Trivia Quiz for Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)
For WSEA “Classic Novels (and Movies)” book club, 7/31/22
(With answers below)
1. Five Homes, Prisons, or Way Stations toward an Unknown Fate? Jane lives at five places with evocative names during her young life. Which is not one of them?
- Thornfield b. Ferndean c. Moor House d. Cheesewring e. Gateshead f. Lowood
2. Portraits of Bullying and Vengeance. Jane encounters numerous instances of people acting badly, especially in their anger over what she does or does not do or say. Which of the following is not guilty of physically attacking, berating, bullying, insulting, or trying to coerce Jane Eyre?
a. John Reed b. Mrs. Reed c. Mr. Brocklehurst d. Miss Temple e. Mr. Rochester f. Blanche Ingram
3. Portraits of Resistance. Amid the chaos of adults acting rashly, there are vignettes of younger people who resist attack in wise forbearance, including which one of the following?
a. Helen Burns b. Adèle Varens
c. Georgiana Reed
d. Miss Scratcherd e. Blanche Ingram
4. Fury, Rage, and Passion! Jane Eyre shocked readers in the 1840s for the detailed descriptions of people in the throes of hatred, desire, and vengeance. Which of the following is not from Jane Eyre?
a. “My heart beat thick, my head grew hot; …. I uttered a wild, involuntary cry; I rushed to the door and shook the lock in desperate effort.”
b. “He crossed the floor and seized my arm and grasped my waist. He seemed to devour me with his flaming glance… powerless as stubble exposed to the draught and glow of a furnace.”
c. “She sucked the blood: she said she’d drain my heart.”
d. “I wonder what other bridegroom ever looked as he did—so bent up to a purpose, so grimly resolute: or who, under such steadfast brows, ever revealed such flaming and flashing eyes.”
e. All of the above are found in Jane Eyre.
5. Autobiographical style. With its retrospective first-person narrative, Brontë’s book provides readers with a feeling of listening to the heroine’s most secret and changeable thoughts. Which one of the following thoughts does not occur to the heroine?
a. “I still possessed my soul, and with it the certainty of ultimate safety.”
b. “We can’t behave like people in novels, though, can we?”
c. “Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. Women are supposed to be very calm generally, but women feel just as men feel.”
d. “My help had been needed and claimed; I had given it; I was pleased to have done something.”
6. Self-talk. Alongside the occasional kind words from others, Jane tortures herself and tries to encourage herself, by her own internal monologue. Which of the following is not from Jane Eyre?
a. “You, a favorite of Mr. Rochester? Go! Your folly sickens me. … Poor stupid dupe!”
b. “The afternoon advanced, while I thus wandered about like a lost and starving dog.”
c. “In what darkness, what dense ignorance, was the mental battle fought! I could not answer the ceaseless inward question—why I thus suffered.”
d. “One Christmas was so much like another, in those years…”
7. Night fears. Which of the following scary moments is not from Jane Eyre?
a. “There was a demoniac laugh—low, suppressed, and deep—uttered, as it seemed, at the very keyhole of my chamber door.”
b. A maid screams: “There was no reflection of him in the mirror!”
c. “I started awake on hearing a vague murmur, peculiar and lugubrious, which sounded, I thought, just above me.”
d. “This door was open; a light shone out of the room within: I heard thence a snarling, snatching sound, almost like a dog quarreling.”
8. Money, Transactions, and Debt. Which of the following does not happen in Jane Eyre?
a. Mr. Rochester hires Jane as a governess, for 30 pounds a year.
b. Jane saves Mr. Rochester’s life during a fire, and tells him “There is no debt, benefit, burden, obligation, in the case.”
c. Jane inherits 20,000 pounds from a long-lost uncle.
d. Jane follows the advice of St John, and gives her fortune to Christian missionaries in India.
9.—10. Love and Forgiveness. Jane’s tolerance of Rochester’s foul temper, moodiness, and emotional outbursts is exemplary. What two (choose 2) reasons does she offer for it?
a. “He made me feel what severe punishment a good yet stern, a conscientious yet implacable man can inflict on one who has offended him.”
b. “It must have been most irksome to find himself bound by a hard-wrung pledge to stand in the stead of a parent to a strange child he could not love. “
c. “Harsh caprice laid me under no obligation; on the contrary, a decent quiescence, under the freak of manner, gave me the advantage. … I felt interested to see how he would go on.”
d. “His changes of mood did not offend me, because I saw that I had nothing to do with their alternation; the ebb and flow depended on causes quite disconnected to me.”
ANSWERS
1. d. Cheesewring is a location in Cornwall, England (encountered in Daphne Dumaurier’s Jamaica Inn)
2. d. Miss Temple
3. a. Helen Burns
4. e. All of the above are in Jane Eyre.
5. b. (That quote is from The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton.)
6. d. (That quote is from Dylan Thomas, A Child’s Christmas in Wales.)
7. b. (That quote is from Bram Stoker, Dracula.)
8. d. Jane does not follow the advice of St John; she keeps her own counsel.
9. c.
10. d.
Daily Joy with Honey Girl 