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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Bloom characterize the love affair between Antony and Cleopatra?
(a) As the summit of hopeless romanticism.
(b) As a political act.
(c) As a nihilistic act.
(d) As a literary philosophy.

2. What does Iachino want from Imogen?
(a) To make her queen.
(b) To seduce her or see her killed.
(c) To marry her.
(d) To convince her to betray her husband's political power.

3. How does Bloom characterize the end of "Measure for Measure"?
(a) A concession to necessity.
(b) Barely happy.
(c) Miserable.
(d) Resplendently happy.

4. What does Theseus give away in "Two Noble Kinsmen"?
(a) His daughter.
(b) His throne.
(c) His lands.
(d) His wife.

5. What does Bloom say the reader needs to know about "Henry V"?
(a) The end of the story, where Henry V is betrayed.
(b) The limits of the pageantry.
(c) The seething undercurrents beneath Henry V's pageantry.
(d) Henry V's true motives.

6. What does critic Hazlitt see in "Coriolanus"?
(a) The danger of political power.
(b) A warning against love.
(c) The problem with family love.
(d) The insolence of power.

7. How does Thersites avoid being killed?
(a) By cowardliness.
(b) By intrigue.
(c) By undignified begging.
(d) By cunning.

8. What does Bloom say "The Merry Wives of Windsor" might have been designed to do?
(a) Propitiate the queen with light humor.
(b) Urge the government to make reforms.
(c) Make a lot of money for the theatre company.
(d) Resolve personal quandaries of Shakespeare's.

9. Why was Caliban suffering, according to critic Browning?
(a) Because Prospero will not adopt him.
(b) Because he is incapable of attaining the beautiful things he imagines.
(c) Because his nature is still too bestial.
(d) Because he will never win Ariel for himself.

10. According to Bloom, T. S. Eliot prefers "Coriolanus" to which other Shakespeare play?
(a) "Macbeth".
(b) "King Lear".
(c) "Hamlet".
(d) "Love's Labor's Lost".

11. What does Bloom say he prefers for representations of Caliban?
(a) A Native American.
(b) A half-human beast.
(c) A black slave.
(d) A pygmy.

12. What does Bloom say Thebes in "Two Noble Kinsmen" refers to?
(a) London in 1609.
(b) London in 1613.
(c) Paris in 1599.
(d) Athens in 431.

13. What does Iago triumph over, in Bloom's interpretation?
(a) Himself.
(b) Conventional morality.
(c) Shallower evil characters.
(d) Subordinate races.

14. Whom does Shakespeare attack in "Timon of Athens"?
(a) Alcibiades.
(b) Christopher Marlowe.
(c) Geoffrey Chaucer.
(d) Nietzsche.

15. What does Bloom say is the center of "The Tempest'?
(a) Caliban's punishment.
(b) Prospero's restoration.
(c) Ariel's liberty.
(d) Prospero's development.

Short Answer Questions

1. Whose philosophy does Bloom say Iago embodies?

2. What is the sentence for Claudio's unlawful fornication?

3. What does critic Marc Shell say Shakespeare is criticizing in Angelo's strict enforcement of law in 'Measure for Measure'?

4. What does Bloom say love causes in "King Lear"?

5. What does Bloom say is the moral of "All's Well That Ends Well"?

(see the answer keys)

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