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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. Trying to determine what Rosencrantz wants to see, what does the Player mention not too subtly?

2. What is Rosencrantz's observation about Hamlet?

3. What is Guildenstern's angry reply to the Player's suggestion?

4. When Rosencrantz begins saying he is afraid, what is it he was going to say before Guildenstern stops him?

5. Why is the Player so happy to see the two men?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the Player's misconception about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

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

3. Describe the somewhat bizarre entrance of Hamlet and Ophelia.

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

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

6. Throughout the play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern never leave the stage. What stops them from following the Queen's attendants to go find Hamlet?

7. Why is Guildenstern so repulsed by the Player's immoral suggestions for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a critique of Stoppard's play. Detail what you think are its strong points and where you think it might have been improved. At the end of your critique, rate it from one to five stars as a recommendation for someone else to read or see.

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

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.

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