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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. Where does Camillo offer to marry Perdita and Florizel to avoid Leontes' wrath in The Winter's Tale?

2. How do Claudio and Don Pedro indicate to Benedick that Beatrice loves him in Much Ado About Nothing?

3. In what state does Cordelia's army find the mad Lear?

4. Which of the following is not a prophecy the witches make at the beginning of Macbeth?

5. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, what penalty does Hermia face if she refuses he father's choice of marriage?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does Prospero find Ariel in The Tempest?

3. Why is Posthumus banished at the beginning of Cymbeline?

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

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

6. Why does Macbeth kill Banquo?

7. How does Posthumus return to Britain at the end of Cymbeline?

8. What is the problem among the young lovers at the beginning of A Midsummer Night's Dream?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Shakespeare - like all writers of the Renaissance - has a central amount of stock character types that recur in his stories: the tenacious lover, the jealous companion, the conniving monarch, etc. In an essay, choose a character type that recurs throughout several stories. How does this character generally function in the story? Does he or she generally find success or ruin? Why do you think this is? Cite from the appropriate stories to illustrate your essay.

Essay Topic 2

Coincidence plays an important role in all of the Shakespearean narratives. Individuals lose and find each other often, and always at just the right moment. Write an essay three cases of coincidence that are important to drawing the narrative forward in the story:

Part 1) How does Hermione end up in the cave where her long-estranged brothers live? Discuss the series of unconnected circumstances that drew her to this place, and why she immediately leaves it. How is all made right and this reunion explained in the end of Cymbeline?

Part 2) Discuss how Leontes loses his child at the beginning of The Winter's Tale. What series of events bring her back to him with a significant suitor? Were any of these events perpetrated by the repentant Leontes? What is the result of Paulina's return at the end of the play?

Part 3) How does the life of Pericles, Prince of Tyre, mean that coincidence is always a factor for him? Discuss the process by which Pericles loses his entire family and how he gets them back. What factors - supernatural and natural - contribute to this reunion?

Essay Topic 3

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?

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