View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what way did Shakespeare make progress as he wrote his plays?

2. Who does Bloom say steals the show in "Romeo and Juliet"?

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

4. What doe G. K. Chesterton say Rosalind is seeking in the woods?

5. For what reason does Hal curse Falstaff in "Henry IV"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Bloom say is the true subject of "Julius Caesar"?

2. What is Marlowe's influence on "Titus Andronicus"?

3. How does Bloom defend "Midsummer Night's Dream" from criticism?

4. How does Bloom characterize "Twelfth Night"?

5. How does Bloom say the relationship between men and women 'Love's Labor's Lost' is emblematic of the relations between the sexes in other plays?

6. What are the main themes of "King John", in Bloom's interpretation?

7. What does Bloom say distinguished Faulconbridge among Shakespeare's characters?

8. What similarity does Bloom say there is between "Twelfth Night" and a Ben Jonson play?

9. What does "Romeo and Juliet" prefigure, in Bloom's interpretation?

10. How does Bloom characterize Richard III?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the role of love in Shakespeare's plays? How does Bloom describe the benefits and consequences of love?

Essay Topic 2

Bloom credits Shakespeare with defining the interior development that we take as emblematic of modernity. Has anything happened, in art or in human culture, that has invented a different kind of human being, or invented different ways of being human since Shakespeare?

Essay Topic 3

What does Bloom say Shakespeare teaches us about the relation between men and women? That women are stronger? That men are? Use examples from Bloom's analysis to formulate your argument.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 677 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample