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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 does Rosencrantz demand of the troupe?

2. What does Rosencrantz tell the Player about Hamlet?

3. What happens after the Player dies?

4. What is Guildenstern's ominous prediction?

5. What indicates that Hamlet is insane?

Short Essay Questions

1. What prophetic remark does Rosencrantz make while they wait for instructions?

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

3. How are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern trying to figure out where they are?

4. The stage is dark when Act 3 begins. Describe what the audience hears.

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

6. How does the audience realize that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are really dead?

7. What happens when the King orders Guildenstern to go and bring Hamlet?

8. What is the lie Rosencrantz tells Claudius?

9. After a blackout when someone shouts for the lights to come up, what does the audience see?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a paper on how reading a play is different from reading a novel. In a play, how much depends on the imagination of the reader? What is included in a novel that is missing from a play? What part does "seeing" play in the reading of a drama?

Essay Topic 2

Write a paper on costuming for a play. Hamlet has been staged often in modern dress. Why, then, is it important in Stoppard's play that the costumes be Elizabethan? What do you think the costumes add to the play?

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 708 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample