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George Bernard Shaw (G.B.S.): 100+ MCQs on a Literary Iconoclast
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW MCQS: Step into the world of intellect and social revolution with our comprehensive quiz on George Bernard Shaw. A giant of modern drama, a fervent socialist, and a razor-sharp critic, the writer known as G.B. Shaw reshaped the English stage with his “plays of ideas.” He is the only person in history to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and an Academy Award (1938). This post features over 100 G.B.S. MCQs covering his influential life, groundbreaking plays, and unwavering political convictions. Let’s test your knowledge of the man they called “G.B.S.”!
Part 1: The Life of Bernard Shaw
1.George Bernard Shaw was born on July 26, 1856, in which capital city?
- A) London
- B) Dublin
- C) Edinburgh
- D) Belfast
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Dublin
Explanation: Like his contemporary Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland.
2.G.B. Shaw was a prominent member of which influential socialist society?
- A) The Royal Society
- B) The Bloomsbury Group
- C) The Fabian Society
- D) The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) The Fabian Society
Explanation: The Fabian Society advocated for gradualist socialism. Bernard Shaw was one of its most famous figures, writing many political pamphlets for them.
3.In what year did George Bernard Shaw win the Nobel Prize in Literature?
- A) 1905
- B) 1925
- C) 1938
- D) 1945
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) 1925
Explanation: He was awarded the prize “for his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty.”
4.For the screenplay of which film did Shaw win an Academy Award?
- A) Major Barbara
- B) Caesar and Cleopatra
- C) Androcles and the Lion
- D) Pygmalion
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Pygmalion
Explanation: In 1938, G.B. Shaw won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film version of his most famous play, *Pygmalion*.
5.Who was George Bernard Shaw’s wife, a fellow Fabian and Irish heiress?
- A) Florence Farr
- B) Beatrice Webb
- C) Charlotte Payne-Townshend
- D) Augusta, Lady Gregory
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Charlotte Payne-Townshend
Explanation: He married Charlotte Payne-Townshend in 1898. Their marriage was believed by many biographers to have been platonic.
6.Shaw was a lifelong advocate of which dietary practice?
- A) Pescatarianism
- B) Fruitarianism
- C) Vegetarianism
- D) The carnivore diet
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Vegetarianism
Explanation: Shaw became a vegetarian in his twenties and remained one for his entire life, often writing about its ethical benefits.
7.G.B.S. died in 1950 at the remarkable age of:
- A) 84
- B) 88
- C) 90
- D) 94
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) 94
Explanation: He lived a very long and productive life, passing away at his home in Ayot St Lawrence, England, at the age of 94.
Part 2: Plays Unpleasant & Pleasant
8.Which of G.B. Shaw’s *Plays Unpleasant* deals with the hypocrisy surrounding prostitution?
- A) Widowers’ Houses
- B) The Philanderer
- C) Mrs. Warren’s Profession
- D) Candida
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Mrs. Warren’s Profession
Explanation: This play was highly controversial because it portrayed prostitution as being caused by economic necessity, implicating society itself.
9.In *Arms and the Man*, what does Captain Bluntschli carry in his cartridge-box instead of ammunition?
- A) Love letters
- B) Biscuits
- C) Chocolates
- D) A portrait of his mother
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Chocolates
Explanation: This earns him the nickname “the chocolate cream soldier” from Raina and highlights Bernard Shaw’s anti-romantic, pragmatic view of warfare.
10.Which play from *Plays Pleasant* features a woman choosing between her clergyman husband and a passionate young poet?
- A) The Man of Destiny
- B) Candida
- C) You Never Can Tell
- D) Arms and the Man
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Candida
Explanation: *Candida* is a complex Shavian exploration of love and marriage, and the titular character’s final choice subverts traditional expectations.
11.The title *Arms and the Man* is a reference to the opening line of which classic epic poem?
- A) The Odyssey by Homer
- B) The Aeneid by Virgil
- C) The Iliad by Homer
- D) Paradise Lost by Milton
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) The Aeneid by Virgil
Explanation: The opening line of the *Aeneid* is “Arma virumque cano” (“Of arms and the man I sing”). Shaw uses the title ironically to de-glamorize war.
12.The play *Widowers’ Houses* by Bernard Shaw is a critique of what social problem?
- A) Arranged marriages
- B) Slum landlordism and income inequality
- C) Religious hypocrisy
- D) The legal system
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Slum landlordism and income inequality
Explanation: This early play directly addresses the Fabian concern with how the wealthy profit from the poor’s squalid living conditions.
Part 3: G.B. Shaw’s Masterpiece – Pygmalion
13.Who is the professor of phonetics in *Pygmalion*?
- A) Colonel Pickering
- B) Alfred Doolittle
- C) Henry Higgins
- D) Freddy Eynsford-Hill
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Henry Higgins
Explanation: Professor Henry Higgins is the arrogant phonetics expert who makes a bet that he can transform a common flower girl.
14.What is the name of the Cockney flower girl in *Pygmalion*?
- A) Clara
- B) Eliza Doolittle
- C) Mrs. Pearce
- D) Mrs. Higgins
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Eliza Doolittle
Explanation: Eliza is the vibrant flower girl whose transformation is the central plot of the famous play by G.B. Shaw.
