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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 writers began to write after Shakespeare?
(a) Tragicomedies.
(b) Characters who lived a world with modern weaponry.
(c) Characters with inner lives.
(d) History plays.

2. How does Bloom characterize characters like Hamlet and Falstaff?
(a) Pure fiction.
(b) Creations of language itself.
(c) Larger than life.
(d) Purely literary.

3. How does Bloom characterize Shylock?
(a) As a diminutive Barabas.
(b) As a buffoon.
(c) As evil incarnate.
(d) As a comic villain.

4. Which term describes Kate's speech about the proper behavior of a wife toward a husband?
(a) Harangue.
(b) Soliloquy.
(c) Liturgy.
(d) Irony.

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

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

7. Who is Faulconbridge's father?
(a) King Arthur.
(b) King John.
(c) Henry VI.
(d) Richard the Lion Hearted.

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

9. Which critic is NOT a 'romantic' critic?
(a) Samuel Johnson.
(b) W. H. Auden.
(c) A.C. Bradley.
(d) Hazlitt.

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

11. In what way does Bloom say Shakespeare departs from Marlowe's precursor "The Jew of Malta"?
(a) The Jews are more caricaturist.
(b) The play is more overtly anti-Semitic.
(c) The Christians are as vicious as the Jew.
(d) The Jew is more monstrous.

12. What did "Titus Andronicus" accomplish for Shakespeare, according to Bloom?
(a) Turned him toward poetry, and away from the stage.
(b) Purged his imagination of Marlowe.
(c) Showed him the limits of evil.
(d) Forced him to return to original material.

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

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

15. Viola duels with whom in "Twelfth Night"?
(a) Orsini.
(b) Olivia.
(c) Malvolio.
(d) Cesario.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Bloom characterize "Comedy of Errors"?

2. To whom does Bloom compare Hamlet and Falstaff?

3. To whom does Bloom compare Puck unfavorably?

4. Who is Berowne pitted against in "Love's Labor's Lost"?

5. Who dominates the "The Merchant of Venice", according to Bloom?

(see the answer keys)

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