The Heroine Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cherubina

A young girl named Cherry Wilkinson who's read one too many Gothic novels decides to name herself Cherubina when she asserts that she simply must be a Gothic heroine. When her father catches her governess kissing a boy in the pantry, he blames the books and sets fire to all of them, forcing Cherry to the conclusion that this man must NOT be her father as she is a heroine coming into her own and he is no more than a farmer. After she claims that he must prove their relation, he reveals that he has received a letter from the man who he has procured to be her future husband, Robert Stuart, a friend from her youth. Cherry, obviously, feels like a persecuted heroine, trapped into an undesirable marriage and stuck in a tyrannous environment. She reads what Gothic novels she has spared from the burning and longs for a day when she can face the terrors of the world.

Deciding to rummage through her supposed father's things, she comes across a parchment indicating that she may in fact have a father elsewhere. With this knowledge, she decides to leave that very night and evade Robert Stuart's arrival in the morning. Coming across an abandoned house, however, she discovers that Stuart has been captured by thieves and when they make their exit and lock him into a cellar, she saves him and dresses his wounds. She also manages to scare off the attackers using a barrel of gunpowder. She reveals that she is Ms. Wilkinson to Mr. Stuart, but she flees the scene, recalling her hatred for this man.

Taking to a carriage on the road to London, a woman sitting with Cherry speaks of the falsity to come from romantic novels and Cherry instantly retaliates. This leads to Cherry revealing that she blew up a house the previous night. The man operating the carriage, Betterton, sides with Cherry because she speaks knowledgeably and asks her to take refuge in his house because the woman will likely notify the authorities. Cherry agrees to Betterton's request and regards him as a guardian.

Answer: A coach

After Cherry tells Betterton of her past he, to her disappointment, suggests that she stop giving in to such fancy. Cherry has no choice but to flee from this place and when she does she comes across a woman in white by the name of Maria who gives her sixpence, but then calls the police on her, saying that she stole her purse. Since neither can prove whose purse it is, they both go to prison for the night and stand before a judge in the morning where Cherry cleverly tricks Maria into revealing that the purse is not hers.

Upon exiting the courthouse, Cherry speaks with a man who was previously acquitted, Jerry Sullivan, and he follows her to a bonnet shop where she intends not to purchase a bonnet, but to begin a debt to be paid in her denouement, as a heroine would. This starts a fight between the shop owners, Jerry, and Cherry, because she plans to steal the hat, and they flee into the streets where, while Jerry seeks a coach, Cherry steals an apple and starts a whole new fight in the streets. Jerry takes her to his house until the heat dies down.

Upon leaving Jerry's house without his knowing, Cherry decides to procure lodgings and finds that both her preferences and tastes as a heroine are too peculiar and that she has no references of character. She comes across what seems to be a castle though it is only the Covent Garden Theatre and she comes across what looks to be a rich man, but it only turns out to be an actor named Abraham Grundy. When she tells her tragic story to him, though, he claims that he is actually a rich man by the name of Lord Altimont Mortimer Montmorenci and he offers her a room (containing a dark parlour closet to sate her needs) and she accepts, if only for the refuge.

Over a meal with the tenants of the Grundy household, Cherry meets a 'mad poet' by the name of Mr. James Higginson who speaks very rarely but can't stop staring at her. As a heroine does, Cherry asks the people around the table to recount their past lives to introduce one another. Mr. Higginson's tale goes on at great length, much to Cherry's enjoyment as she finds his madness to be frightening. When it comes to her turn, she lies about her past to maintain the illusion that she is Abraham's orphaned cousin. He heads off to the theatre and she finds that she is comfortable in her new lodgings.

Answer: The theatre

Appearing to Cherry in a suit of armour, Abraham (as Montmoreci) pleads her to listen to his memoirs and, as she must, she agrees to do so. This tale of Gothic castles, sword fights, and exile to England thrills Cherry greatly and when he proposes to wed her, she is taken aback. Unfortunately, as a heroine, she must claim that she has taken a fatal vow. Nevertheless, their overly-sensible meeting is important to her impression of him.

Mr. Wilkinson comes upon Cherry's new residence in London soon after and begs her to return home with him. To distract the man from Cherry's true reasons for being there, Abraham departs for the man of whom she supposedly accepted a proposal (in other words he lies). While 'Montmoreci' is out, Wilkinson gives Cherry one hundred guineas as an incentive to return to the farm with him. When they all visit the Doctor whom Cherry supposedly promised to wed, Montmoreci reveals (falsely) that he is Wilkinson's nephew and that he will be imprisoned in the Doctor's house. Cherry is torn between the man who raised her for fifteen years and the man who has foiled her persecutor.