15.The title *Pygmalion* refers to a figure from Greek mythology who was a…
- A) king who fell in love with a statue he carved.
- B) god who punished a boastful woman.
- C) hero who stole fire from the gods.
- D) monster with the head of a bull.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) a king who fell in love with a statue he carved.
Explanation: In the myth, Pygmalion, a sculptor, creates a statue of a woman so beautiful that he falls in love with it. G.B.S. uses this to parallel Higgins “sculpting” Eliza into a new person.
16.Eliza’s first “test” in polite society takes place at whose home?
- A) The Queen’s garden party
- B) Colonel Pickering’s club
- C) Mrs. Higgins’s at-home day
- D) The opera
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Mrs. Higgins’s at-home day
Explanation: This scene is memorable for Eliza’s “correct” accent but shockingly inappropriate content, such as her aunt’s supposed death from influenza.
17.How does George Bernard Shaw’s original ending for *Pygmalion* differ from its romantic adaptations?
- A) Eliza dies of pneumonia.
- B) Eliza marries Colonel Pickering.
- C) Higgins proposes to Eliza and she accepts.
- D) Eliza asserts her independence and marries the simple Freddy Eynsford-Hill.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Eliza asserts her independence and marries the simple Freddy Eynsford-Hill.
Explanation: G.B. Shaw was adamant that a marriage between Eliza and Higgins was impossible. He wrote a long post-play essay explaining why she marries Freddy instead.
18.*Pygmalion* was famously adapted into what blockbuster musical?
- A) The Sound of Music
- B) Guys and Dolls
- C) My Fair Lady
- D) Oklahoma!
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) My Fair Lady
Explanation: The 1956 musical by Lerner and Loewe, *My Fair Lady*, is one of the most successful adaptations of Shaw’s play.
19.Eliza’s father, Alfred Doolittle, describes himself as a member of what class?
- A) The working class
- B) The middle class
- C) The “undeserving poor”
- D) The aristocracy
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) The “undeserving poor”
Explanation: He cheerfully admits he has no interest in “middle-class morality,” a Shavian viewpoint that both amuses and intrigues Professor Higgins.
Part 4: The Shavian Mindset – Core Ideas
20.Which Shavian concept describes the instinctive drive in humanity to evolve toward a higher state or “superman”?
- A) Natural Selection
- B) The Will to Power
- C) The Life Force
- D) Dialectical Materialism
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) The Life Force
Explanation: This is a central philosophical concept for G.B. Shaw. The Life Force is a creative, evolutionary power that uses individuals to achieve its aims of creating ever-better beings.
21.The “Life Force” is most explicitly discussed by G.B.S. in which play?
- A) Saint Joan
- B) Major Barbara
- C) Man and Superman
- D) Heartbreak House
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Man and Superman
Explanation: The “Don Juan in Hell” section of *Man and Superman* is a long, philosophical dream sequence where characters debate the purpose of the Life Force.
22.In which play does a Salvation Army officer grapple with the ethics of accepting money from her armaments manufacturer father?
- A) Androcles and the Lion
- B) The Doctor’s Dilemma
- C) Major Barbara
- D) Mrs. Warren’s Profession
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Major Barbara
Explanation: The central conflict of *Major Barbara* is between spiritual salvation and the pragmatic salvation from poverty offered by her father, Andrew Undershaft.
23.George Bernard Shaw’s historical play *Saint Joan* ends with a controversial feature. What is it?
- A) Joan recanting her beliefs
- B) A musical number
- C) An epilogue set 25 years after her death
- D) An alternate ending where she is not executed
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) An epilogue set 25 years after her death
Explanation: In the Epilogue, Joan reappears in a dream. When she offers to return to life, her former allies all reject her, showing humanity’s tendency to crucify its saints.
24.What is the central argument made by Andrew Undershaft in *Major Barbara*?
- A) “The meek shall inherit the earth.”
- B) “The greatest of our evils and the worst of our crimes is poverty.”
- C) “War is a glorious and necessary part of life.”
- D) “Faith alone can save a man’s soul.”
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) “The greatest of our evils and the worst of our crimes is poverty.”
Explanation: Undershaft argues that poverty is the root of all other sins and that providing work and money is a greater moral good than any spiritual creed.
25.*Heartbreak House*, written during WWI by G.B.S., is a satirical look at what group?
- A) The London working class
- B) The new industrial rich
- C) The futile and ineffective English cultural elite
- D) The American military
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) The futile and ineffective English cultural elite
Explanation: Subtitled “A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes,” the play shows the aimless pre-war intelligentsia, drifting towards disaster.
26.Shaw often championed the concept of the “New Woman.” Which character best embodies this idea?
- A) Raina Petkoff in *Arms and the Man*
- B) Vivie Warren in *Mrs. Warren’s Profession*
- C) Mrs. Pearce in *Pygmalion*
- D) The maid in *You Never Can Tell*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Vivie Warren in *Mrs. Warren’s Profession*
Explanation: Vivie is an educated, unsentimental Cambridge graduate who rejects traditional femininity and insists on independence, making her a classic “New Woman” in the plays of G.B.S.
27.In *Man and Superman*, who does the Life Force use to hunt down the reluctant hero, John Tanner?
