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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 the player tell Guildenstern they are more about?

2. What is Rosencrantz's emotional condition as a result of his encounters?

3. What does Rosencrantz remember about Hamlet?

4. What concession do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern make to Claudius and Gertrude?

5. In what way is Rosencrantz defensive as he discusses the game with Guildenstern?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Guildenstern attempt to change the subject away from the coins?

2. How does Guildenstern test the oddity of the coin game?

3. How does the subject of fear affect both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

4. What does Guildenstern's comment that he is afraid today is his day mean?

5. What is the feeling the audience gets from the strange coin spinning game Guildenstern and Rosencrantz play?

6. How does the audience understand that Rosencrantz is quite naive?

7. Guildenstern asks Rosencrantz if he appears to be contradicting himself. What is Rosencrantz's odd reply?

8. How does Guildenstern come across as the more intelligent of the two men?

9. What does Guildenstern say that emphasizes their helplessness in a situation they do not understand?

10. What type of show does the Player attempt to offer Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a paper about minimalist staging of a play. In ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, there is little in the way of background or props. What methods are used to indicate locations? Why does the audience accept this kind of staging?

Essay Topic 2

Write a paper on the tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive. Using the lies Rosencrantz and Guildenstern told Claudius about the whereabouts of Hamlet, discuss in your paper how telling lies almost always ends in difficult situations. Give a real world example.

Essay Topic 3

Do some research on the Elizabethan theater and write a paper on how Stoppard's staging of his play borrows from staging during Shakespeare's time. In your paper include how the Player and his troupe were able to stage plays as they moved from place to place.

(see the answer keys)

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