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

Short Answer Questions

1. Who counters Richard II's character in "Richard II"?

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

3. How does Bloom characterize Richard II's metaphors?

4. How does Shakespeare use "As You Like It" to comment on his own politics?

5. Who is the center of the subplot in "Twelfth Night"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is it about Falstaff that Bloom likes so much?

2. What personality development does Bloom describe in "Taming of the Shrew"?

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

4. What is Bloom's estimation of "Richard III"?

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 was Nietzsche's influence on Bloom's view of Shakespeare?

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

8. What does Bloom say Shakespeare's compare to in terms of world religion?

9. What step does Bloom say Shakespeare took, with "The Merchant of Venice", beyond Marlowe's style?

10. How does Bloom characterize "Twelfth Night"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

What is the role of society in Shakespeare's writing, and what is its role in Bloom's thinking? Is society meant to be entered, resisted, overcome, evaded? How do Shakespeare and Bloom understand the imaginative person's place in society?

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This section contains 749 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample