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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. In Taming of the Shrew, why does Petruchio say Katharine should not eat on their wedding night?

2. What does the fisherman in Comedy of Errors do with Antipholus and Dromio when they arrive in Ephesus?

3. What good do Romeo and Juliet's deaths bring at the end of the story?

4. Who does Bertrand marry at the end of All's Well That Ends Well?

5. On her second visit to Olivia in Twelfth Night, Viola protests that she will never love a what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the marriages that end Measure for Measure?

2. Why is Romeo banished from Verona?

3. How does Pericles end up marrying Thaisa?

4. How does Petruchio tame Katharine on their wedding day?

5. Why does the Duke of Vienna give up power at the beginning of Measure for Measure?

6. Why cannot Bianca get married in Taming of the Shrew?

7. How does Timon of Athens lose faith in mankind?

8. How does Pericles lose Thaisa at sea?

9. How does Helena become betrothed to Bertram in the beginning of All's Well That Ends Well?

10. What wager is involved in the final part of Taming of the Shrew?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Shakespeare's comedies involve betrayal and reconciliation between family members and friends. Write an essay about three comedies and discuss how friends and family members betray each other. What compels them to do this? What is the fallout from this betrayal? Discuss what events occur that lead to reconciliation among them? What does this redemption say about the nature of friendship, family and love?

Part 1) The Winter's Tale

Part 2) Two Gentlemen of Verona

Part 3) As You Like It

Essay Topic 2

Many of Shakespeare's stories take place in the court of ruling people. In such stories - like Cymbeline, Macbeth, King Lear, or Hamlet - the acquisition power is the driver of conflict. Write an essay charting the way power changes hands in three such stories. Who loses power who should control it? What usurper or group of usurpers takes power, and how is this unnatural acquisition reighted by the end of the narrative?

Essay Topic 3

In Stories from Shakespeare, Charles Lamb includes a couple of narratives that fixate on the notion of money and how its accumulation and loss can destroy a human being. Write a two-part essay discussing both of these stories, and sum up the essay by theorizing as to Shakespeare's attitude toward money in general:

Part 1) What role does wealth and the lack of it play in the plot of Merchant of Venice? What characters are affected - either positively or negatively - by the accumulation of money? Who loses his soul in the struggle for money? Who nearly loses his life and is eventually redeemed by money in the story? How is money an ambiguous force in the story?

Part 2) How does Money prove the downfall of Timon of Athens? Discuss how all of his relationships in the story are defined by wealth. In the end, what does Timon believe is the point of money and man's relationship to it? What is Shakespeare saying about wealth in Timon of Athens?

(see the answer keys)

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