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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. How does Bloom characterize the love affair between Antony and Cleopatra?

2. What is Bloom's complaint about "Henry VIII"?

3. What pleased Ben Jonson about Shakespeare's "Henry VIII"?

4. What does Bloom say constitutes the darkness of "Cymbeline"?

5. What does Bloom say in response to Hamlet's claim that he was a prisoner in Denmark?

Short Essay Questions

1. What flaws does Bloom say complicate "Cymbeline"?

2. What view does Bloom take on Iago's character?

3. What does Bloom say makes "Hamlet" so fascinating?

4. Where does Bloom say "Winter's Tale" sits in Shakespeare's folio?

5. What interpretation does Bloom say he favors for Caliban in "The Tempest"?

6. What purpose does Bloom say "The Merry Wives of Windsor" serves among Shakespeare's plays?

7. What does Bloom say is the heart of "The Tempest"?

8. What warning does Bloom say Emerson makes about ''King Lear"?

9. What does Bloom say is the focus of "Antony and Cleopatra"?

10. What parallel does Bloom describe between characters Henry V and Alexander the Great?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Bloom says that he values interior development, but what is it that he wants to see characters be aware of? Where does the actual world of lived experience figure in Bloom's analysis of Shakespeare's writing or of writing in general?

Essay Topic 2

Which one of Shakespeare's plays is most promising for further analysis, in your opinion? Which play raises questions you would like to answer? What are those questions, and what part of Bloom's analysis makes those questions seem poignant? How does Bloom himself frame the answers for those questions?

Essay Topic 3

Describe Bloom's critical perspective. What matters to him, and what parts of Shakespeare's plays, and the commentary on them, is uninteresting? How does he justify his focus?

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