Quiz The Eights Joanna Miller

The Eights Quiz: Test Your Knowledge of Joanna Miller's Novel

The Eights Quiz: Test Your Knowledge of Joanna Miller's Novel 1920s Oxford comes alive in Joanna Miller's The Eights, a story of four women—Beatrice, Marianne, Dora, and Otto—who meet at St. Hugh's College during the first year women are admitted to degrees. This quiz spans the entire novel, from the matriculation ceremony to the secrets revealed in the final chapters. Whether you're a first-time reader or revisiting the story, these 20 questions will challenge your recall of plot, character, theme, and symbol. When you're done, check your answers against the key below. For deeper analysis, see the book overview or the ending explained.

Plot & Sequence (Questions 1–8)

1. What historic event takes place on October 7, 1920, at Oxford?

  • A) Women are first allowed to vote in university elections

  • B) Women students matriculate as full undergraduates for the first time

  • C) The first women's college is founded

  • D) Women are admitted to the Oxford Union

2. What happens to Marianne during the walk to the Divinity School on matriculation day?

  • A) She faints from heat

  • B) A Balliol freshman trips and knocks her to the pavement

  • C) She loses her academic gown

  • D) She is mocked through a megaphone

3. After tea at the Good Luck Tea Rooms, what does Otto do that surprises the others?

  • A) She leaves a generous tip and pockets a teaspoon

  • B) She pays for everyone's meal

  • C) She invites the waitress to visit St. Hugh's

  • D) She reveals she knows the Master of Balliol

4. What is the outcome of Dora's first Responsions examinations?

  • A) She passes both mathematics and Latin

  • B) She fails both subjects

  • C) She passes Latin but must resit mathematics

  • D) She is exempted from further exams

5. What incident disrupts the picnic in University Parks in Chapter 8?

  • A) A sudden thunderstorm

  • B) A convalescent officer suffers a breakdown and strips naked

  • C) A group of male students steals their picnic basket

  • D) Miss Stroud falls into the river

6. During the séance in Otto's room, what does Otto do with the Ouija board?

  • A) She throws it out the window

  • B) She burns it in the grate

  • C) She hides it under her bed

  • D) She gives it to Marianne

7. After being rusticated, what does Dora do in her room?

  • A) She writes a letter of apology to Miss Jourdain

  • B) She cuts off her waist-length hair and burns Charles's photograph

  • C) She packs her trunk and leaves immediately without saying goodbye

  • D) She decides to confront Charles Baker that night

8. What does Marianne confess to Otto during the Summer Eights rowing event?

  • A) She is in love with Henry Hadley

  • B) She had a child with Thomas Ward and gave birth to a daughter

  • C) She has been lying about her father's health

  • D) She plans to leave Oxford at the end of term

Character Motivation (Questions 9–13)

9. Why does Beatrice decide to come to Oxford?

  • A) To follow in her mother's footsteps as a suffragette

  • B) To escape her mother's dominance and pursue her own intellectual life

  • C) To find a wealthy husband

  • D) To become a typist in the civil service

10. Why does Otto fail her VAD nursing probation?

  • A) She is caught stealing supplies

  • B) She suffers a mental collapse and is put on sick leave

  • C) She refuses to follow orders

  • D) She is reassigned to driving without her consent

11. On the first day of matriculation, why does Marianne consider abandoning her degree?

  • A) She is overwhelmed by the ceremony

  • B) She feels ill and homesick, and thinks about the lies she has told her father

  • C) She is angry at the Balliol men's harassment

  • D) She realizes she cannot afford the fees

12. Why does Marianne keep her marriage and daughter a secret from her friends?

  • A) She is ashamed of marrying a working-class soldier

  • B) She fears scandal and wants to secure her education and future

  • C) She promised her mother-in-law she would never tell anyone

  • D) She believes her friends would not understand her grief

13. Why does Charles Baker let Dora believe he is dead?

  • A) He was ashamed of his injuries

  • B) He thought it kinder to cut emotional ties and start a new life

  • C) He was forced to by his commanding officer

  • D) He wanted to test Dora's loyalty

Theme & Symbol (Questions 14–17)

14. What does the number eight symbolize throughout the novel?

  • A) The number of women in the first matriculating class

  • B) Friendship, luck, and rebirth

  • C) The eight terms of an Oxford degree

  • D) The number of war casualties in the group's families

15. What does the suffragette penny represent for Beatrice?

  • A) Her mother's political legacy and the persistence needed for change

  • B) A lucky charm to pass exams

  • C) The cost of her education

  • D) A reminder of the 1912 rally where she was assaulted

16. What does the bee orchid symbolize in Dora's return to Oxford?

  • A) The fragility of life

  • B) Self-pollination, independence, and second chances

  • C) The beauty of the English countryside

  • D) The sting of betrayal

17. What does the octagonal war memorial on St. Giles' represent to the women?

  • A) The eight friends who died in the war

  • B) Rebirth and the everyday language of loss

  • C) The eight years since the war began

  • D) The eight colleges that admitted women

Synthesis (Questions 18–20)

18. How do the four women's wartime experiences shape their friendship?

  • A) They avoid discussing the war to keep their friendship light

  • B) Their shared grief and trauma create a deep bond of mutual understanding

  • C) They compete over who suffered the most

  • D) The war makes them distrustful of men, so they rely only on each other

**19. In what way does the novel challenge the concept of

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