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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 rank has Cassio recently attained at the beginning of Othello?

2. Who does Orsino marry at the end of Twelfth Night?

3. Where does Romeo meet Juliet after the ball where they meet?

4. In All's Well That Ends Well, which of the following characters does not return to France immediately after Bertrand's marriage in Italy?

5. What god's temple does Thaisa go to in Ephesus to be a priestess?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How are both twins married at the end of Twelfth Night?

3. What plot does Claudius concoct to be rid of Hamlet at the end of the story?

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

5. What is the state of affairs between Ephesus and Syracuse in Comedy of Errors?

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

7. Why is Romeo banished from Verona?

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

9. How does Helena become betrothed to Bertram in the beginning of All's Well That Ends Well?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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 3

The role of women in Shakespeare's work is remarkably ambiguous, particularly in his comedies. Choose three heroines from his comedies - Katharine, Beatrice, Helena, etc - and chart their arc over the course of the narrative. Are their objectives relatively constant throughout? Do they take their courtship into their own hands over the course of the narrative? Are they dynamic character, changing over the course of the narrative? If so, what changes them? Is it self- or society-imposed?

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