Dramatists, Novelists and Their Landmark Texts
Dramatists, Novelists and Their Landmark Texts
Prose and drama together give 3 questions. Shakespeare alone accounts for a large share of them, and the novel questions cluster around a small set of Victorian and modern names, so the ground to cover is smaller than it first appears.
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare, 1564 to 1616, called the Bard of Avon, wrote roughly 37 plays and 154 sonnets. The plays are grouped into three kinds and questions usually turn on that grouping.
| Kind | Plays |
|---|---|
| Tragedies | Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar |
| Comedies | As You Like It, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice |
| Histories | Henry IV, Henry V, Richard III |
| Romances or late plays | The Tempest, The Winter's Tale |
The four great tragedies are Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and King Lear, and that grouping is asked by name. The Merchant of Venice is classed as a comedy despite its dark plot, which is a frequent trap, and The Tempest is usually his last complete play.
✗ The Merchant of Venice is a tragedy | ✓ It is classed among the comedies, despite Shylock's story
Other Dramatists
- Christopher Marlowe — Doctor Faustus, Tamburlaine; credited with establishing blank verse in drama.
- Ben Jonson — Volpone, Every Man in His Humour; the comedy of humours.
- G. B. Shaw — Pygmalion, Arms and the Man; the play of ideas.
- Samuel Beckett — Waiting for Godot; the Theatre of the Absurd.
Waiting for Godot is the standard example of the Theatre of the Absurd and is asked with that label attached, so learn the play and the movement together.
The Novelists
| Novelist | Landmark works |
|---|---|
| Daniel Defoe | Robinson Crusoe |
| Jonathan Swift | Gulliver's Travels |
| Jane Austen | Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility |
| Charles Dickens | Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations |
| Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre |
| Emily Bronte | Wuthering Heights |
| Thomas Hardy | Tess of the d'Urbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge |
| George Orwell | Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four |
The two Bronte sisters are set together deliberately: Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre and Emily wrote Wuthering Heights. Reversing them is the standard error in the Victorian novel question.
Gulliver's Travels is a satire rather than a children's adventure, and Animal Farm is an allegory of political revolution. Both are asked with the genre named, because knowing the label is what an Honours candidate is expected to bring.
चार महान त्रासदियाँ: Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear।
TRE pointer: The four great tragedies and the two Bronte sisters are the two items asked most often, and both have a ready-made wrong version. Note that The Merchant of Venice is a comedy by classification — the trap works because the plot feels tragic. Learn each landmark work with its genre label (satire, allegory, absurd drama), since the paper often asks for the label rather than the author.
60-Second Recap
- Shakespeare, 1564 to 1616, about 37 plays and 154 sonnets.
- Four great tragedies: Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear.
- The Merchant of Venice is classed as a comedy; The Tempest is a late romance.
- Marlowe established blank verse in drama; Beckett's Waiting for Godot is absurd theatre.
- Charlotte Bronte wrote Jane Eyre; Emily wrote Wuthering Heights.
- Gulliver's Travels is satire; Animal Farm is political allegory.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which are Shakespeare's four great tragedies?
Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and King Lear. This grouping is standard in criticism and is asked by name. Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar are also tragedies but are not counted among the four great ones, which is a distinction the options exploit.
Who wrote Jane Eyre and who wrote Wuthering Heights?
Charlotte Bronte wrote Jane Eyre and her sister Emily wrote Wuthering Heights. The two are placed together in questions precisely because candidates reverse them. Anne, the third sister, wrote The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and appears less often.
Is The Merchant of Venice a tragedy?
No, it is classed among Shakespeare's comedies, even though Shylock's story reads as tragic to modern audiences. The classification follows the play's structure and its resolution rather than its emotional weight, and the mismatch is a frequent trap.
What is the Theatre of the Absurd?
A mid-twentieth-century dramatic movement presenting human existence as meaningless, with plotless action and circular dialogue. Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot is its standard example, and the play and the movement are almost always asked together.