MCQs- Life and Works of Samuel Beckett for APPSC JL DL
Q.1 When was born?
1. April 13, 1906
2. May 13, 1905
3. April 23, 1907
4. June 13, 1906
Answer: 1
Explanation: Samuel Beckett was born on April 13, 1906, in Foxrock, County Dublin, Ireland.
Q.2 For which play is best known?
1. Endgame
2. Waiting for Godot
3. Happy Days
4. Krapp’s Last Tape
Answer: 2
Explanation: Beckett is best known for his tragicomedy play Waiting for Godot.
Q.3 In which year did receive the Nobel Prize in Literature?
1. 1959
2. 1965
3. 1969
4. 1975
Answer: 3
Explanation: Beckett received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969.
Q.4 Why did Beckett decline the trip to Stockholm after winning the Nobel Prize?
1. He was ill
2. He disliked travel
3. He wished to avoid public speeches
4. He was working on a novel
Answer: 3
Explanation: Beckett accepted the Nobel Prize but declined to go to Stockholm because he wanted to avoid public speaking at the ceremonies.
Q.5 Samuel Beckett wrote primarily in which two languages?
1. English and German
2. English and French
3. French and Italian
4. Irish and English
Answer: 2
Explanation: Beckett wrote in both English and French.
Q.6 Beckett became internationally famous as one of the first playwrights associated with which movement?
1. Romanticism
2. Realism
3. Theatre of the Absurd
4. Symbolism
Answer: 3
Explanation: Beckett became one of the first absurdist playwrights to gain international fame.
Q.7 Beckett was born in which suburb of Dublin?
1. Enniskillen
2. Foxrock
3. Belfast
4. Cork
Answer: 2
Explanation: Beckett was born in Foxrock, a suburb of Dublin.
Q.8 What was the profession of Beckett’s father, William Frank Beckett?
1. Lawyer
2. Doctor
3. Quantity surveyor
4. Teacher
Answer: 3
Explanation: William Frank Beckett worked as a quantity surveyor.
Q.9 Which school attended by Beckett was also attended by ?
1. Trinity College Dublin
2. Portora Royal School
3. École Normale Supérieure
4. St. Patrick’s School
Answer: 2
Explanation: Beckett attended Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, the same school attended by Oscar Wilde.
Q.10 Beckett studied which subject at Trinity College Dublin?
1. Philosophy
2. History
3. Romance languages
4. English literature
Answer: 3
Explanation: From 1923 to 1927, Beckett studied Romance languages at Trinity College Dublin.
Q.11 At which institution in Paris did Beckett work as a reader in English?
1. Sorbonne University
2. École Normale Supérieure
3. University of Paris
4. Collège de France
Answer: 2
Explanation: Beckett became a reader in English at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris in 1928.
Q.12 Which famous Irish writer greatly influenced Beckett in Paris?
1. W.B. Yeats
2. George Bernard Shaw
3. James Joyce
4. Seamus Heaney
Answer: 3
Explanation: Beckett met James Joyce in Paris and joined his literary circle.
Q.13 Which novel by did Beckett defend in an essay?
1. Dubliners
2. Ulysses
3. Finnegans Wake
4. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Answer: 2
Explanation: Beckett defended Joyce’s modernist novel Ulysses in an essay.
Q.14 Which statement about Beckett and James Joyce is correct?
1. Beckett was Joyce’s publisher
2. Beckett translated Joyce’s novels
3. Beckett never served as Joyce’s secretary
4. Beckett and Joyce never met
Answer: 3
Explanation: Though often repeated, reports that Beckett served as Joyce’s secretary are false.
Q.15 Why did Beckett resign from Trinity College Dublin in 1931?
1. He was dismissed
2. He wanted to travel and live freely
3. He joined the army
4. He became ill
Answer: 2
Explanation: Beckett resigned after four terms and began a period of restless travel across Europe.
Q.16 In which city did Beckett decide to settle permanently in 1937?
1. London
2. Dublin
3. Rome
4. Paris
Answer: 4
Explanation: Beckett settled in Paris in 1937.
Q.17 What serious incident happened to Beckett shortly after moving to Paris?
