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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. At the start of Act 4, Scene 4, the audience finally sees a character that has been talked about since the start of the play. Who is this character?
(a) Laertes.
(b) Bernardo.
(c) Fortinbras.
(d) Captain.

2. After witnessing Hamlet kill someone, Gertrude hurries to find Claudius. Who is he talking to when she comes in?
(a) The ambassadors to Norway.
(b) Laertes.
(c) Laertes and Ophelia.
(d) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

3. Hamlet finally tells Claudius how to find the body of his first victim: "But indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby." How is Hamlet saying that they might find the body?
(a) Wait a month till the ground thaws and the grave will be revealed.
(b) Climb the stairs and you will see the body in the lobby.
(c) Wait a month and you will smell where it is.
(d) The body is waiting on the lobby stairs.

4. The first time the audience sees Hamlet after he has killed someone, he says "Safely stowed." What does he mean?
(a) He has hidden the body.
(b) He has convinced his mother to help him.
(c) He has scared Ophelia away from him forever.
(d) He has established proof that he is crazy.

5. Where does Claudius want the body of Hamlet's first victim to be taken?
(a) To the graveyard.
(b) To the doctor.
(c) To the chapel.
(d) To the police.

Short Answer Questions

1. What message is the Norwegian Captain supposed to deliver to Claudius in Act 4, Scene 4?

2. In Act 4, scene 4, while watching the troops and reflecting on his own behavior, what does Hamlet promise about his future actions?

3. How does Claudius die?

4. What does Ophelia say about violets?

5. When Hamlet visits his mother in her room in Act 3, Scene 4, he speaks very harshly to his mother. What makes him stop?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Claudius hears about Polonius's death, what is his first thought?

2. How does Hamlet suggest that Claudius and his servants might find Polonius's body?

3. After Polonius's death, who is sent to find Hamlet?

4. What plan do Laertes and Claudius come up with in Act 4, Scene 7 to kill Hamlet?

5. In the last scene of Act 3, Polonius is killed. At the end of the scene, what happens to his body?

6. Whose burial does Hamlet witness in Act 5?

7. Who is the first person in Elsinore to find out that Hamlet is on his way back to Denmark instead of going to England? How does that person find out?

8. At the end of the play, we learn of the death of two minor characters. Who are they, and how do we learn of their death?

9. Who is Yorick, and why does he come up in Act 5?

10. Hamlet calls Rosencrantz and Guildenstern "a sponge." Why does he say that?

(see the answer keys)

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