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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. After trying again and again, what is the score of the game?

2. What is Rosencrantz's observation about Hamlet?

3. What is Rosencrantz's reaction to the way the game keeps going?

4. How does Guildenstern see the way the game keeps going?

5. What assumption does the Player make about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

Short Essay Questions

1. Trying to make sense of their situation, to what does Guildenstern think back?

2. Describe Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as the play opens.

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

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

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

6. Why are Guildenstern and Rosencrantz on this road and what has Guildenstern been expecting?

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a paper on political revenge. Discuss in your paper the reasons Claudius had for wanting Hamlet dead. Also address the position of Gertrude as Claudius' wife as well as being Hamlet's mother.

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

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.

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This section contains 840 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample