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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. What happens between Laertes and Hamlet in the graveyard scene?
2. Who does Hamlet kill in his mother's room?
3. Laertes comes up with another idea to make sure his duel with Hamlet will result in Hamlet's death. What is it?
4. When Hamlet first sees Laertes in the graveyard scene, what does Hamlet say about him?
5. At the end of Act 4, Scene 5, what does Claudius offer to do for Laertes?
Short Essay Questions
1. Whose burial does Hamlet witness in Act 5?
2. What plan do Laertes and Claudius come up with in Act 4, Scene 7 to kill Hamlet?
3. Hamlet finally confronts his mother in Act 3, Scene 4, speaking harshly to her as he tries to force her to realize her own complicity in the crime. What happens to change his tone?
4. Who is Yorick, and why does he come up in Act 5?
5. List the major characters who die during the last scene of the play.
6. 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?
7. After Polonius's death, what does Gertrude tell Claudius about Hamlet?
8. In Act 4, Scene 5, Claudius is almost overthrown by a violent mob. Who does the mob want to be king in his place?
9. 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?
10. How does Hamlet suggest that Claudius and his servants might find Polonius's body?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Research the concept of "hamartia" or "tragic flaw." Write an essay in which you explain this concept and apply it to Hamlet or one of the other major characters in this play. Make sure you support your thesis with examples from the text.
Essay Topic 2
At the start of the play, Hamlet is mourning his father's death and his mother's hasty re-marriage. It is hard to remember, sometimes, that Hamlet has actually lost something else quite valuable: the throne. Hamlet never consistently expresses unhappiness at losing the throne, though he is reassured he can have it after Claudius's death. How would the play be different if Hamlet wanted to kill Claudius to gain control of the kingdom?
Essay Topic 3
There are so many characters in a Shakespeare play that it is sometimes easy to lose track of them. Find a scene in which an important character is mostly silent -- for example, the scene where Polonius and Claudius spy on Hamlet and Ophelia. Why is that character still in the scene? How is the audience's sense of the scene changed by knowing that character is present? How does the character make its silent presence felt?
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This section contains 820 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
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