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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 does Guildenstern say will eventually turn the game around?

3. What is Alfred's response when Guildenstern suggests they could set a dramatic precedent?

4. After everyone else has left the stage, how does the speech of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern change?

5. What event does Guildenstern recall as they talk about questions?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the dialogue that shows the confusion of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at this point.

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

3. How does Guildenstern take advantage of the Player?

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

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

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

7. How does Gertrude reinforce the idea that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are friends of Hamlet's?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a paper on why and how there were no female actors during the Elizabethan age. Use Alfred as your example of how female characters were portrayed. Include the idea that Shakespeare himself may have begun his career in the theater as a female impersonator.

Essay Topic 2

Write a paper about premonitions and foreshadowing. Using examples from Stoppard's play, discuss how the recurring theme of death actually forecasts the outcome of the play. How does even the title of the play add to that idea?

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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