- A) Violet Robinson
- B) Mrs. Whitefield
- C) Ann Whitefield
- D) A Spanish bandit
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Ann Whitefield
Explanation: Ann is portrayed by Bernard Shaw as the ultimate agent of the Life Force. She relentlessly pursues Tanner to be the father of the “superman.”
28.The play *The Doctor’s Dilemma* satirizes the ethics and practices of what profession?
- A) Law
- B) Politics
- C) Journalism
- D) Medicine
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Medicine
Explanation: The “dilemma” faced by the doctor is whether to save the life of a decent colleague or a brilliant but morally reprehensible artist.
29.In which play does G.B. Shaw retell a Roman fable about a Christian slave who is spared by a lion he once helped?
- A) *Caesar and Cleopatra*
- B) *The Apple Cart*
- C) *Androcles and the Lion*
- D) *Back to Methuselah*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) *Androcles and the Lion*
Explanation: The play uses the fable to explore themes of true Christian faith versus state-enforced religion.
30.What is the “Shavian” alphabet?
- A) A code Shaw used in his private diaries.
- B) A new phonetic alphabet funded by Bernard Shaw in his will.
- C) The specific style of handwriting used by his wife.
- D) An early form of the Irish alphabet.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) A new phonetic alphabet funded by Bernard Shaw in his will.
Explanation: G.B. Shaw was a passionate advocate for spelling reform. He left money to create a new, 40-character phonetic alphabet, now known as the Shavian alphabet.
Part 5: More Plays, Quotes, & Legacy
31.Finish this famous Shaw quote: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on…”
- A) the reasonable man.
- B) teamwork and compromise.
- C) the unreasonable man.
- D) luck and circumstance.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) the unreasonable man.
Explanation: This epigram from *Man and Superman*’s “Maxims for Revolutionists” perfectly encapsulates the worldview of G.B.S.
32.George Bernard Shaw wrote his earliest, unsuccessful works in which literary form?
- A) Poetry
- B) Short Stories
- C) Novels
- D) Essays
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Novels
Explanation: Before turning to drama, Shaw wrote five novels, including *Immaturity* and *Cashel Byron’s Profession*.
33.The long prefaces G.B. Shaw attached to his published plays served what purpose?
- A) To thank his benefactors
- B) To provide a plot summary
- C) To explain the philosophical and social ideas behind the play
- D) To list the original cast and crew
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) To explain the philosophical and social ideas behind the play
Explanation: The prefaces are masterful essays in which Shaw explains his social, political, and philosophical intentions.
34.Who famously played Eliza Doolittle in the original London production of *Pygmalion*?
- A) Ellen Terry
- B) Mrs. Patrick Campbell
- C) Lillie Langtry
- D) Sarah Bernhardt
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Mrs. Patrick Campbell
Explanation: She was a celebrated actress with whom G.B. Shaw had a long and passionate correspondence, and for whom he wrote the part of Eliza.
35.In which play does Bernard Shaw portray a young Cleopatra and a wise, aging Julius Caesar?
- A) *Antony and Cleopatra*
- B) *The Man of Destiny*
- C) *The Devil’s Disciple*
- D) *Caesar and Cleopatra*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) *Caesar and Cleopatra*
Explanation: In this play, Shaw strips away romanticism to show Caesar as a mentor teaching a teenage Cleopatra how to rule.
36.The line, “If you can’t get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance,” comes from which Shaw play?
- A) *Heartbreak House*
- B) *The Doctor’s Dilemma*
- C) *Fanny’s First Play*
- D) *John Bull’s Other Island*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) *John Bull’s Other Island*
Explanation: This play was Bernard Shaw’s commentary on the Anglo-Irish relationship, and this quote captures the dark humour and pragmatic approach to historical problems.
37.Shaw coined a term for the enthusiastic public adoration of a celebrity, inspired by a boxer’s fame. What was it?
- A) Fanaticism
- B) Pugilismania
- C) Heroworship
- D) Bunkum
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Pugilismania
Explanation: He observed the immense fame of boxer Gene Tunney and used “Pugilismania” to describe the phenomenon, a concept expanded upon in his play *The Millionairess*.
38.Which Shavian play, a “political extravaganza,” features a future English king battling his democratically elected Prime Minister?
- A) *The Apple Cart*
- B) *Geneva*
- C) *On the Rocks*
- D) *Too True to Be Good*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) *The Apple Cart*
Explanation: In this play, King Magnus threatens to abdicate and run for a seat in the House of Commons to “upset the apple cart” of the government, debating the merits of monarchy vs. democracy.
39.For much of his early career, George Bernard Shaw worked as a prominent critic. What were his two main areas of criticism?
- A) Art and Architecture
- B) Poetry and Novels
- C) Food and Fashion
- D) Music and Drama
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Music and Drama
Explanation: His reviews and critical essays on music (championing Wagner) and drama (championing Ibsen) were highly influential and are still read for their wit and insight.
40.What famous remark did Eliza Doolittle shout at the horse races, stunning high society?
- A) “Come on, Dover! Move your bloomin’ arse!”
- B) “I’m a good girl, I am!”
- C) “What a wonderful day for a race!”
- D) “That horse is a fake, he is!”
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) “Come on, Dover! Move your bloomin’ arse!”
