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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. What do Hamlet, the Player, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern do when pirates attack?
(a) Call for the soldier and the captain
(b) Beg for mercy
(c) Jump overboard
(d) Leap into the barrels

2. What is Hamlet doing?
(a) Carrying a bloody daggar
(b) Looking for Ophelia
(c) Dragging the body of Polonius
(d) Reading a book

3. Back inside the castle, what does Rosencrantz declare?
(a) That Hamlet has given himself up.
(b) That he does not remember coming inside.
(c) That Claudius is not angry anymore.
(d) That they are now done with them.

4. How does the audience know that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern still do not know where they are?
(a) Rosencrantz asks if they are in China.
(b) Rosencrantz thinks they are in a hospital.
(c) Guildenstern asks if he is there and Rosencrantz asks where.
(d) Guildenstern thinks they are in a jail but he cannot see.

5. How does Hamlet respond when Guildenstern asks how Hamlet's mother and Uncle are deceived?
(a) With a line about being and not being which Guildenstern does not understand
(b) By saying they are trying to kill him
(c) With nonsense lines about direction, the wind, and hawks and handsaws
(d) By saying they think he is mad

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Rosencrantz's reply when Guildenstern asks why they would want to leave?

2. What does Rosencrantz demand of the troupe?

3. Beside the two British Ambassadors, what characters from Shakespeare are on stage at the end of the play?

4. When they open the letter, what is in it?

5. Where does Hamlet tell Ophelia to go?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the tragic news Claudius bears when he and Gertrude enter to find Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

2. How does the audience realize that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are really dead?

3. What leads up to the death scene and how does it play out?

4. What blunder does Rosencrantz make over what he thinks is a woman?

5. How does Rosencrantz sum up their position?

6. How are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern trying to figure out where they are?

7. What prophetic remark does Rosencrantz make while they wait for instructions?

8. Describe the funny bowing scene with Hamlet and Claudius.

9. When the lights finally do come up in Act 3, what does the audience see?

10. What transpires when Rosencrantz brings up the subject of death?

(see the answer keys)

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