Lesson 4.2.1.16

4.2.1.16 The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West Quiz: AQA English Literature A, Unit 2

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 4.2.1.16, The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA English Literature A (7712), Unit 2: Texts in shared contexts, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. In what year was Rebecca West's The Return of the Soldier published?

    • 1935
    • 1914
    • 1929
    • 1918

  2. Which condition does the soldier Chris Baldry suffer from on his return?

    • Malaria from the Balkans
    • Blindness from gas attacks
    • Frostbite in the trenches
    • Amnesia and shell shock

  3. What does Chris forget on his return home?

    • His name and his birthplace, which he cannot recall at any point in the story
    • His native language, which he speaks only in a faltering way after his return
    • His marriage to Kitty and the years since
    • His rank and regiment, which he has forgotten along with much of his past life

  4. Who narrates The Return of the Soldier?

    • Chris Baldry himself, who recounts his own memories of the war and his life
    • A hospital doctor who treats Chris for his memory loss and records every session
    • Jenny Gray, Chris's cousin
    • Kitty Baldry, Chris's wife, who watches as her husband returns from the front

  5. Which social class does Jenny Gray belong to in the novel?

    • Royal
    • Military officer
    • Working class
    • Aristocratic

  6. What does Chris's memory lapse allow the novel to explore?

    • Military tactics on the Western Front
    • Class and emotional bonds beyond his marriage
    • Economic reform in the colonies
    • Naval rivalries

  7. Which concept best describes Rebecca West's treatment of Chris's mind?

    • Epic catalogue, which lists heroes and their deeds in a long and formal style
    • Psychological interiority
    • Documentary fact, presenting the events as an exact and verified historical record
    • Pure satire, which mocks the characters and the social world they inhabit

  8. Which pseudonym did Rebecca West use as a writer?

    • Rebecca West (real name Cicily Fairfield)
    • Currer Bell, the pen name used by Charlotte Bronte when she published her novels
    • Ouida, the pen name of Maria Louise Rame, the popular novelist of the Victorian age
    • George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, the Victorian novelist and critic

  9. Which wartime role does Chris Baldry occupy at the start of the novel?

    • Civil servant in London
    • Member of Parliament
    • Nurse in a military hospital
    • Officer on the front line

  10. Why is the novel significant in a WW1 shared-context study?

    • It is a comic farce about military ranks, with mistaken identities and comic scenes
    • It focuses on naval battles at sea, which are the main subject of its narrative
    • It records the Armistice negotiations in close detail, as they were conducted in Paris
    • It shows how the war's trauma appears within a domestic setting

  11. Which term describes the state of having lost memories of one's past?

    • Melancholia
    • Insomnia
    • Amnesia
    • Hypochondria

  12. Which theme of the novel is most directly linked to the war?

    • Trauma leading to a changed sense of self
    • Religious conversion, which leads the central character to a new life of faith
    • Trade and commerce, which shape the family's fortunes and the wealth of its estate
    • Scientific discovery, which transforms the lives of the characters in the story

  13. Evaluate: how does the novel use Jenny's perspective to comment on the family?

    • It celebrates the household's total harmony, in which every member is happy
    • It shows the family had no emotional problems and lived in perfect contentment
    • It exposes the emotional limits of a comfortable middle-class household
    • It presents Jenny as a royal observer who watches the family from a great distance

  14. What does the name Kitty signify in the family's story?

    • An army nurse who treats Chris for his wounds in a field hospital near the front
    • Chris's wife, whose life is unsettled by his memory loss
    • A servant who manages the household and keeps its accounts in good order
    • A child who witnesses the war from a safe distance while living in the countryside

  15. Which term describes the way a text reveals a character's private thoughts?

    • Hyperbole
    • Interiority
    • Allegory
    • Parody

  16. Which WW1 legacy does the novel's domestic focus most reflect?

    • The naval blockade of Germany
    • The growth of the aviation industry
    • The military conquest of colonies
    • The emotional cost to families at home

  17. Which statement best describes how the war is present in the novel despite its domestic setting?

    • It is present through Chris's trauma and the family's changed relationships
    • It is shown only in a final naval battle that the family witnesses from the coast
    • It appears only through a newspaper headline that is read aloud at the breakfast table
    • It is absent entirely from the story, which takes place in a quiet country house

  18. Which concept describes the use of a sick or wounded man as a symbol of a nation's wider wounds?

    • Epistolary form
    • Allegory
    • Pathetic fallacy
    • Iambic pentameter

  19. Which concept describes a character's mental state used to reflect a wider social condition?

    • Iambic pentameter
    • Symbolism
    • Pathetic fallacy
    • Epistolary form

  20. What term describes a narrator who observes events from outside the central protagonist's experience?

    • Peripheral narration
    • Stream of consciousness
    • Unreliable epistolary voice
    • Omniscient narration

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