Explanation: This line, delivered in her new perfect accent, is a hilarious moment of cultural collision in *Pygmalion* by G.B. Shaw.
41.In which play does G.B.S. satirize the American Revolution, portraying General Burgoyne with witty resignation?
- A) *The Philanderer*
- B) *The Devil’s Disciple*
- C) *John Bull’s Other Island*
- D) *Major Barbara*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) *The Devil’s Disciple*
Explanation: Set during the American War of Independence, the play uses the conflict as a backdrop for a melodrama that subverts conventional ideas of heroism and morality.
42.The five-play cycle *Back to Methuselah* traces human evolution from the Garden of Eden to what year in the future?
- A) 3000 AD
- B) 5000 AD
- C) 10,000 AD
- D) 31,920 AD
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) 31,920 AD
Explanation: This massive, rarely-performed “Metabiological Pentateuch” is Shaw’s ultimate expression of his theory of creative evolution, showing humanity evolving beyond the body into a vortex of pure thought.
43.The central character in *The Devil’s Disciple*, Dick Dudgeon, willingly goes to the gallows in place of whom?
- A) His brother
- B) The local pastor, Anthony Anderson
- C) General Burgoyne
- D) His mother
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) The local pastor, Anthony Anderson
Explanation: In a moment of supreme, inexplicable self-sacrifice that defies his “devilish” reputation, Dick takes Anderson’s place when the British soldiers come to arrest him.
44.Bernard Shaw’s play *Fanny’s First Play* is a “play within a play” that features a cast of what?
- A) Politicians
- B) Ghosts
- C) Theatre critics
- D) Aristocrats
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Theatre critics
Explanation: The play satirizes the theatre critics of Shaw’s day, with characters based on his real-life professional rivals, who debate the merits and authorship of the play they’ve just seen.
45.A famous Shaw quote claims, “Youth is wasted on the…”
- A) rich.
- B) foolish.
- C) old.
- D) young.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) young.
Explanation: This is one of Shaw’s most enduring and widely quoted aphorisms, though its exact origin in his writings is debated, it perfectly reflects his intellectual style.
46.In his later years, G.B.S. became controversial for his apparent praise of which figures?
- A) Churchill and Roosevelt
- B) Gandhi and Nehru
- C) Stalin and Mussolini
- D) The Pope and the Dalai Lama
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Stalin and Mussolini
Explanation: Shaw’s desire for strong, efficient government led him to make controversial statements in praise of dictators, believing they could enact socialist reforms more effectively than messy democracies. This remains a stain on his legacy.
47.Which of these is NOT a play by George Bernard Shaw?
- A) *The Millionairess*
- B) *The Importance of Being Earnest*
- C) *Getting Married*
- D) *Misalliance*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) *The Importance of Being Earnest*
Explanation: *The Importance of Being Earnest* is the most famous play by Shaw’s contemporary and fellow Dubliner, Oscar Wilde.
48.The character of Colonel Pickering in *Pygmalion* serves as what to Professor Higgins?
- A) A rival
- B) A financial backer
- C) A moral conscience and gentlemanly foil
- D) A long-lost brother
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) A moral conscience and gentlemanly foil
Explanation: Pickering, also a linguist, is polite, kind, and treats Eliza with respect from the beginning, highlighting Higgins’s rudeness and lack of empathy.
49.In which play does a character declare “It is easy—terribly easy—to shake a man’s faith in himself. To take advantage of a man’s disadvantage is to murder his soul”?
- A) *Candida*
- B) *Major Barbara*
- C) *Pygmalion*
- D) *Saint Joan*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) *Candida*
Explanation: The Reverend Morell says this line, reflecting on the cruelty of undermining someone’s core beliefs and confidence, a key theme in the play.
50.In *Man and Superman*, John Tanner’s chauffeur, ‘Enry Straker, represents what new social type?
- A) The traditional, deferential servant.
- B) The ambitious immigrant.
- C) The competent, class-conscious, technologically-skilled modern worker.
- D) The anarchist revolutionary.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) The competent, class-conscious, technologically-skilled modern worker.
Explanation: ‘Enry is pragmatic, educated, and completely unsentimental. G.B. Shaw uses him to show the rise of a new working class that is more realistic and capable than its aristocratic employers.
Part 6: More Obscure Works & Trivia
51.In G.B. Shaw’s early novel *Cashel Byron’s Profession*, what is the titular profession?
- A) A doctor
- B) A politician
- C) A prizefighter (boxer)
- D) An artist
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) A prizefighter (boxer)
Explanation: This early work explores the paradox of a highly intelligent and articulate man who is also a professional boxer, challenging Victorian class and intellectual stereotypes.
52.The Shavian play *Misalliance* is subtitled “A Debate in One Sitting”. Where does the action take place?
- A) In the House of Commons
- B) At a country house in Surrey
- C) On a deserted island
- D) In a London courtroom
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) At a country house in Surrey
Explanation: The play is a sprawling, chaotic comedy of manners and ideas, set in a single location where characters debate socialism, marriage, and family.
53.Shaw’s famous critical essay *The Quintessence of Ibsenism* argued that Henrik Ibsen was primarily what kind of writer?
- A) A romantic poet
- B) A psychological novelist
- C) A creator of “well-made” commercial plays
- D) A social critic using realism to challenge conventions
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) A social critic using realism to challenge conventions
Explanation: G.B. Shaw was instrumental in introducing English audiences to Ibsen, championing him as a dramatist of social ideas, not just a crafter of plots.
54.In the play *The Millionairess*, the fabulously wealthy Epifania Ognisanti di Parerga agrees to marry a man only if he can pass a test set by whom?
- A) Her father
- B) Her first husband
- C) The Prime Minister
- D) An Egyptian doctor
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) Her father
Explanation: Her father’s will decreed that any future husband must be able to turn £150 into £50,000 within six months.
55.The title “Heartbreak House” is an allusion to which of Anton Chekhov’s plays?
- A) *The Seagull*
- B) *Uncle Vanya*
- C) *The Cherry Orchard*
- D) *Three Sisters*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) *The Cherry Orchard*
Explanation: G.B.S. subtitled his play “A Fantasia in the Russian Manner” and was heavily influenced by Chekhov’s depiction of a declining upper class unable to face a changing world, as seen in *The Cherry Orchard*.
56.What historical figure does Napoleon Bonaparte encounter in Shaw’s short play *The Man of Destiny*?
- A) Julius Caesar
- B) A mysterious “Strange Lady”
- C) The Duke of Wellington
- D) George Washington
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) A mysterious “Strange Lady”
Explanation: The one-act play is a cat-and-mouse game between Napoleon and a cunning lady who has stolen important letters from him.
57.In *You Never Can Tell*, what relation is the famed author Mrs. Clandon to the fiery twins, Dolly and Philip?
- A) Their aunt
- B) Their mother
- C) Their governess
- D) Their older sister
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Their mother
Explanation: Mrs. Clandon is a famous feminist author who has raised her children away from their estranged father, leading to the play’s comedic confrontations.
58.George Bernard Shaw’s home, where he lived for over 40 years until his death, is known as:
- A) Down House
- B) Hill Top
- C) Shaw’s Corner
- D) The Old Rectory
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Shaw’s Corner
Explanation: Located in the village of Ayot St Lawrence in Hertfordshire, “Shaw’s Corner” is now a National Trust property open to the public.
59.Which of the following characters is a creation of G.B.S.?
- A) Willy Loman
- B) Lady Bracknell
- C) Captain Shotover
- D) Blanche DuBois
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Captain Shotover
Explanation: The eccentric, drunken, and prophetic sea captain is the patriarch of the family in *Heartbreak House*. The other characters are from works by Arthur Miller, Oscar Wilde, and Tennessee Williams, respectively.
60.The “Don Juan in Hell” act is often performed separately from which full-length Shaw play?
- A) *The Doctor’s Dilemma*
- B) *Man and Superman*
- C) *Major Barbara*
- D) *Candida*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) *Man and Superman*
Explanation: Due to its length and philosophical nature, the dream sequence of Act III is frequently staged on its own as a “concert reading” or standalone one-act play.
Part 7: Characters and Deeper Themes
61.In *Pygmalion*, Mrs. Higgins serves as the voice of what for her son, Henry?
- A) Ambition
- B) Financial support
- C) Reason and social propriety
- D) Nostalgia
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Reason and social propriety
Explanation: Mrs. Higgins is the only character who immediately sees the ethical problems with Henry’s experiment, constantly scolding him for his childishness and lack of foresight.
62.The dramatic structure G.B. Shaw championed was the “play of ______”, prioritizing argument over plot.
- A) emotion
- B) spectacle
- C) history
- D) ideas
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) ideas
Explanation: Shaw’s primary goal was to make the audience think. His plays are structured around the conflict of different ideologies and philosophies, rather than traditional plot twists.
63.What happens to Alfred Doolittle that forces him into “middle-class morality”?
- A) He gets arrested.
- B) He inherits a large sum of money from an American millionaire.
- C) He gets married to Eliza’s mother.
- D) He converts to Christianity.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) He inherits a large sum of money from an American millionaire.
Explanation: As a joke, Higgins tells a millionaire that Doolittle is the “most original moralist” in England, leading the millionaire to leave him a fortune in his will, much to Doolittle’s dismay.
64.The main charge brought against Joan in *Saint Joan* is what?
- A) Witchcraft
- B) Treason
- C) Murder
- D) Heresy
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Heresy
Explanation: Her primary crime, in the eyes of the Church, was her insistence that she received commands directly from God, bypassing the Church’s authority. This is a form of Protestantism before its time, which Bernard Shaw highlights.
65.In *Arms and the Man*, Raina Petkoff’s fiancé, Sergius Saranoff, is an example of what Shavian target?
- A) The pragmatic soldier
- B) The phony romantic idealist
- C) The struggling artist
- D) The corrupt politician
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) The phony romantic idealist
Explanation: Sergius pretends to be a great, heroic cavalryman straight out of opera, but in private, he is cynical and has an affair with the maid, Louka. G.B.S. uses him to mock Byronic heroism.
66.Shaw’s theory of “Creative Evolution,” outlined in *Back to Methuselah*, is a variation on the ideas of which philosopher?
