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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. At the beginning of Macbeth, the title character is than of what township?

2. What do the robbers in Two Gentlemen of Verona request of Valentine?

3. In King Lear, Edmund is the bastard son of what earl?

4. How does Lady Macbeth convince her husband to kill Duncan?

5. How does Julia respond to Valentine's offering of Silvia to Proteus?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Portia save Antonio's life in Merchant of Venice?

2. How are Cordelia and Lear reunited?

3. How are Hero and Claudio reunited at the end of Much Ado About Nothing?

4. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, how does Oberon change the hearts of the Athenian youths?

5. How does Proteus betray his friend Valentine in Two Gentlemen of Verona?

6. Why does Claudio think Hero is cheating on him in Much Ado About Nothing?

7. In The Winter's Tale, how does Paulita convince the king of Bohemia to let her marry his son?

8. Why does Kent have to disguise himself to follow King Lear?

9. How does Oliver try to kill Orlando in As You Like It?

10. Why is Cordelia banished at the beginning of King Lear?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare famously said the course of true love never did run smooth. Write an essay charting the arc of a particularly tumultuous courtship in one of the stories. What two characters are in love, and what obstacles prevent their complete happiness? How do they respond to these obstacles? Do they over come them or break apart from each other? Through this courtship, what is Shakespeare saying about romance and commitment?

Essay Topic 2

In his stories, Shakespeare deals with individuals that hurt and betray their fellow man. These characters have many disparate reasons for doing this. Discuss three such malefactors and their motivations in an essay:

Part 1) Why does Macbeth choose to kill Duncan, his king? What external forces impel him to commit this evil act, and why does he acquiesce to them? Discuss how Macbeth makes progressively more evil choices to protect himself. What is Shakespeare saying about the way evil men are made?

Part 2) What drives Shylock to insist upon a pound of flesh as payment from his rival Antonio? What does his place in Venetian society have to do with this? To what extent does Antonio represent this marginalized place?

Part 3) How is Iago different from the other villains in Shakespeare's stories? What drives him to destroy Othello, Cassio, and Desdemona? Does he hold a grievance against all of them? To what extent does Shakespeare present Iago as a portrait of pure evil?

Essay Topic 3

Tales from Shakespeare contains stories based on Shakespeare's comedies and tragedies. Write a three part essay, discussing the difference between Shakespearean tragedy and comedy, citing specific examples of each in the three sections:

Part 1) What features make a tragedy in Shakespeare? How do they almost always end? Discuss which components of narrative are always the same in a tragedy. What type of lesson does Shakespeare intend for the writer to take away from the experience? How does he impart these themes?

Part 2) How does a comedy progress? What is the traditional ending to a Shakespearean comedy? Discuss how a comedy develops differently from a tragedy, and what it relates about humanity. What parts of the human existence does Shakespeare omit in writing a comedy?

Part 3) Compare the experience of reading a comedy and tragedy? How do protagonists in each of these differ in terms of their objectives and dynamic nature? Discuss what the reader is supposed to sympathize with in each case.

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