When Cherry attends her lord's melodrama performance at the theatre, she runs into Robert Stuart who came to town accompanying her father. She tells her story to him up until that point and he asks her to await his return in the morning. When morning arrives, Abraham asks (quite rudely) why Cherry departed without notice the previous night and before she says why, the reason, Mr. Stuart, arrives for his visit. Cherry reveals to Abraham that Robert is the man who persecuted her, and Robert claims that Abraham's act as Montmoreci is his most serious role. The two argue before Montmoreci leaves Stuart to spend time with Cherry; she invites him to tea for more of the same. All the while, Cherry is unable to make up her mind about whom she should be siding with. When returning to her chambers, she is told that a man named Betterton may be plotting against her. She heads to her room to find him inside, inviting her to a party. She accepts. After all, what heroine wouldn't?

Answer: A masquerade ball

A brief bout of confusion comes to pass when Cherry's landlady discovers that she is not related to Mr. Grundy. Montmoreci also complains of Cherry, and Betterton and Mr. Stuart also make their reappearances. Cherry is told that she should stay away from Robert Stuart (as many believe, as per Cherry's story, that he is a great villain) as well as Grundy, who proposed to marry the landlord to avoid paying his rent. Later, Montmoreci convinces Cherry that the note was a forgery.

When Cherry awakens one night, she discovers that an alarm for fire has been called in her lodgings and she flees into the city with minimal belongings. She's chased by several people during her rush through London and she finds herself bursting through houses and shops, crossing roofs of buildings, and stumbling upon jovial parties. When she comes upon a milliner's house, she recalls that she doesn't have a dress for the masquerade. A series of odd, frightening events later, she receives a Tuscan dress from one of the seamstresses in the building (though many believe Cherry to be a monster with long, dark hair, killing the others).

When Cherry departs, she takes the coach to Jerry Sullivan's to evade capture on the night before the masquerade, and she finds that he is being heckled by creditors who have arrived to close his shop. She gives what money she has as well as her jewels, and the Sullivans gratefully pay off their debts.

At the masquerade, Cherry is given some amazing news, particularly about her actual family. A man in a reverend's costume informs her that she was born to Lord de Willoughby and Lady Hysterica Belamour. In order to save her from a horrible fate, the man who speaks to her, Whyolme Eftsoones, placed her into the care of Mr. Wilkinson many years earlier. Now, when she meets her aunt, Lady Eleanor Gwyn, she may reclaim her title as the head of the House de Willoughby. When Stuart arrives at the party and scares Mr. Eftsoones away, Cherry is disappointed; he explains that the false alarm fire and the darkness in her room were caused by Betterton, who was set on speaking with her. Cherry vows to start on her new adventure to meet Lady Gwyn the next morning. Stuart is pleased to join her as he believes he can unravel more of the mystery since he may know Eftsoones.

Answer: Betterton

Stuart and Cherry ride out to the countryside until they are followed by a carriage. When Stuart stops the coach it is none other than Betterton inside. Stuart reveals that Betterton was, in fact, Mr. Whyolme Eftsoones, plotting to bring Cherry into the country. Cherry resolves to continue onward anyways. The three of them stop at a pastoral scene to recite poems before Cherry stumbles upon their lodgings for the night in the cottage of an old man and her daughter. Cherry stays there while Betterton and Stuart stay in town.

Cherry's time with the farmkeeper's daughter, Mary, is eventful in that Cherry plots to make her as miserable as a heroine. To do so, she formulates a letter to be given to Mary's future husband and slips it into his hand. In doing so, the two of them separate. That night, while Cherry sings in her room, she is approached by a man dressed as an Italian assassin in her room. When she screams, she alerts a peasant who saves her from a tragic end and reveals the man to be Betterton. Betterton claims that a note was given to him to make an appearance in said costume, but no one believes him. He's placed into prison for what he has done, without question.

The following day, Stuart admits to writing the note to incriminate Betterton in order to protect her. Both agree that their actions the past day have been in the best possible intentions. When they arrive at Lady Gwyn's abode, Cherry forces herself upon the woman with the stark revelation that she is, in fact, the woman's niece. Lady Gwyn does not believe her and asks her to leave immediately, but after a private talk with Stuart, Cherry is asked to stay. Stuart heads back to London while Cherry, deemed Lady Gwyn's protegee, investigates the eccentric purchases of her supposed aunt. On the first night of her stay, she investigates the appropriately Gothic mansion and fears for her life at the hand of non-existent assassins. After a frightening mouse, she screams and it s chased through the building by people who wish to console her. She heads to bed and drinks a relaxing draught, but then fears that she has been poisoned.

