops a fake story to tell the police that incriminates a fictional person.

In Poirot's last case, "Curtain", Poirot drugs and then shoots a person to death. The person, whom he identified as X in the novel, had been responsible for, but did not actually commit, at least six murders. Poirot felt he had to kill X to prevent him or her from causing more deaths. He drugged X with sleeping pills then shot him. Poirot then committed suicide in penance for his act, by not taking his heart medication when he needed it.

Answer: "Rebecca" by Daphne de Maurier

In "Rebecca", the unnamed narrator discovers that her husband, Max, had killed his first wife, Rebecca. Rebecca was the most popular woman in town but Max disliked her because she would openly flirt and date other men while married to him, and played other mind games with him.

He only remained married to Rebecca because she made his home, Manderley, popular. One night, Max killed Rebecca and dumped her body in the boat and sunk it. When this comes to light, Max' wife does not mind as she always felt Max loved Rebecca more.

However, with the news that Max killed Rebecca, the narrator feels more secure as she realizes Max loves her, not Rebecca.

Answer: Katniss Everdeen from "The Hunger Games"

In Suzanne Collins' dystopian young adult franchise "The Hunger Games", Katniss is sent to compete in the title games, which is a to-the-death survival fight with only one winner, though the rules of her specific games allow for two winners. During her two times in the Hunger Games, Katniss killed several people, some of them in quite brutal ways.

In the third book, "Mockingjay", Katniss and her fellow fighters do the heroic thing and risk their lives to save their nation of Panem from the cruel dictatorship of President Snow.

However, near the end of the novel, Katniss shoots and kills President Coin, who was to be the new leader of Panem. Katniss claims she is justified in doing so because Coin ordered a bombing that killed small children, including Katniss' sister Primrose.

However, Katniss' allies are taken aback by this as they were not consulted in the decision and some see Katniss' action as just as bad as Snow and Coin.

Answer: "Beloved" by Toni Morrison

In "Beloved" by Toni Morrison, Sethe was an escaped slave who killed her baby daughter when her former overseers came to retrieve her. This was during the era of the Fugitive Slave Act which allowed plantation owners to recapture escaped slaves even in free states. Sethe did not want her baby to live in slavery.

However, many years later, Sethe is free and hoping to move on with her life, but her house is haunted and a mysterious stranger arrives whose name is Beloved - the only word on her baby daughter's gravestone. Sethe is left wondering if she made the right decision all those years ago.

Answer: Ghosts

In "Ghosts", Helene Alving tries to prevent her son Oswald from inheriting anything from his philandering late father. She spends all of her husband's money so Oswald will be left with nothing. It comes to light that Oswald has contracted syphilis (which he believes he inherited genetically from his father) and asks his mother to kill him so he does not suffer from the disease.

She promises him that she will do so, but only if his condition becomes unbearable. She is left contemplating the rights and wrongs of killing her son and whether or not she was right in shielding him his whole life from his father's things.