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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. Who are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

2. How many times does the ghost appear in Act 1, Scene 1?

3. Hamlet says of Claudius: "He took my father grossly, full of bread; With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May." What does Hamlet mean by that?

4. Before Hamlet hears about the ghost, how does he feel about Claudius?

5. What is the Prince of Norway's name?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Hamlet ask Horatio to do during the play-within-a-play?

2. After the play-within-a-play, where is Hamlet asked to go? Who asks him to go there?

3. Does the Ghost at the beginning of the play talk to the watchers?

4. What is the setting (time and place) of Act 1, Scene 4?

5. At the end of Act 1, Scene 5, what does Hamlet tell his friends about his future behavior?

6. What does Claudius learn about Norway when the Ambassadors he sent at the beginning of the play return?

7. Hamlet says "O, that this too too solid flesh would melt...." This soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 2, is the first introduction of a theme that Hamlet will talk about repeatedly in the play. What does he talk about doing or wanting to do in this soliloquy?

8. In Act 1, Scene 2, how does Hamlet act toward Claudius and Gertrude? When he is left alone, what does he say about his feelings toward them?

9. How does Claudius react to the play-within-a-play?

10. After hearing Ophelia describe Hamlet's behavior in Act 2, Scene 1, what does Polonius decide is the cause of Hamlet's behavior and what does he decide to do about it?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

There are so many characters in a Shakespeare play that it is sometimes easy to lose track of them. Find a scene in which an important character is mostly silent -- for example, the scene where Polonius and Claudius spy on Hamlet and Ophelia. Why is that character still in the scene? How is the audience's sense of the scene changed by knowing that character is present? How does the character make its silent presence felt?

Essay Topic 2

Shakespeare is well known for adding comic characters to his most serious plays. In Hamlet, these characters may include Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Osric, and the gravediggers. Choose one or two of these characters/pairs of characters. Identify how they add comic relief to the script and at what point in the action does Shakespeare include them. How is that scene changed by having humor included?

Essay Topic 3

The question of suicide comes up repeatedly in the play. Hamlet mentions it on multiple occasions and Ophelia's death is potentially a suicide and questionable enough that her funeral rites are "maimed." Discuss the play's treatment of suicide, focusing on the following points:

-- How is suicide presented? Is it a good thing or a bad thing?

-- Are there universal truths about death and suicide, as Hamlet seems to suggest in the "To be or not to be" speech? Or does the play contradict that by adding in Ophelia's suicide?

-- Do you think Ophelia does commit suicide? Why or why not?

-- Do you think Hamlet is essentially committing suicide at the end of the play? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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