Answer: Lady Hysterica Bellamour

Or course, Cherry wasn't poisoned; she got sick from the fall she took into the river the day before. She is told to get better because Lady Gwyn is arranging a ball and Cherry is cordially invited. The next day, Cherry is informed that her mother is alive in a secret vault found underneath the manor at which she currently resides. At midnight, two bandits cover her eyes and lead her to this chamber where she meets a frightening woman who looks little like her mother's portrait but who claims to be her mother. This encounter frightens Cherry and she receives a scroll about her mother's ten year imprisonment before she's returned to her room.

The manuscript turns out to be for a Gothic story called "Il Castello di Grimgothico" and it's written by the woman claiming to be Cherry's mother, Lady Hysterica Bellamour. Cherry copies it into her notes and it turns out to be a short story of the rise and fall and subsequent rise of two lovers, Lord de Willoughby and Lady Hysterica, and it's filled with the usual Gothic tropes (eg. a ruined castle, assassins, ghosts, etc.). Before she knows it, however, Cherry is off to the ball.

After being led to a sofa in a fairly crowded parlour, Lady Gwyn informs Cherry that she is being crowned a heroine for all to see. Cherry is rightly ecstatic as she is led into a room and officially made the Heroine Cherubina. Before the festive night continues with dancing, Lady Hysterica appears, as if from nowhere, freed from her prison, to reclaim her daughter. Cherry denounces this woman and claims that she neither knows her nor believes she can possibly be her mother. The party-goers believe her. This conflict passes and Cherry spends the night enjoying her official status and the social gathering.

Answer: Monkton Castle

Cherry relaxes in the manor of Lady Gwyn and finds herself bored by a lack of persecution. While imaginatively longing for a long-lost son of the Lady to come and start a scene, she accidentally knocks into a butler, causing him to drop an expensive vase. This angers Lady Gwyn who asks Cherry to leave; instead, Cherry accidentally runs into Lady Gwyn's room where she sets loose the Lady's favourite parrot and roots through her drawers to find an image of her mother. Lady Gwyn arrives and accuses Cherry of theft before the heroine runs from the manor and into a hayfield. She spends her night with a poor family of beggars, taking advantage of what little they have to offer, before sending notes to Jerry Sullivan, Higginson, and Montmorenci, all requesting their assistance in moving her to the nearby Monkton Castle which she hopes to fashion into her own Gothic residence.

She heads to town the next day to earn some money begging, but she finds that this isn't as easy as she envisioned. When a storm opens upon her, she seeks shelter in what she believes to be the main hall of a castle, but she lets her imagination get the best of her and inadvertently finds herself accused of murder by a nearby household. She is able to convince one squire of her innocence and he hides her at a nearby abode, but she makes her escape from there soon after with food and a small bit of money in her possession. She brings these back to the family who allowed her to stay with them the night before.

Answer: Sullivan

Jerry and Higginson both arrive at Monkton Castle on Cherry's request and Jerry reveals that he was able to procure very little of her requested items due to a lack of money. When they open up the castle door (by moving large rocks) they find that there is no roof on the structure. Cherry vows to claim the one tower still standing in a non-dilapidated state as her room, so her new minstrel and warden craft a bed, hang black curtains (leading her to call the room the Black Chamber) and carry her belongings up. After dinner, Cherry asks Jerry, her warden, to talk of his past and she assumes he is filling it with lies solely because he's telling the uninteresting truth of it all. The story continues until Cherry is ready to go to bed.

Cherry decides to give up all ownership of land under her control (though in the possession of Lady Gwyn) in exchange for total control of Monkton Castle and she tells Jerry to find twenty men to maintain and work in her castle. He returns from Gwyn Castle with twenty men, much to her surprise and delight. With many of these men pulling her and her barouche to Gwyn Castle, she seeks a moment with Lady Gwyn to ask for her portion of the estate. Lady Gwyn says that she will only speak on such terms with her when she returns the picture that she stole, but that she will invite her to dinner. Cherry refuses. Jerry's men, on his request, force their way into Gwyn Castle to claim what is rightfully Cherry's before another troop of soldiers arrives to stop them. Fortunately, Cherry is able to make a deal to reclaim her belongings and live at Monkton Castle after Lady Gwyn whispers something to the magistrate. Cherry rewards all of her men for their work.