1. He lost his manuscripts
2. He was imprisoned
3. He was stabbed in the street
4. He was deported
Answer: 3
Explanation: Beckett was stabbed by a man who had asked him for money.
Q.18 What did Beckett’s attacker reply when asked why he attacked him?
1. “I was angry.”
2. “I needed money.”
3. “Je ne sais pas, Monsieur.”
4. “You insulted me.”
Answer: 3
Explanation: The attacker replied, “Je ne sais pas, Monsieur” (“I don’t know, Sir”).
Q.19 During World War II, Beckett joined which organization?
1. French Army
2. Irish Republican Army
3. Underground resistance group
4. Red Cross immediately
Answer: 3
Explanation: Beckett joined a French underground resistance group in 1941.
Q.20 Which organization threatened Beckett’s resistance group during World War II?
1. KGB
2. Gestapo
3. CIA
4. MI6
Answer: 2
Explanation: Members of Beckett’s resistance group were arrested by the Gestapo.
Q.21 How did Beckett support himself while hiding in unoccupied France?
1. As a journalist
2. As a translator
3. As an agricultural laborer
4. As a teacher
Answer: 3
Explanation: Beckett worked as an agricultural laborer while in hiding.
Q.22 Which award did Beckett receive for his resistance work during World War II?
1. Legion of Honour
2. Croix de Guerre
3. Booker Prize
4. Pulitzer Prize
Answer: 2
Explanation: Beckett received the Croix de Guerre for his wartime resistance activities.
Q.23 Why did Beckett prefer writing in French?
1. He disliked English
2. French made him more disciplined
3. French was easier to publish
4. His publishers demanded it
Answer: 2
Explanation: Beckett believed French forced him to write more carefully and economically.
Q.24 Which play was translated into English by Beckett himself?
1. Endgame
2. Happy Days
3. Waiting for Godot
4. Play
Answer: 3
Explanation: Beckett translated Waiting for Godot into English himself.
Q.25 Beckett is considered one of the last writers of which literary movement?
1. Romanticism
2. Modernism
3. Naturalism
4. Neoclassicism
Answer: 2
Explanation: Beckett is regarded as one of the last major modernist writers.
Q.26 Which critic coined the term “Theatre of the Absurd” associated with Beckett?
1. Harold Bloom
2. T.S. Eliot
3. Martin Esslin
4. F.R. Leavis
Answer: 3
Explanation: Martin Esslin described Beckett as a key figure in the “Theatre of the Absurd.”
Q.27 Which disease did Beckett suffer from late in life?
1. Tuberculosis
2. Emphysema
3. Cancer
4. Alzheimer’s disease
Answer: 2
Explanation: Beckett suffered from emphysema and possibly Parkinson’s disease.
Q.28 Where was Beckett buried?
1. Père Lachaise Cemetery
2. Cimetière du Montparnasse
3. Glasnevin Cemetery
4. Highgate Cemetery
Answer: 2
Explanation: Beckett was buried at the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris.
Q.29 Which Beckett play was described as “the strange little play in which nothing happens”?
1. Endgame
2. Play
3. Waiting for Godot
4. Breath
Answer: 3
Explanation: Critics initially described Waiting for Godot as a play in which “nothing happens.”
Q.30 At which theatre did Waiting for Godot achieve a successful run of four hundred performances?
1. Abbey Theatre
2. Theatre de Babylone
3. Royal Court Theatre
4. Théâtre National
Answer: 2
Explanation: Waiting for Godot became a great success at the Theatre de Babylone.
Q.31 Which Beckett play centers on Hamm and his servant Clov?
1. Happy Days
2. Endgame
3. Play
4. Rockaby
Answer: 2
Explanation: Endgame portrays the relationship between Hamm and Clov.
Q.32 In Endgame, the setting may symbolize what?
1. A prison cell
2. A ruined city
3. The inside of a human skull
4. A church tower
Answer: 3
Explanation: The circular structure with two high windows may symbolize the inside of a human skull.
Q.33 Which play features an old man listening to recordings of his younger self?
1. Ohio Impromptu
2. Krapp’s Last Tape
3. That Time
4. Catastrophe
Answer: 2
Explanation: Krapp’s Last Tape focuses on memory and identity through old recordings.
