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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Bloom say is the lesson of "Two Gentlemen of Verona"?
(a) Whatever woman a man ends up with is fine.
(b) Humor is better for survival than love.
(c) Love only brings suffering in the end.
(d) Revenge is as destructive to the person who seeks it as to the one who is visited with it.

2. What does Bloom say is the purpose of Falstaff's philosophizing?
(a) Amusement.
(b) Self-reflection.
(c) Persuasion.
(d) Self-protection.

3. What upsets Bloom about the ending of "The Merchant of Venice"?
(a) Shylock's default.
(b) Shylock taking his pound of flesh.
(c) Shylock's death.
(d) Shylock's forced conversion.

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

5. Who is Queen Mab, according to Bloom?
(a) The powerful mobs of London.
(b) The whore Mab.
(c) Queen Elizabeth I.
(d) Mercutio's wife.

6. What quality do Faulconbridge and Hamlet have in common, according to Bloom?
(a) They are both sons of kings.
(b) They are both unsuccessful contenders for thrones.
(c) They are both paralyzed by doubts.
(d) They are both larger than life.

7. What book does Bloom compare Shakespeare's plays to, in measuring their influence on Western culture?
(a) The Bible.
(b) The Canterbury Tales.
(c) Moby Dick.
(d) Paradise Lost.

8. Where does Shakespeare use the themes of "Two Gentlemen of Verona", in Bloom's interpretation?
(a) "All's Well That Ends Well".
(b) "The Tempest".
(c) "Love's Labour's Lost".
(d) "Hamlet".

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

10. Who does Bloom say is the chief rival for each of the young lovers?
(a) Their parents.
(b) Death.
(c) Their culture's mores.
(d) Their lovers' nurses and friends.

11. What makes "Love's Labor's Lost" one of Bloom's favorite plays?
(a) Loveable characters.
(b) Complex plotting.
(c) Verbal fireworks.
(d) Subtlety of inner dialogue.

12. How does C. L. Barber characterize "Twelfth Night"?
(a) A festive comedy.
(b) A battle of the sexes.
(c) A disguised political satire.
(d) A screwball comedy.

13. Whom do Antipholus and Dromio discover when they arrive in Ephesus, in "Comedy of Errors"?
(a) Their master.
(b) Their long lost twins.
(c) Their wives.
(d) Their servants.

14. How does Bloom characterize the end of "Richard III"?
(a) Fulfilling.
(b) Repetitive.
(c) Disorganized.
(d) Symphonic.

15. What are the men overcome by, in "Love's Labor's Lost"?
(a) Evil manipulations.
(b) Female wit.
(c) Their own desires.
(d) War.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Bloom say is King John's biggest problem?

2. What is Richard III's most famous line?

3. What does Bloom say is the relationship between "The Merchant of Venice" and "The Jew of Malta"?

4. Bloom describes a Nietzschean tendency toward what, in "Twelfth Night"?

5. What quality has made "Julius Caesar" a favorite of the school curriculum?

(see the answer keys)

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