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English 201
Exam #3
Part 1. Objective. Write the letter IN CAPS of the correct answer on the attached sheet.
2 pts/each
1.
How does Ophelia die?
(A) Claudius stabs her
(B) Hamlet strangles her
(C) She slits her wrists
(D) She drowns in the river
(E) None of the above
2. Which pattern of imagery most often appears in Lear’s speeches about his
daughters? (a) clothing; (b) disease; (c) animals; (d) both B and C; (e) both A and
C.
3. When Gloucester refers to “these late eclipses in the sun and moon,” he (a)
believes there is an astrological explanation for the troubles of his time; (b) uses
clothing imagery to urge Lear to “divest” of his powers; (c) discloses that he is
already planning to make Edmund his true and legitimate heir; (d) none of the
above.
4. Who tells Lear that he is “an O without a figure?” (a) Goneril; (b) Regan; (c)
Kent; (d) Cordelia; (e) none of the above.
5.
Which of the following characters survive the play?
(A) Fortinbras, Horatio, and Osric
(B) Prince Hamlet, Polonius, and Gertrude
(C) Claudius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern
(D) Ophelia, Laertes, and King Hamlet
6. At Albany’s palace in Act IV, Goneril pledges her love to Edmund because (a)
Albany refuses to fight the French; (b) Albany has given the order to have Lear
hanged; (c) Albany has given the order to have Gloucester blinded; (d) all of the
above; (e) none of the above.
7. When Lear commands Nature to “convey sterility” into her womb and “dry up in
her the organs of increase,” he is (a) showing Cordelia how much he detests her;
(b) cursing Edmund’s alliance with Regan; (c) condemning Goneril for being “ a
thankless child”; (d) none of the above.
8. Which act solidifies Lear’s trust for his new servant, Caius (Kent disguised)? (a)
Caius finds Lear a place of shelter in the storm at a neighbor’s home; (b) Caius
insults Goneril, defending Lear’s claim that his knights are not rowdy; (c) Caius
201-Exam 3(b) rev. Nov 08
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trips Oswald after Lear has struck him for being impolite; (d) The Fool ridicules
Caius as he would ridicule Lear; (e) none of the above.
9. Why is Gloucester accused of treason? (a) because he attempts to assassinate both
Goneril and Regan; (b) because he throws Lear in prison; (c) because he exiles
Edgar; (d) because Edmund reveals letters showing that Gloucester knows of a
French invasion. (e) all of the above; (f) none of the above.
10. Why does Hamlet decide not to kill Claudius after the traveling players’ play?
(A) Claudius is praying
(B) Claudius is asleep
(C) Claudius pleads for mercy
(D) Gertrude is in the next room
(E) None of the above
11. Why is Kent put in the stocks? (a) Caius refuses to act coldly toward Lear as
Regan has instructed him; (b) Caius insults Oswald and strikes him; (c) Regan
thinks the act may drive her father to complete madness; (d) Cornwall tries to
show Regan that he is not afraid to use his authority; (e) none of the above.
12. Whom does Lear meet living in a little hovel on the heath? (a) Albany; (b) Edgar,
in disguise; (c) Cordelia; (d) Edmund; (e) none of the above.
13. Before the battle between the French and English armies, to whose camp is Lear
taken? (a) Cordelia’s; (b) Edmund’s; (c) Albany’s; (d) Gloucester’s; (e) none of
the above.
14. How does Claudius murder Hamlet’s father?
(A) By stabbing him through an arras
(B) By pouring poison into his ear
(C) By ordering him to be hanged
(D) By poisoning his wineglass
(E) None of the above
15. Who escorts Hamlet on the voyage to England?
(A) Cornelius and Voltimand
(B) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
(C) Marcellus and Bernardo
(D) Captain Vicissus and the one-eyed thief
(E) None of the above
16. Whose story does Hamlet ask the players to tell upon their arrival to Elsinore?
(A) Priam and Hecuba’s
(B) Antony and Cleopatra’s
(C) Gertrude and Claudius’s
(D) His father’s
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17. Which suitor of Cordelia’s refuses to marry her after she is disinherited? (a)
France; (b) Burgundy; (c) Gloucester; (d) Cornwall; (e) none of the above.
