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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 the player tell Guildenstern they are more about?

2. What is Guildenstern's angry reply to the Player's suggestion?

3. What strange comment does Rosencrantz make about questions?

4. What are the instruments the musicians play?

5. What is Rosencrantz's observation about Hamlet?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the subject of fear affect both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

2. What type of show does the Player attempt to offer Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

3. When Rosencrantz collects the coin that was under the Player's foot, why does he tell Guildenstern that he was lucky?

4. Why do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern speak differently to Claudius and Gertrude?

5. What does Guildenstern say that emphasizes their helplessness in a situation they do not understand?

6. What is the Player's misconception about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

7. What things are troubling Rosencrantz as he and Guildenstern are once again left alone on the stage?

8. How does Guildenstern attempt to change the subject away from the coins?

9. Describe Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as the play opens.

10. What rather unusual encounter do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern then have in the undisclosed location?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Do some research on the Elizabethan theater and write a paper on how Stoppard's staging of his play borrows from staging during Shakespeare's time. In your paper include how the Player and his troupe were able to stage plays as they moved from place to place.

Essay Topic 2

Write a paper on how effectively you think Stoppard's use of Shakespeare's play works in ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD. Do you think it is necessary to see the Shakespearean play before reading or viewing Stoppard's play? How well do you think Stoppard's use of two otherwise minor characters as the leads works.

Essay Topic 3

Write a paper about premonitions and foreshadowing. Using examples from Stoppard's play, discuss how the recurring theme of death actually forecasts the outcome of the play. How does even the title of the play add to that idea?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 738 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample