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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 does Fontanelle complain about in Act 1, Scene 1?

2. Where did the "wild man" hide?

3. What does the Gravedigger's Boy find in the well?

4. Who is addressing a battle regiment in Act 1, Scene 2?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do the villagers come to hear Lear speak? What message is he telling them?

2. What is the significance of the image of Bodice and Fontanelle as children in Lear's cell?

3. Describe the symbolic relevance of the cradle and the wall. Compare and contrast the two.

4. Why did the Gravedigger's Son settle where he did? How did he discover the place where he lives?

5. Who is the Gravedigger's Boy? What does the exposition reveal about his background? What is his purpose in the play?

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

7. Describe the torture of the captured Warrington. What does this scene inform the reader or audience about the nature of the characters?

8. Describe Lear's reaction to the mirror in the court scene.

9. Why does Cordelia refuse to take the captured soldier into her army?

10. Why has the Small Man come to find Lear? Where has he come from?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the significance of Lear's being blinded? How does this relate to actions in Shakespeare's Lear? What is the symbolism that this act illustrates?

Essay Topic 2

Who is the Ghost? What purpose does this character have in the play? How does he relate to Lear? How does this character compare with Warrington?

Essay Topic 3

Lear makes a reference in Act 3 to Christ on the cross, which contains a certain irony in that Lear eventually finds himself in a similar place to that in which Christ found himself - executed by those in authority as an example to others who would think and believe and act independently. What are other Biblical references in Lear? How can Lear (and others) be compared to Biblical figures?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 912 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample