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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 the Duke claim he is going at the beginning of Measure for Measure?

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

3. What request does the ghost of Hamlet's father make?

4. Who helps Helena plot her deception of Bertram in All's Well That Ends Well?

5. What service does Helena do the King of France in All's Well That Ends Well?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Helena trick Bertram out of his ring in All's Well That Ends Well?

2. Why is Othello summoned before the Duke of Venice for his marriage?

3. How is Angelo corrupted in Measure for Measure?

4. In Pericles, how does Marina become a slave?

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

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

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

8. How is the opening of Twelfth Night similar to the story that begins Comedy of Errors?

9. Why does Hamlet kill Polonius?

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

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

Many Shakespearean stories involve an individual attempting to subvert a social structure: Macbeth, Othello, Shylock, Hamlet, Katharine. Write an essay about three such characters and discuss how this attempt progresses in the story. Why does this character choose to subvert this system? What does he or she want to achieve, and what subversive actions does he or she take? How does this character end up as a result?

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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