JAMB Literature in English 2016 Past Questions & Answers

This question is from Oliver Goldsmith's play, 'She Stoops to Conquer'. In the play, Constance Neville is already aware of Charles Marlow's reputation for being very shy around ladies of class. She reveals that she got this information from Mr. Hastings, who is a very close friend of Marlow and has described his character to her.

Common mistake: Students might mistakenly choose Mr. Hardcastle because he is the one who arranged for Marlow's visit, but the play clearly states that Hastings is Marlow's close friend who described his character to Constance.

This question refers to a specific scene in Oliver Goldsmith's play, 'She Stoops to Conquer'. In this scene, Mr. Hardcastle is preparing for the arrival of young Marlow and tries to coach his clumsy, rural servants on how to behave. He wants them to act in a more refined and sophisticated manner, like the servants in a London house, which leads to a comical failure.

Common mistake: Students might mistakenly choose 'Friendly' because being friendly is a general quality of good service, but Mr. Hardcastle's specific instruction was for his servants to act more refined and less like country bumpkins.

This question is from Oliver Goldsmith's play, *She Stoops to Conquer*. In the story, Marlow is supposed to meet Kate Hardcastle, but he is extremely shy around upper-class women and keeps trying to postpone the meeting. His friend, Hastings, argues with him, urging him to go and see Kate as arranged, which causes a disagreement between them.

Common mistake: Students might mistakenly choose Constance because she is the character that Hastings is romantically interested in, but the argument with Marlow is specifically about Marlow's arranged meeting with Kate.

The correct option is 'Appearance and reality' because the entire plot of 'She Stoops to Conquer' is based on deception and mistaken identity. Marlow mistakes the Hardcastle's home for an inn, and Kate Hardcastle pretends to be a barmaid to win his affection. These deceptions show that what things appear to be is not what they really are, which is the central theme of the play.

Common mistake: Students might mistakenly choose 'Abuse of power and position' because of Marlow's initial arrogant behaviour, but this is a result of a misunderstanding, not the central theme of the play.

This question is from Oliver Goldsmith's play, 'She Stoops to Conquer'. In the play, Marlow mistakenly believes Mr. Hardcastle's house is an inn and that Hardcastle is the innkeeper. When Hardcastle asks Marlow to control his drunken servant, Marlow finds the request ridiculous and mocks it, as he sees it as an innkeeper asking a guest to manage the staff.

Common mistake: Students might choose an option involving Tony Lumpkin, as he is the main source of mischief, but it is Mr. Hardcastle who directly makes the request to Marlow in this scene.

The correct answer is Burlesque, which is a literary or dramatic work that aims to cause laughter by mocking or caricaturing a serious subject or another literary work. It achieves this by imitating the original in a 'distorted' or exaggerated way, treating a high subject in a low manner or a low subject in a high manner. This perfectly matches the definition given in the question.

Common mistake: Students might mistakenly choose Metonymy because it is a familiar literary term, but metonymy is a figure of speech where a related word is used to represent something, not a whole work that imitates another.

A refrain is the specific literary term for a line, a part of a line, or a group of lines that is repeated at regular intervals within a poem, usually at the end of each stanza. This repetition helps to emphasize a key idea and create a musical effect. The question asks for the name of this repeated part, which is the exact definition of a refrain.

Common mistake: Students often mistakenly choose 'Repetition' because a refrain is a type of repetition, but 'refrain' is the more specific and correct technical term for a whole line or stanza repeated at intervals in a poem.

A tragic character is a figure whose downfall is meant to evoke strong emotions in the audience. According to literary principles, we feel 'pity' for the character's suffering and 'sympathy' because we can understand and connect with their situation. While the classical definition mentions 'pity and fear', 'sympathy' is also a key emotion as it describes the audience's ability to feel along with the character.

Common mistake: Many students choose 'Terror' because the classical definition of tragedy by Aristotle states that it should arouse 'pity and fear', and 'terror' is a close synonym for fear.

Farce is a type of comedy that aims to make the audience laugh through exaggerated and highly improbable situations. This reliance on illogical, ridiculous, and nonsensical events means that farce thrives on absurdity. The humour in a farce comes directly from how silly and unbelievable the characters and their actions are.

Common mistake: Students might mistakenly choose 'Incidents' because farces are full of action, but this is too general as all plays have incidents; the key is the absurd nature of those incidents in a farce.

The term 'stream of consciousness' is the specific literary term for a narrative style that presents a character's thoughts, feelings, and memories exactly as they occur in their mind. Just like our own thoughts can be messy and jump from one thing to another, this technique presents events in a scrambled, non-chronological way. It aims to give the reader a direct look into the character's inner world, which perfectly matches the definition in the question.

Common mistake: Students may mistakenly choose 'Narrator's mind style' because it sounds descriptive and correct, but 'Stream of consciousness' is the specific, established literary term for this technique.