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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who does Proteus drive into exile?
(a) Silvia.
(b) Launce.
(c) Valentine.
(d) Julia.

2. How does Bloom characterize "Much Ado About Nothing"?
(a) A disorganized jumble.
(b) Shakespeare's most perfect play.
(c) Nietzschean.
(d) A Biblical comedy.

3. How does the play resolve the tension between Oberon and Titania?
(a) They negotiate peace.
(b) They depart.
(c) They reconcile.
(d) They die.

4. How does Bloom characterize "Romeo and Juliet"?
(a) Top-heavy.
(b) Absurd.
(c) Bittersweet.
(d) Heart-breaking.

5. For what reason does Hal curse Falstaff in "Henry IV"?
(a) For debasing his character.
(b) For inconsistency.
(c) For losing the throne for him.
(d) For corrupting his youth.

6. What charge does Bloom defend the faeries in "Midsummer Night's Dream" from?
(a) That they are proto-human.
(b) That they are arbitrary.
(c) That they are super-human.
(d) That they are archetypes.

7. What does Bloom reiterate about Christopher Marlowe?
(a) That he was older than Shakespeare.
(b) That he drank heavily while writing.
(c) That he was a youngest son.
(d) That he was murdered by English government agents.

8. Who was NOT a contemporary of Shakespeare's?
(a) Ben Jonson.
(b) John Fletcher.
(c) William Chaucer.
(d) Christopher Marlowe.

9. What does Bloom say almost overwhelms him about "Richard III"?
(a) The Marlovian influence.
(b) The seduction scene.
(c) The soliloquies.
(d) The battle scene.

10. How does Bloom characterize "Julius Caesar"?
(a) As a warning against ambition.
(b) As the tragedy of the Senate.
(c) As the tragedy of Brutus.
(d) As the tragedy of all politics.

11. What gets better as the king's fate gets worse in "Richard II"?
(a) The king's patience.
(b) The king's poetry.
(c) The king's heart.
(d) The king's insight.

12. How does Bloom characterize "Comedy of Errors"?
(a) As Shakespeare's least organized play.
(b) As Shakespeare's longest, most complicated play.
(c) As Shakespeare's most playful play.
(d) As Shakespeare's most unified play.

13. What is it about "Richard III" that leaves Bloom dissatisfied?
(a) The lack of strong motivations for Richard.
(b) The lack of inner dialogue.
(c) The improbability of Lady Anne's seduction.
(d) The excess of self-consciousness in the characters.

14. How does Bloom characterize the character of Richard III?
(a) A lamentable error.
(b) A parody of himself.
(c) A distortion of history.
(d) A monstrosity.

15. Who claims that Shakespeare invented the human personality?
(a) Hamlet.
(b) Harold Bloom.
(c) T. S. Eliot.
(d) Samuel Johnson.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Bloom say writers began to write after Shakespeare?

2. How is Joan of Arc depicted in "Henry VI", in Bloom's account?

3. What does Bloom say Samuel Johnson dreaded to see in Shakespeare's plays?

4. How does Bloom characterize "Two Gentlemen of Verona"?

5. What complicates the action of "Two Gentlemen of Verona", according to Bloom?

(see the answer keys)

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