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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 is the one bit of knowledge that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are sure of?

2. What does Guildenstern explain to Rosencrantz about Hamlet's whereabouts?

3. To shouts of "The King rises...Give o'er the play!" and cries for Lights, lights, lights!" how do the lights come up?

4. What is Rosencrantz's response when Guildenstern asks how his leg feels?

5. How does Hamlet slip away from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

Short Essay Questions

1. When the lights finally do come up in Act 3, what does the audience see?

2. When Hamlet does return, what does he say about the body?

3. How does the audience know what the stage setting is in Act 3?

4. How does Rosencrantz sum up their position?

5. What game does Rosencrantz initiate on the ship?

6. What is Guildenstern's rationale for not catching Hamlet?

7. What is the tragic news Claudius bears when he and Gertrude enter to find Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

8. Describe the funny bowing scene with Hamlet and Claudius.

9. What blunder does Rosencrantz make over what he thinks is a woman?

10. What clue is there as to Hamlet's mental condition?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a paper contrasting chance and destiny. Do you believe in destiny or fate? If so, why, and if not, why not?

Essay Topic 2

Write a paper on the importance of dialogue in a play. Describe how the dialogue in Stoppard's play sounds real as opposed to being contrived. What does an audience get from the dialogueue? How is dialog in a play like telling a story?

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.

(see the answer keys)

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