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. How does Bloom characterize the marriage between Beatrice and Benedick?

2. What does Feste do to Malvolio?

3. What makes "Love's Labor's Lost" one of Bloom's favorite plays?

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

5. Who whom does Bloom compare Beatrice and Benedick from "Much Ado About Nothing"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where does Bloom see resonances of "Julius Caesar" in other plays?

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

3. How does Bloom describe the meaning of his title, "The Invention of the Human"?

4. How does Bloom characterize Richard III?

5. How does Bloom characterize Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus"?

6. What play does Bloom say influenced Shakespeare's "Henry VI"?

7. What is Bloom's estimation of "Two Gentlemen of Verona"?

8. How does Bloom characterize "Much Ado About Nothing"?

9. What does Bloom say is the main action of "Two Gentlemen of Verona"?

10. Who are the prominent critics Bloom cites as the most influential critics of Shakespeare?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Are there places where you feel like Bloom got an interpretation wrong, or not completely right? Where would you supplement or correct his insights? Where would you quibble with his analysis? If you can't find a place to quibble, identify the place where he is most convincing, and other critics seem to have been less insightful than him.

Essay Topic 2

In many of his other works of criticism, Bloom describes his affinity for the Gnostic idea that there is one eternal, living moment, and we enter into it and depart from it, but the flame itself stays alive, transcendent and human. Where do you think the flame that is burning in Shakespeare is burning today?

Essay Topic 3

Describe Shakespeare's hierarchy of values. What is most important to him. What is least? Similarly, describe Bloom's hierarchy of values.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 679 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample