Sentimental Novel Practice Questions
20 free Sentimental Novel practice questions for the English Literature. Tap an option to answer — you get instant feedback, the correct answer, and a detailed explanation for every question.
The sentimental novel of the eighteenth century is most strongly associated with which central emphasis?
- A The cultivation of feeling, sympathy, and moral sensibility
- B The imitation of classical epic warfare and heroism
- C The rejection of emotion in favour of scientific objectivity
- D The use of supernatural terror as the main plot device
Correct answer: The cultivation of feeling, sympathy, and moral sensibility
The sentimental novel values refined feeling, compassion, tears, and moral responsiveness. It often presents emotional sensitivity as a sign of virtue and humanity.
Which novel by Henry Mackenzie is one of the best-known examples of the sentimental novel?
- A The Man of Feeling
- B Tom Jones
- C Moll Flanders
- D The Castle of Otranto
Correct answer: The Man of Feeling
Henry Mackenzie's The Man of Feeling is a classic sentimental novel. Its hero Harley is defined by emotional tenderness, sympathy, and moral delicacy.
The hero of The Man of Feeling is named what?
- A Harley
- B Lovelace
- C Tom Jones
- D Werther
Correct answer: Harley
Harley is the central character of The Man of Feeling. His emotional responses to suffering and misfortune make him a representative sentimental hero.
Which quality is most typical of a sentimental hero?
- A Extreme emotional sensitivity and compassion
- B Indifference to the suffering of others
- C Relentless military ambition and personal conquest
- D Comic cruelty toward the poor and defenseless
Correct answer: Extreme emotional sensitivity and compassion
The sentimental hero is usually tender-hearted and deeply moved by scenes of distress. His tears and sympathy are presented as evidence of moral goodness.
Which 1768 travel narrative by Laurence Sterne emphasizes emotional encounters and delicate feeling over external adventure?
- A A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy
- B Defoe's adventure novel Robinson Crusoe
- C Jonathan Swift's satirical Gulliver's Travels
- D Henry Fielding's comic novel Joseph Andrews
Correct answer: A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy
Sterne's A Sentimental Journey is one of the most influential works of sentimental fiction. It focuses less on external adventure than on emotional encounters, sympathy, and delicate feeling.
In A Sentimental Journey, Sterne uses which narrative persona?
- A Yorick
- B Pamela
- C Moll
- D Squire Western
Correct answer: Yorick
The narrator of A Sentimental Journey is Yorick, a name also associated with Sterne's Tristram Shandy. Through Yorick, Sterne explores feeling, social encounters, and moral responsiveness.
Which term is closely related to the emotional ideals of the sentimental novel?
- A Sensibility
- B Mock-heroic
- C Blank verse
- D Epic machinery
Correct answer: Sensibility
Sensibility refers to refined emotional responsiveness and sympathy. It is a key concept in eighteenth-century sentimental literature.
What role do tears often play in sentimental fiction?
- A They signal moral tenderness and sympathetic feeling.
- B They prove conclusively that a character is wicked and cruel.
- C They mark the beginning of a supernatural curse.
- D They replace narrative action with comic parody.
Correct answer: They signal moral tenderness and sympathetic feeling.
In sentimental fiction, tears are often signs of virtue and emotional refinement. Characters who weep at suffering show that they possess compassion and moral feeling.
Which of the following themes is especially common in sentimental novels?
- A Sympathy for the poor, weak, or distressed
- B Celebration of greed as the highest virtue
- C Indifference toward moral feeling and virtue
- D A primary focus on heroic battles and conquest
Correct answer: Sympathy for the poor, weak, or distressed
Sentimental novels often present scenes of poverty, illness, abandonment, or social suffering. These scenes invite readers to respond with pity and moral sympathy.
How does the sentimental novel usually differ from the picaresque novel?
- A It emphasizes feeling and moral sympathy more than rogue adventure and survival.
- B It is typically composed in verse, whereas the picaresque is typically written as prose drama.
- C It avoids most depiction of ordinary everyday life.
- D It shows little interest in character or society.
Correct answer: It emphasizes feeling and moral sympathy more than rogue adventure and survival.
The picaresque novel usually follows a rogue figure through adventures and social mobility. The sentimental novel focuses more on emotional response, moral feeling, and scenes of sympathy.
Which statement best describes the sentimental novel's view of emotion?
- A Emotion can be a moral faculty that reveals virtue.
- B Emotion is generally treated merely as a comic weakness.
- C Emotion is largely absent from serious fiction.
- D Emotion is relevant mainly to epic poetry.
Correct answer: Emotion can be a moral faculty that reveals virtue.
Sentimental fiction often treats emotion as morally meaningful. A character's ability to feel deeply for others becomes a sign of inner goodness.
Which eighteenth-century cultural development helped support the popularity of sentimental fiction?
- A Growing interest in sympathy, politeness, and moral feeling
- B The slow disappearance of the reading public over many long decades
- C The rejection of novels by most middle-class readers
- D The replacement of prose fiction by medieval chronicles
Correct answer: Growing interest in sympathy, politeness, and moral feeling
Sentimental fiction developed in a culture that valued sympathy, refinement, politeness, and moral feeling. These ideas appealed strongly to eighteenth-century readers interested in conduct and sensibility.
Which feature of sentimental fiction later became a target of satire?
- A Excessive emotional display and tearful moral posturing
- B A general absence of emotional scenes in the narrative
- C Its heavy reliance on themes from ancient mythology
- D Its tendency to avoid representing scenes of suffering
Correct answer: Excessive emotional display and tearful moral posturing
Critics and satirists often mocked sentimental fiction for becoming overly tearful or artificial. Excessive sensibility could appear self-indulgent rather than genuinely moral.
Which Jane Austen novel contrasts a rational, self-controlled heroine with her emotionally impulsive sister?
- A Sense and Sensibility
- B Mansfield Park
- C Emma
- D Persuasion
Correct answer: Sense and Sensibility
Sense and Sensibility contrasts Elinor's self-command with Marianne's intense emotional display. Austen does not reject feeling entirely, but she critiques uncontrolled sensibility.
In sentimental fiction, scenes of distress are usually designed to produce which response in readers?
- A Pity and moral sympathy
- B Mathematical calculation
- C Indifference and emotional distance
- D Pure fear of the supernatural
Correct answer: Pity and moral sympathy
Sentimental novels often include suffering characters in order to move readers emotionally. The intended response is sympathy, compassion, and moral reflection.
Which of the following best describes the narrative pace of many sentimental works?
- A They may pause over emotional moments rather than rush through external plot.
- B They tend to move quickly from one violent battle scene directly to the next.
- C They largely avoid dialogue and quiet reflection.
- D They contain few descriptive or emotional passages.
Correct answer: They may pause over emotional moments rather than rush through external plot.
Sentimental fiction often slows down to dwell on gestures, tears, encounters, and emotional reactions. The inner response to an event may matter more than the event itself.
What is the moral purpose of sentimental fiction at its strongest?
- A To train readers in sympathy, compassion, and humane feeling
- B To teach readers to actively suppress most emotional response
- C To glorify cruelty, violence, and social indifference
- D To replace moral judgment with random comic adventure
Correct answer: To train readers in sympathy, compassion, and humane feeling
Sentimental fiction often aims to refine the reader's emotional and moral responses. By presenting suffering and tenderness, it encourages compassion and humane conduct.
Which statement best describes the relationship between sentimental fiction and the body?
- A Physical signs such as tears, blushes, fainting, and trembling often reveal inner feeling.
- B The physical body is rarely described or discussed at all in sentimental fiction.
- C Physical reactions in a character are often treated as minor and largely meaningless accidents.
- D Heroic wounds suffered in open battle are usually considered most important.
Correct answer: Physical signs such as tears, blushes, fainting, and trembling often reveal inner feeling.
Sentimental novels frequently use bodily signs to show emotional states. Tears, blushes, fainting, and trembling make inward feeling visible to other characters and readers.
Which criticism is often made against sentimental novels?
- A They may substitute emotional display for practical moral action.
- B They infrequently reveal genuine emotion within their characters.
- C They are too heavily dependent on detailed military history.
- D They tend to avoid most scenes of real human suffering and hardship.
Correct answer: They may substitute emotional display for practical moral action.
A common criticism is that sentimental fiction can value feeling more than action. A character may appear virtuous because of emotional display, even without meaningful moral intervention.
Which statement best summarizes the importance of the sentimental novel in eighteenth-century fiction?
- A It made private feeling, sympathy, and emotion central to the novel.
- B It ended interest in character and moral experience.
- C It made the novel a purely supernatural form.
- D It removed women, domestic life, and social feeling from fiction.
Correct answer: It made private feeling, sympathy, and emotion central to the novel.
The sentimental novel expanded the emotional range of eighteenth-century fiction. It made sympathy, inner feeling, moral delicacy, and scenes of social suffering central to the novel form.