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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. Why does Rosencrantz's answer please Guildenstern?

2. What question does Guildenstern put to Rosencrantz about language?

3. When the time theory is disproved, what does Guildenstern think of next?

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

5. What indicates that Guildenstern may also be a bit confused?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What rather unusual encounter do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern then have in the undisclosed location?

3. How does the Player reinforce the idea that the troupe is willing to perform a vulgar show?

4. When Rosencrantz collects the coin that was under the Player's foot, why does he tell Guildenstern that he was lucky?

5. How does Guildenstern continue trying to analyze the situation?

6. What comic relief does the dialogue about home provide for the play?

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

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

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

10. What things are troubling Rosencrantz as he and Guildenstern are once again left alone on the stage?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a paper on madness. Using Hamlet as an example, write about the different ways he appears as mad in the play. Describe the moments in the play when Hamlet seems lucid and behaves like a normal person. Give your opinion about whether Hamlet was acting from madness when he wrote the additional scene to The Murder of Gonzalo.

Essay Topic 2

Write a paper on comic relief in a tragedy. Explain why it is a necessary element in a drama that will ultimately end in disaster. Evaluate how well Stoppard uses this tool in his play.

Essay Topic 3

Write a paper describing the characters of Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and the Player as you see them? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How well do you like them? Can you recall people from real life that are similar?

(see the answer keys)

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