Spurned Suitors Trivia Quiz

Answer: Seth Bede

The book is George Eliot's "Adam Bede" (named for Seth's brother, a more central character). The Methodist preacher, Dinah Morris, eventually renounces her preaching when the Society forbids women from assuming the role.

Answer: Mr. Darcy

Elizabeth shoots down the haughty Darcy with these words in Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." And, in case this is not clear enough, she goes on to say, "From the very beginning -- from the first moment, I may almost say -- of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others [ . . . ] I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry."

Answer: Sydeny Carton

In Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities," Carton tells Miss Manette that it is too late for him to reform: "I shall never be better than I am. I shall sink lower, and be worse." In the end, however, he redeems himself through heroism; however, he must lose the woman he loves to a man who looks very much like him.

Answer: Heathcliff

In Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights," Catherine marries Edgar Linton although her heart lies with Heathcliff. She explains, "I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have thought of it.

It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he is handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire."

Answer: Mr. Rochester

At this point in Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre," Rochester offers Jane the position not of wife, but of mistress. She will not take it, and flees his presence instead.

Answer: Mr. Collins

It is interesting to compare Elizabeth's polite rejection of Mr. Collins with her more vehement rejection of Mr. Darcy. Jane Austen's heroine has the distinction of turning down two marriage proposals in the course of a single book.

Answer: Mr. Farebrother

George Eliot's "Middlemarch" is a tangled web of romantic plots and subplots, though it is ultimately about the loss of youthful idealism. Fareborther, the local minister, is a friend to Fred and resigns himself to bachelorhood.

Answer: Mr. Crawford

Fanny Price's decision is ultimately proved to be a wise one, when Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park" reaches its conclusion.

Answer: Angelo

In William Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure," Isabella cannot renounce her purity, not even to save her brother. But with the help of Angelo's rejected fiancée Mariana, she is able to fool the man into sleeping with another.

Answer: Captain Wentworth

The heroine of Jane Austen's "Persuasion," Anne Elliot, does, however, receive a second chance. She must first surmount Wentworth's injured pride.

Answer: Paris

Juliet's father had demanded that she accept her suitor Paris, not knowing she was secretly in love with Romeo. Dreading her impending union, she seeks the aid of Friar Lawrence, who gives her a flask of liquid to swallow before her wedding, which will make her appear dead.

Answer: Colonel Brandon

Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" tells the tale of two women. One, Marianne Dashwood, is quite swept off her feet by the dashing John Wiloughby, though she is loved more maturely by Colonel Brandon.

Answer: Troilus

Cressida's betrayal of Troilus in Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida" prompts these lines: "As false.... / As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth, / As fox to lambs, as wolf to heifer's calf, / Pard to the hind.... 'Yea,' let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood, / 'As false as Cressid.'"

Answer: Absalon

In Geoffery Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," the miller tells the comic story of a carpenter, his wife, her lover Nicholas, and her mocked suitor Absalon. Aurelie is a spurned suitor of another Chaucer tale (the Franklin's).

Answer: Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert

In Sir Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe," the lovely Rebecca is held hostage by Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, one of the knights of the Templar. He takes her back to the Templar's headquarters, where she is accused of sorcery.