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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 strange about where Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are throughout the entire play?

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

3. What do the sounds in the background at the opening of Act III suggest?

4. What does Rosencrantz ask Guildenstern about death?

5. Why is the troupe in disfavor from the King?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Rosencrantz initiate a new coin game?

2. How does Rosencrantz sum up their position?

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

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

5. What is the lie Rosencrantz tells Claudius?

6. What does Hamlet ask the Player?

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

8. Tell about the dialogue between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern after Rosencrantz insists they have permission to leave.

9. When Hamlet enters in Act 2, what does he say?

10. What leads up to the death scene and how does it play out?

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 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 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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 746 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample