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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 reason for Iago's persecution of Othello?
(a) Othello's failure to be promoted.
(b) Othello's blackness.
(c) Iago's evil heart.
(d) Jealousy.

2. What does Bloom say Thebes in "Two Noble Kinsmen" refers to?
(a) Athens in 431.
(b) London in 1613.
(c) London in 1609.
(d) Paris in 1599.

3. Whose skepticism does Bloom describe behind Hamlet's philosophizing?
(a) Plato's.
(b) Montaigne's.
(c) Diogenes'.
(d) Socrates'.

4. What does Theseus give away in "Two Noble Kinsmen"?
(a) His lands.
(b) His wife.
(c) His throne.
(d) His daughter.

5. What was Shakespeare's contribution to "Two Noble Kinsmen"?
(a) He wrote the whole play.
(b) Act I through Act IV.
(c) Act I and parts of Act III and V.
(d) Act III and Act V.

6. Who whom does Fluellen compare Henry V?
(a) Falstaff.
(b) Caesar.
(c) Alexander the Great.
(d) Henry IV.

7. How does Bloom characterize Coriolanus as a character of Shakespeare's?
(a) More doubtful than most.
(b) More powerful than most.
(c) Not passive at all.
(d) Not very introspective.

8. For whom did Cressida betray Troilus?
(a) Diomedes.
(b) Thersites.
(c) Achilles.
(d) Ulysses.

9. Whose marriage does Bloom say is happiest in all of Shakespeare's plays?
(a) Romeo and Juliet's love-death.
(b) The Macbeths'.
(c) Beatrice and Benedick.
(d) Ferdinand and Miranda.

10. What makes "Winter's Tale" jarring, in Bloom's interpretation?
(a) Its nihilism.
(b) Its hostility.
(c) Its piety.
(d) Its originality.

11. What does Bloom say in response to Hamlet's claim that he was a prisoner in Denmark?
(a) That he is only partly correct.
(b) That he is not in fact imprisoned, except in the metaphor of imprisonment.
(c) That imprisonment is a human condition.
(d) That he is a free personality.

12. What does Bloom say in response to the criticism that Shakespeare copied Hamlet from other sources?
(a) That copying was common practice.
(b) That Shakespeare had bought the rights to the other works.
(c) That he always improved on his sources.
(d) That Shakespeare was not even one person.

13. What does critic Hazlitt see in "Coriolanus"?
(a) The problem with family love.
(b) The insolence of power.
(c) The danger of political power.
(d) A warning against love.

14. What does Iachino want from Imogen?
(a) To convince her to betray her husband's political power.
(b) To seduce her or see her killed.
(c) To make her queen.
(d) To marry her.

15. What does Bloom say is the center of "The Tempest'?
(a) Prospero's restoration.
(b) Ariel's liberty.
(c) Caliban's punishment.
(d) Prospero's development.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Bloom say "Henry V" has been used in England?

2. How does Bloom characterize the match between Helena and Bertram in "All's Well That Ends Well"?

3. How does Bloom characterize the end of "Measure for Measure"?

4. What does Bloom say he suspects Shakespeare of, in "Henry V"?

5. How does Bloom characterize Theseus in "Two Noble Kinsmen"?

(see the answer keys)

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