- A) Karl Marx
- B) Friedrich Nietzsche
- C) Henri Bergson
- D) Jean-Paul Sartre
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Henri Bergson
Explanation: Shaw combined Bergson’s idea of an *élan vital* (vital impulse) with Lamarckian evolution to create his own philosophy where willpower, not chance, drives evolutionary progress.
67.Which of the following best describes the Undershaft family motto in *Major Barbara*?
- A) To Thine Own Self Be True
- B) Faith, Hope, and Charity
- C) Blood and Fire
- D) Unashamed
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Unashamed
Explanation: Andrew Undershaft’s motto is “Unashamed,” representing his refusal to feel guilt over his profession as an arms dealer, which he sees as a force for good by eliminating poverty. “Blood and Fire” is the motto of the Salvation Army.
68.At the end of *Heartbreak House*, how do the characters react to an impending air raid?
- A) They hide in the cellar.
- B) They panic and flee.
- C) They turn on all the lights, welcoming the destruction.
- D) They pray for deliverance.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) They turn on all the lights, welcoming the destruction.
Explanation: In a moment of nihilistic ecstasy, Ellie and Hesione hope the bombs will bring a cleansing end to their pointless, directionless lives.
69.George Bernard Shaw was a co-founder of which world-renowned academic institution?
- A) The University of Chicago
- B) The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
- C) The Juilliard School
- D) The Open University
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Explanation: Along with fellow Fabians Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Shaw helped found the LSE in 1895 as an institution to study social sciences and advance Fabian ideas.
70.What is the “life lie,” a concept G.B.S. borrowed from Ibsen?
- A) A belief in a religion
- B) The pretense of being upper class
- C) A necessary delusion or romantic ideal that makes life bearable
- D) A lie told to save another person’s life
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) A necessary delusion or romantic ideal that makes life bearable
Explanation: Shaw, following Ibsen, often featured characters (like Raina in *Arms and the Man* or Jennifer in *The Doctor’s Dilemma*) whose illusions are stripped away, forcing them to confront reality.
Part 8: The Final Stretch – Deeper Cuts
71.Shaw wrote under what pseudonym as a music critic?
- A) Corno di Bassetto
- B) The Man in the Street
- C) An Old Hand
- D) G.B.S.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) Corno di Bassetto
Explanation: From 1888 to 1890, he wrote for *The Star* under the witty pseudonym Corno di Bassetto (basset horn), chosen because it sounded like “a sort of clowning on a brass instrument.”
72.In which play does a Polish acrobat crash her plane into a greenhouse during a debate on marriage?
- A) *Getting Married*
- B) *The Apple Cart*
- C) *Fanny’s First Play*
- D) *Misalliance*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) *Misalliance*
Explanation: The arrival of the daredevil aviator Lina Szczepanowska injects a dose of vitality and chaos into the stale, intellectual arguments of the English country house.
73.Why did Bernard Shaw initially refuse the prize money for his Nobel Prize?
- A) He felt he didn’t deserve it.
- B) He believed it was “a lifebelt thrown to a swimmer who has already reached the shore in safety.”
- C) He wanted to protest the Swedish government.
- D) The amount was too small.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) He believed it was “a lifebelt thrown to a swimmer who has already reached the shore in safety.”
Explanation: He argued that he already had enough money and fame, and the prize should go to a younger, struggling author. He later accepted the medal but used the money to fund the English translation of Swedish works.
74.In Shaw’s *John Bull’s Other Island*, the Englishman Tom Broadbent represents what?
- A) English artistic genius
- B) English socialist revolution
- C) English inefficiency and romanticism
- D) English well-meaning but clueless pragmatism and imperialism
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) English well-meaning but clueless pragmatism and imperialism
Explanation: Broadbent is a stereotype of the Englishman who arrives in Ireland with a total lack of understanding but a complete confidence that he can fix all its problems.
75.Who is the antagonist, representing the established church and feudal system, in *Saint Joan*?
- A) The Dauphin (later King Charles VII)
- B) The Earl of Warwick
- C) The Inquisitor
- D) Bishop Cauchon
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) The Earl of Warwick
Explanation: While the Church figures (Cauchon, The Inquisitor) see Joan as a heretic, the English Earl of Warwick correctly identifies her as a greater threat: the spirit of Nationalism and Protestantism that will destroy his feudal world.
76.What “unwomanly” subject is Vivie Warren an expert in, having placed high in the Cambridge examinations?
- A) Classical Greek
- B) Actuarial mathematics
- C) Law
- D) Biology
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Actuarial mathematics
Explanation: Her skill in the Mathematical Tripos and her intention to work in actuarial mathematics in London solidify her status as a “New Woman” who is intellectually and financially independent.
77.The “First Folio” of G.B. Shaw’s collected plays, published in 1930, was bound in what distinctive color?
- A) Green
- B) Black
- C) Orange
- D) Blue
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Orange
Explanation: The covers of the Ayot St. Lawrence collected edition were a distinctive orange linen, making them visually stand out, much like Shaw’s plays themselves.
78.Shaw wrote a satirical puppet show in 1949 called *Shakes versus Shav*. How does it end?
- A) Shakespeare defeats Shaw in a sword fight.
- B) Shaw proves his intellectual superiority.
- C) The two agree to a draw, acknowledging each other’s greatness.
- D) Both are upstaged by the arrival of Ibsen.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) Shakespeare defeats Shaw in a sword fight.