Answer: False

Jerry and Higginson soon begin to fight over who Cherry loves more and she finds that both of them are being childish in their quarreling. Soon after, however, Montmoreci makes his reappearance, this time in a suit of armour. Cherry invites him into the Black Chamber where she tells the story of her past several weeks. To her surprise, Jerry reveals that Montmoreci paid him many weeks earlier to convince her to become 'his lordship's' bride. When this leads to Montmoreci revealing that he lost two of his teeth in their previous fight, Cherry says that they can not be together because a hero is never mutilated in battle. Immediately after Betterton, of all people, arrives as well. He says that when no one came to testify against him in court, he was set free and led to her by Lady Gwyn. The last people to arrive are the police who, along with the man who wasn't paid to deliver the barouche, arrest Cherry for the crimes she has committed in the past weeks.

When Cherry cries for help, the men of her life spring into action and fight off those apprehending her until they retreat. When Betterton suggests that Cherry come to his local residence, she refuses and he and Montmoreci are forced to leave by Sullivan and Cherry's vassals. Fearing an attack, Cherry accumulates more to fight for her and she amasses over fifty men. When they receive word that Lady Gwyn's people are planning to force them out, they spring into action but lose in the attack, having eight men captured by Cherry. They regroup and head in for a second attack with more men, but Betterton stops at the gate and reminds Cherry that if they continue to fight, she will need to sleep with her men in the tower for the night. Being a heroine, she can not allow this and she agrees to a peace treaty. Signed by Sullivan and Betterton, this treaty forces her to leave Monkton Castle immediately and to free the prisoners. She has no choice. Sullivan is told to meet her in London in a day and Higginson is asked to remain as her escort.

While she stays with the poor family from earlier for the night, Cherry is abducted by men in dark cloaks and taken to a place she does not know. Although she is frightened, she is thrilled by her Gothic persecution. A woman by the name of Dame Ursulina informs Cherry that she is in the Castle of Gogmagog being held captive by Baron Hildebrand. When he arrives, he states that his daughter, Lady Sympathina, seeks the love of Lord Montmoreci though he does not want her to marry this man. He has taken this opportunity to force Cherry to marry Montmoreci, who is detained in another tower, in two days. Cherry says that she can't as she does not love him. In the night, Montmoreci appears to defend Cherry from an Italian assassin but he's detained soon after. She can't figure out how he entered the room as she can not find a secret panel along the walls. Nevertheless, she vows to escape.

Answer: Higginson

The Baron Hildebrand is out the following day and Dame Ursulina allows Lady Sympathina to speak with Cherry in the tower. The two discuss heroine attributes and both try to allow the other to marry Montmoreci. Soon, many famous Lords and Ladies arrive and Sympathina allows Cherry to meet them. All of these people, who Cherry holds in high regard, urge her to marry Montmoreci as well, saying that their marriage will repair any problems currently existing between the two. Soon, however, Baron Hildebrand returns and they are forced to leave. Shortly thereafter, Cherry looks to see that the painting on the wall of her tower is speaking to her in the form of Hildebrand. It warns her to marry Hildebrand in two days or else she will die before sneezing. She discovers that this may be the secret panel she so seeks, as ghosts don't sneeze and Hildebrand only used it to persuade her into marrying Montmoreci.

The following night, she speaks to the specter once more, inviting it into her room before throwing a snuffbox at its face and running through the picture. She hides behind a curtain as Montmoreci, Betterton, and others from her travels enter the room and joke about how easily they are fooling Cherry into marrying Grundy to claim her money. Cherry reveals herself, much to their shock, and Betterton grabs her shortly before Robert Stuart races into the room with the police, saving her. Stuart explains the whole series of events to her later on before she retires to bed, wondering if she's actually a heroine despite the fact that she never was Cherubina de Willoughby.

Robert Stuart leads Cherry through England fixing the mischief she has created in her wake. This begins with returning Lady Gwyn's photo where she discovers that the Lady and Stuart had known each other for many years and that she pulled a prank on her in the crowning ceremony (much to her embarrassment). Cherry also reunites the lovers she split up many weeks before. Finally, Stuart sets out to free Cherry's father from the madhouse in which he had been placed.

After her father is freed, Cherry becomes quite ill with a lasting fever. A clergyman is called to assist her in feeling well and she finally realizes her fault all this time. She and Stuart vow to repair her mind by introducing new, realistic aspects to her life. Betterton, Grundy, and his men fail to be imprisoned for their treachery because no one shows up to their hearing.

Robert Stuart proposes to Cherry, much to her and her father's delight. Higginson sends his regards with hints of disappointment while Jerry Sullivan is thrilled, but shocked at the turn of events. Ironically, both Stuart and Cherry realize that their story ends much alike all of those other stories of heroines - with a wedding.