18. In Act I, who speaks of “heav[ing] my heart into my mouth?” (a) Cordelia; (b)
Regan; (c) The Fool; (d) Goneril; (e) none of the above.
19. How is Hamlet similar to Fortinbras and Laertes? (a) all plan trips abroad, or are
forced to go abroad; (b) all end up with dead fathers; (c) all pursue some act of
revenge; (d) all of the above; (e) none of the above.
20. Which character says, “I love your Majesty / According to my bond, no more nor
less?” (a) Lear; (b) Gloucester; (c) Kent; (d) Regan; (e) none of the above.
21. In Act III, who is caught out in the storm on the heath and curses Nature for what
it has done to him? (a) The Fool; (b) Gloucester; (c) Lear; (d) Edmund; (e) none
of the above.
22. Why does Gloucester want to go to the white cliffs of Dover? (a) he wants to see
the French invasion fleet for himself ; (b) he wants to warn Lear of the invasion;
(c) he thinks that Edgar is waiting there for him; (d) he wants to throw himself off
the cliffs; (e) none of the above.
23. What happens to Cordelia at the end of the play? (a) she is hanged in prison; (b)
she kills herself; (c) she marries Edgar; (d) she kills Goneril; (e) none of the
above.
24. What happens to Lear at the end of the play? (a) he dies weeping over Cordelia’s
body; (b) he names Kent the new Duke of Gloucester; (c) he takes Edgar as his
“true and legitimate son”; (d) he throws himself off the cliffs at Dover; (e) none of
the above.
25. Why, according to Polonius, has Hamlet gone mad?
(A) He grieves too much for his father
(B) He despises Claudius for marrying Gertrude
(C) He is in love with Ophelia
(D) He is jealous of Laertes and longs to return to university
(E) None of the above
Part II. Essay. On separate sheets of paper, or in your blue book, write a very detailed
essay of about 500 words on one of the following topics. Describe examples from the text
to support your claims. Be analytical, not descriptive. Pay attention to mechanics and
stylistics in writing. 50 points.
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Essay A: Of the many themes in both King Lear and Hamlet, the largest of all
may be the differences between appearance and reality, between what seems to be
and what actually is. With reference to BOTH plays analyze the different ways in
which Shakespeare uses this theme to comment on the nature of man.
Essay B: For this essay, you are to critically analyze and discuss the following
soliloquy from Hamlet. To “analyze and discuss” you must comment on each line
– the images, language connotations, symbols and themes as they appear
therein—and weave together a summary interpretation of the main ideas in the
speech.
O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, (135)
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two: (140)
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion1 to a satyr2; so loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? why, she would hang on him, (145)
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month -Let me not think on't -- Frailty, thy name is woman! -A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she follow'd my poor father's body, (150)
Like Niobe3 , all tears: -- why she, even she -O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle,
My father's brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules: within a month: (155)
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not nor it cannot come to good: (160)
But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.
1
One of the titans in Greek mythology and father of Helios, the sun god.
A grotesque creature, half-man and half-goat, symbolic of sexual promiscuity.
3
Niobe, Queen of Thebes, boasted that her fourteen children were more lovely than Diana and Apollo, the
children of Latona (Leto). Because of her arrogance, Niobe's children were slain by Latona's children, and
Zeus turned Niobe to stone - yet still her tears flowed from the rock.
2
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Extra Credit. 1 point each.
EC 1. What happens to Kent at the end of the play? He says his master is calling him
and he leaves, presumably to commit suicide
EC 2. What does Kent give to the Gentleman who goes to see Cordelia at Dover? His
ring
EC 3. Whom does Polonius send to France to spy on Laertes? His servant, Reynaldo
EC 4. Where is the university at which Hamlet and Horatio studied? Wittenberg
201-Exam 3(b) rev. Nov 08