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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. Who shoots the workman in Act 1, Scene 1?

2. What does Lear think attacked him in his sleep?

3. What action does Bodice perform throughout Act 1, Scene 3?

4. What is the setting of Act 1, Scene 5?

5. What weapons do the rebel soldiers carry?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Lear say about the Farmer's Son joining the army? How does this show a change in his character?

2. What does Warrington reveal about Bodice and Fontanelle in Act 1, Scene 2? What is his course of action?

3. Why does the Ghost stay with Lear at the end of Act 2, Scene 2?

4. Why does the Ghost not go with Lear when Lear is taken from the cell?

5. Why has Lear chosen to erect the wall? How long has it been in construction?

6. In Act 2, what character changes has Cordelia undergone since Act 1?

7. What does Lear go to do at the Wall in the final scene? Why?

8. How does Fontanelle feel about her husband? What does she say regarding him sexually?

9. Who appears to Lear in prison? How was this character known to Lear before this point?

10. Why has Lear written to Cordelia? What does he hope to achieve?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare Edward Bond's Lear and Shakespeare's Lear. Why did Bond choose to adapt and essentially rewrite elements of Shakespeare's play? What elements of action and character did he alter? Why?

Essay Topic 2

What does Fontanelle's execution and subsequent on-stage autopsy contribute to the play? What change comes about because of this scene? Do you agree or disagree with the choice to put this scene on stage? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Define the term "foreshadowing." What are examples of foreshadowing in Bond's Lear? What is the purpose of his use of foreshadowing? Does it create tension? Does it set up irony? Does it reflect the theme?

(see the answer keys)

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