Q.34 Which Beckett play presents a woman sinking into the ground while continuing to talk?
1. Not I
2. Play
3. Happy Days
4. Footfalls
Answer: 3
Explanation: Happy Days portrays Winnie gradually sinking into the earth while speaking cheerfully.
Q.35 Which Beckett play contains only 121 spoken words?
1. Breath
2. Come and Go
3. Not I
4. Ohio Impromptu
Answer: 2
Explanation: Come and Go is an extremely brief “dramaticule” of only 121 words.
Q.36 Which Beckett play lasts approximately fifteen minutes?
1. Rockaby
2. Catastrophe
3. Play
4. What Where
Answer: 1
Explanation: Rockaby is a very brief play ending in about fifteen minutes.
Q.37 Which Beckett television work exploited the close-up capability of the TV camera?
1. Ghost Trio
2. Eh Joe
3. Quad I + II
4. Nacht und Träume
Answer: 2
Explanation: Eh Joe uses the television camera’s close focus on a face.
Q.38 Which Beckett cinematic work was released in 1965?
1. Breath
2. Film
3. Play
4. Cascando
Answer: 2
Explanation: Film (1965) is Beckett’s major work for cinema.
Q.39 Which trilogy novel became a commercial success after many refusals from publishers?
1. Malone Dies
2. The Unnamable
3. Molloy
4. Murphy
Answer: 3
Explanation: Molloy eventually found a publisher through Suzanne Deschevaux-Dumesnil.
Q.40 Which Beckett novel concerns an Irishman in London working in a psychiatric institution?
1. Watt
2. Murphy
3. Mercier and Camier
4. How It Is
Answer: 2
Explanation: Murphy follows an Irishman who becomes a male nurse in a psychiatric institution.
Q.41 Which was the last of Beckett’s novels written originally in English?
1. Murphy
2. Watt
3. Molloy
4. Mercier and Camier
Answer: 2
Explanation: Watt was the last novel Beckett originally wrote in English.
Q.42 What is the name of Watt’s mysterious employer in Watt?
1. Mr. Hamm
2. Mr. Godot
3. Mr. Knott
4. Mr. Clov
Answer: 3
Explanation: Watt works for the mysterious Mr. Knott.
Q.43 Which was Beckett’s first published work?
1. Proust
2. Murphy
3. Dante...Bruno. Vico..Joyce
4. Whoroscope
Answer: 3
Explanation: “Dante...Bruno. Vico..Joyce” (1929) was Beckett’s first published work.
Q.44 Which Beckett poetry work won him his first literary prize?
1. Echo’s Bones and Other Precipitates
2. Poems in English
3. What Is the Word
4. Whoroscope
Answer: 4
Explanation: Beckett won his first literary prize for the poem “Whoroscope.”
Q.45 “Whoroscope” is based on which philosopher?
1. Nietzsche
2. René Descartes
3. Sartre
4. Kant
Answer: 2
Explanation: The poem “Whoroscope” concerns the French philosopher René Descartes.
Q.46 Which Beckett work was written in 1932 but published only in 1992?
1. Murphy
2. Dream of Fair to Middling Women
3. Watt
4. Mercier and Camier
Answer: 2
Explanation: Beckett’s first novel remained unpublished until after his death.
Q.47 Which short prose collection contains ten stories about Belacqua Shuah?
1. Stories and Texts for Nothing
2. Echo’s Bones
3. More Pricks Than Kicks
4. Company
Answer: 3
Explanation: More Pricks Than Kicks follows the Dublin intellectual Belacqua Shuah.
Q.48 Which Beckett work was an opera with music by Morton Feldman?
1. Neither
2. Play
3. Breath
4. Cascando
Answer: 1
Explanation: Neither (1977) is an opera created with composer Morton Feldman.
Q.49 Which Beckett work was first performed in German before English?
1. Waiting for Godot
2. Come and Go
3. Endgame
4. Catastrophe
Answer: 2
Explanation: Come and Go was first performed in German and then in English.
Q.50 Which Beckett prose work was published in 1983?
1. Company
2. Worstward Ho
3. Ill Seen Ill Said
4. Stirrings Still
Answer: 2
Explanation: Worstward Ho was published in 1983 and is one of Beckett’s late prose works.
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