Explanation: In a typically ironic twist, after a battle of wits, the puppet of Shakespeare knocks the puppet of Shaw out with a final, decisive punch.
79.The play *Getting Married* consists almost entirely of a single, continuous debate on what topic?
- A) The institution of marriage
- B) The nature of democracy
- C) The ethics of vegetarianism
- D) The purpose of art
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) The institution of marriage
Explanation: On the morning of a wedding, the bride and groom read a pamphlet on the oppressive legal realities of marriage and refuse to go through with it, prompting a lengthy debate among the entire family.
80.Finish this G.B.S. quote from his preface to *Pygmalion*: “It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without…”
- A) apologizing for something.
- B) mentioning the weather.
- C) making some other Englishman hate or despise him.
- D) wanting a cup of tea.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) making some other Englishman hate or despise him.
Explanation: This line summarizes the entire premise of the play: that in England, a person’s accent and use of language instantly define their social class and the way they are perceived.
81.The epilogue to *Saint Joan* features the “Gentleman from 1920”. What news does he bring?
- A) That the English now regret executing her.
- B) That the world is on the brink of another war.
- C) That Joan has been made a saint by the Catholic Church.
- D) That her plays are very popular in London.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) That Joan has been made a saint by the Catholic Church.
Explanation: He appears in clerical garb to announce her canonization, which happened in 1920, just before Shaw wrote the play. This brings the historical context up to the modern day.
82.In *Candida*, the young poet Marchbanks constantly quotes and idolizes which Romantic poet?
- A) Lord Byron
- B) John Keats
- C) Percy Bysshe Shelley
- D) William Wordsworth
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Percy Bysshe Shelley
Explanation: Marchbanks represents the naive, impractical, and intensely passionate spirit of Romantic poetry, which G.B.S. contrasts with the pragmatic socialism of Reverend Morell.
83.The “Shavian” heroine is typically characterized as being:
- A) Shy, demure, and subservient.
- B) Driven by passion and emotion above all else.
- C) Intellectually sharp, pragmatic, and unsentimental.
- D) Primarily concerned with wealth and social status.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Intellectually sharp, pragmatic, and unsentimental.
Explanation: From Vivie Warren to Ann Whitefield, Shaw’s heroines are often the “hunters” rather than the hunted, using their intelligence and willpower to achieve their goals, often as agents of the Life Force.
84.George Bernard Shaw was famously friends with which celebrated sculptor, who created a renowned bust of him?
- A) Auguste Rodin
- B) Michelangelo
- C) Constantin Brancusi
- D) Henry Moore
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) Auguste Rodin
Explanation: G.B.S. greatly admired the French sculptor Auguste Rodin and sat for a portrait bust in 1906, which became one of Rodin’s most famous works.
85.In a letter, what did G.B.S. famously tell the actress Ellen Terry was “the most disgusting, wounding, coercive, insulting, licentious, obscene state” for a woman?
- A) Poverty
- B) Being an actress
- C) Marriage
- D) Unrequited love
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Marriage
Explanation: His letters are full of his provocative views on marriage, which he saw as a legal trap for women. This belief is dramatized in plays like *Getting Married*.
86.Shaw’s play “The Fascinating Foundling” is a short comedy that parodies what common theatrical plot device?
- A) The love triangle
- B) The mistaken identity of long-lost siblings or foundlings
- C) The play-within-a-play
- D) The rags-to-riches story
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) The mistaken identity of long-lost siblings or foundlings
Explanation: The play makes fun of the absurd plot twists common in popular melodramas, a trope famously used by Oscar Wilde in *The Importance of Being Earnest*.
87.In which city is G.B. Shaw’s “political allegory” *Geneva* primarily set?
- A) London
- B) Berlin
- C) Geneva, at the League of Nations
- D) Moscow
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Geneva, at the League of Nations
Explanation: Written in the lead-up to WWII, the play features caricatures of Hitler (“Battler”), Mussolini (“Bombardone”), and Franco (“Flanco”) being put on trial by the ineffective international court in Geneva.
88.Shaw often claimed his own mind was most heavily influenced by Ibsen and what other major figure?
- A) Charles Darwin
- B) Karl Marx
- C) William Shakespeare
- D) Richard Wagner
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Richard Wagner
Explanation: Shaw was a passionate Wagnerian. He saw in Wagner’s operas a new form of music-drama that, like his own plays, synthesized art, philosophy, and myth. His book *The Perfect Wagnerite* interprets *The Ring Cycle* as a socialist allegory.
89.In *Caesar and Cleopatra*, how old is Cleopatra when she first meets Caesar?
- A) 21
- B) 16
- C) 19
- D) 25
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) 16
Explanation: Shaw intentionally presents her as a willful, sometimes foolish, teenager to contrast with the wise and paternalistic Caesar, undermining the popular image of her as an adult seductress.
90.What is the “Shavian paradox”?
- A) A complex mathematical equation.
- B) The idea that socialism can only be achieved through capitalism.
- C) A statement that seems contradictory but reveals a deeper truth.
- D) His claim of being an atheist who still wrote about religion.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) A statement that seems contradictory but reveals a deeper truth.
