Lesson C01.1.3

C01.1.3 King Lear Quiz: OCR English Literature, Unit 1

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson C01.1.3, King Lear: 20 multiple choice questions for the OCR English Literature (H472), Unit 1: Component 01: Drama and poetry pre-1900, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What sub-genre of Jacobean drama best categorises Shakespeare's play King Lear?

    • Tragedy
    • Comedy
    • History
    • Romance

  2. Which character's journey directly mirrors Lear's tragic trajectory in the play's main sub-plot?

    • Gloucester
    • Albany
    • Cornwall
    • Kent

  3. What poetic metre is primarily used for noble dialogue and elevated speeches in King Lear?

    • Iambic pentameter
    • Free verse
    • Anapestic trimeter
    • Trochaic tetrameter

  4. What type of speech allows Edmund to reveal his true manipulative motives directly to the audience?

    • Monologue
    • Duologue
    • Soliloquy
    • Aside

  5. Which playwright famously adapted King Lear in 1681, adding a happy ending for Cordelia?

    • A.C. Bradley
    • Nahum Tate
    • Samuel Johnson
    • David Garrick

  6. What Greek literary term refers to Lear's tragic error of judgment in dividing his kingdom?

    • Anagnorisis
    • Hamartia
    • Catharsis
    • Hubris

  7. Which setting symbolises Lear's internal mental chaos and the breakdown of political order in Act 3?

    • Gloucester's castle
    • The French camp
    • The heath
    • Dover cliff

  8. What dramatic technique occurs when the audience knows Edmund's letter is forged, but Gloucester does not?

    • Verbal irony
    • Cosmic irony
    • Structural parallelism
    • Dramatic irony

  9. Which monarch's belief in absolute divine rule provided the contemporary political context for King Lear?

    • King Henry VIII
    • King Charles I
    • Queen Elizabeth I
    • King James I

  10. What word spoken repeatedly by Cordelia in Act 1 Scene 1 triggers Lear's explosive rage?

    • Never
    • None
    • Nothing
    • No

  11. Which critical perspective focuses on how King Lear exposes patriarchal authority and gender roles?

    • Psychoanalytic criticism
    • Feminist criticism
    • Marxist criticism
    • New Historicism

  12. What literary term describes Lear's moment of critical discovery and self-realisation during his madness?

    • Hamartia
    • Peripeteia
    • Nemesis
    • Anagnorisis

  13. Which character acts as a moral foil to the deceitful Oswald throughout the play?

    • Albany
    • Burgundy
    • Kent
    • Edgar

  14. What primary historical text did Shakespeare consult as his main plot source for King Lear?

    • The Decameron
    • Holinshed's Chronicles
    • Plutarch's Lives
    • Mirror for Magistrates

  15. Which character disguise is adopted by Edgar to survive his father's death sentence?

    • Poor Tom
    • The Madman
    • Poor Barnaby
    • Caius

  16. What literary device is created when the physical storm reflects Lear's internal turmoil?

    • Pathetic fallacy
    • Objective correlative
    • Anthropomorphism
    • Extended metaphor

  17. Which 18th-century critic claimed Cordelia's death was too painful for an audience to endure?

    • A.C. Bradley
    • Samuel Johnson
    • William Hazlitt
    • G. Wilson Knight

  18. What language style is predominantly used by lower-class characters and Lear during his madness?

    • Iambic tetrameter
    • Blank verse
    • Rhyming couplets
    • Prose

  19. Which critical movement interprets King Lear as a critique of feudal ownership and social inequality?

    • Post-colonialism
    • Psychoanalysis
    • Structuralism
    • Marxist criticism

  20. What term describes the purging or release of pity and fear felt by the audience?

    • Catharsis
    • Anagnorisis
    • Pathos
    • Hubris

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