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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. What does Katharine do when Petruchio does not show for their wedding in Taming of the Shrew?

2. What relation is Claudius to Hamlet?

3. How does Othello die?

4. What does the King of France suspect Bertrand of in All's Well That Ends Well?

5. What self-destructive habit does Timon of Athens have at the beginning of his story?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Romeo and Juliet's meeting and courtship.

2. What happens when Viola, in disguise, goes to Olivia on Orsino's behalf?

3. What happens to Aegeon's lost son and servant in Comedy of Errors?

4. What challenge does Bertram make to Helena in All's Well That Ends Well?

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

6. Describe Iago's revenge against Othello.

7. Why does Hamlet kill Polonius?

8. How is Angelo corrupted in Measure for Measure?

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

10. Why can Orsino not woo Olivia successfully in Twelfth Night?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Shakespeare's stories can span the range of possible settings: some exist in one day and one location, while others take place over many lands and many years. In an essay, compare the two most extreme examples: The Tempest and Pericles. Which is the more compact of the narrative and which the more expansive? What common plot devises and character types do they share? How does each one end, and how does the setting affect the progression of the plot to this finality?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

In much of Shakespeare's canon, death is not necessarily a complete end to an individual's influence over human events. Using The Winter's Tale, Hamlet, and Macbeth as subjects, write an essay discussing the role of ghosts and reincarnation in Shakespeare. Who returns to the realm of the living after death? When these characters return, how do they affect the world of the living? What is the nature of this return?

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