Explanation: The Shavian paradox is Shaw’s signature rhetorical style. He would often state an idea that inverted conventional wisdom (e.g., “The golden rule is that there are no golden rules”) to force his audience to reconsider their beliefs.
91.In the Epilogue of *Saint Joan*, what is the collective reaction of the characters when Joan offers to return from the dead?
- A) Joy and celebration
- B) Fear and immediate rejection
- C) Disbelief and skepticism
- D) They begin to argue over who should lead her.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Fear and immediate rejection
Explanation: One by one, they make excuses and vanish, unable to handle the disruptive reality of a living saint. This is Shaw’s final, cynical point: “O God that madest this beautiful earth, when will it be ready to receive Thy saints? How long, O Lord, how long?”
92.G.B. Shaw was a prominent member of his local council for many years in which borough of London?
- A) The Borough of St Pancras
- B) The City of Westminster
- C) The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
- D) The Borough of Camden
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) The Borough of St Pancras
Explanation: A practicing socialist, Shaw put his ideas into action, serving as a vestryman and borough councillor for St Pancras from 1897 to 1903, where he worked on issues like public sanitation and equal pay for women.
93.The “Life Force” ultimately wants to create a being that is a “vortex of pure…”:
- A) emotion
- B) energy
- C) will
- D) thought
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) thought
Explanation: In the final part of *Back to Methuselah*, “As Far as Thought Can Reach,” the highly evolved Ancients have shed their physical bodies to become beings of pure intellect, the ultimate (but perhaps lonely) goal of Shaw’s creative evolution.
94.Which of these quotes is correctly attributed to George Bernard Shaw?
- A) “I can resist everything except temptation.”
- B) “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
- C) “Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.”
- D) “A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.”
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) “Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.”
Explanation: This comes from the preface to *The Doctor’s Dilemma* and perfectly encapsulates Shaw’s ability to mix high tragedy with intellectual comedy. The other quotes are from Oscar Wilde (A, B) and Roald Dahl (D).
95.What famous prize-fighter was a personal friend of G.B.S.?
- A) Jack Dempsey
- B) Joe Louis
- C) Gene Tunney
- D) Muhammad Ali
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Gene Tunney
Explanation: Shaw and the heavyweight champion Gene Tunney were unlikely friends. Tunney was known as an intellectual, and they bonded over their shared interest in literature and ideas.
96.Shaw’s comedy “You Never Can Tell” features a benevolent and wise old man who solves everyone’s problems. What is his profession?
- A) A judge
- B) A doctor
- C) A waiter
- D) A detective
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) A waiter
Explanation: The waiter, named William, serves as the play’s *deus ex machina*. His simple, calm wisdom is a foil to the intellectual chaos of the Clandon family, showing Shaw’s respect for pragmatic common sense.
97.At the end of *Candida*, why does Candida choose to stay with her husband, Morell, instead of leaving with the poet, Marchbanks?
- A) Because Morell is richer.
- B) Because she loves Marchbanks too much to ruin him.
- C) Because she realizes Morell is the “weaker” of the two and needs her more.
- D) Because she fears public scandal.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Because she realizes Morell is the “weaker” of the two and needs her more.
Explanation: In a classic Shavian reversal, Candida doesn’t choose the “strongest” man. She sees that beneath Morell’s bluster is a deep dependency on her, while the poet Marchbanks possesses an inner strength he doesn’t yet recognize.
98.The main character in which G.B. Shaw novel became an early version of the character John Tanner in *Man and Superman*?
- A) *The Irrational Knot*
- B) *Love Among the Artists*
- C) *Cashel Byron’s Profession*
- D) *An Unsocial Socialist*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) *An Unsocial Socialist*
Explanation: The protagonist, Sidney Trefusis, is a wealthy, intellectual socialist who flees his wife to live as a common workman. He is a clear prototype for the revolutionary-minded John Tanner.
99.In a famous photograph, a bearded George Bernard Shaw is seen with what other towering figure of early 20th-century thought?
- A) Sigmund Freud
- B) Albert Einstein
- C) James Joyce
- D) T.S. Eliot
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Albert Einstein
Explanation: A famous photograph captures the two great minds, Shaw and Einstein, together at a dinner party in 1930, symbolizing a meeting of the era’s foremost artistic and scientific intellects.
100.George Bernard Shaw’s non-fiction work, *The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism*, was dedicated to whom?
- A) His wife, Charlotte Payne-Townshend
- B) His mother
- C) His sister-in-law
- D) Queen Victoria
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) His sister-in-law
Explanation: It was dedicated to his sister-in-law, Mary Stewart Cholmondeley. The premise of the book is that he is explaining his complex political and economic theories to her in simple, understandable terms.
Conclusion: The Unreasonable Man’s Legacy
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw MCQs: George Bernard Shaw was more than a playwright; he was a force of nature who used the stage as his lectern, soapbox, and laboratory for ideas. For over 60 years, G.B. Shaw prodded, provoked, and enlightened audiences, challenging every comfortable assumption about class, religion, and war. His legacy lies not just in his brilliant plays but in his unwavering Shavian belief that humanity could think its way to a better world. We hope these MCQs have illuminated the vast and vital work of the man known as G.B.S.
George Bernard Shaw MCQs: How did you fare against the formidable intellect of Bernard Shaw? Share your score and thoughts in the comments below!