Exam 3- English 201 – Fall 2009 -- Key
Part 1. Objective. On the answer sheet, write the CAPITAL letter of the correct answer on the attached
sheet. 2 pts/each
1. Which of the following people does Lear banish from his kingdom? (a) Goneril; (b) the Fool; (c)
Kent; (d) Regan; (e) all of the above; (f) none of the above.
2. How does Claudius murder Hamlet’s father? A) By stabbing him through a curtain; b) By pouring
poison into his ear; c) By ordering him to be hanged; d) By poisoning his wineglass; e) None of
the above
3. 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
4. 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.
5. 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
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. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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 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.
10. 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.
11. In whose soliloquy does a character rename himself “poor Tom?” (a) Edmund; (b) Edgar; (c)
Gloucester; (d) Lear; (e) none of the above.
12. 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
13. 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
14. 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.
15. 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
16. Lear is the king of which country? (a) Ireland; (b) England; (c) Roman Empire; (d) Denmark.
17. What does Edmund reveal as he lays dying? (a) That he ordered Goneril killed; (b) That he is
really Lear’s son; (c) That he was in love with Cordelia; (d) That he killed Gloucester during the
battle; (e) none of the above.
18. What is the final fate of Albany? (a) he falls in love with Cordelia and helps her rule; (b) he is
exiled from the country and lives in disguise; (c) he is killed in the final battle; (d) he is poisoned
by Goneril and dies; (e) none of the above.
19. 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.
20. 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.
21. In the play, letters are carried by whom? (a) Edgar; (b) Edmund; (c) Oswald; (d) Cordelia; (e)
both A and B; (f) both B and C.
22. 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.
23. 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.
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. What image is used most often to depict fortune turning into misfortune and vice versa? (a) the
gyre; (b) the scythe; (c) the ladder; (d) the wheel; (e) none of the above.
Part 2. Who says what? In your blue books, Identify which character in which play says each of the
following lines, then in a sentence explain how that line reveals the person’s “true self.” 2 pts/each.
26. “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is / To have a thankless child.” Lear speaking of Goneril
27. “The play’s the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” Hamlet speaking of his plan
to expose Claudius
28. “Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law / My services are bound. Wherefore should I / Stand
in the plague of custom, and permit / The curiosity of nations to deprive me, / For that I am
some twelve or fourteen moonshines / Lag of a brother? Why bastard? Wherefore base?”
Edmund speaking of his illegitimacy
29. “Neither a borrower nor a lender be, / For loan oft loses both itself and friend / And borrowing
dulls th’ edge of husbandry. / This above all, to thine own self be true.” Polonius imparting
advice to Laertes as he leaves for his trip
30. “Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave / My heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty / According
to my bond, no more nor less.” Cordelia’s response to Lear’s question about the extent of her
love for him
31. “Who would fardels bear, / To grunt and sweat under a weary life, / But that the dread of
something after death, / The undiscovered country, from whose bourn / No traveller returns,
puzzles the will, / And makes us rather bear those ills we have / Than fly to others that we know
not of?” Hamlet contemplating suicide
32. “Thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to care for her frowning. Now thou art an
O without a figure. I am better than thou art now . . . thou art nothing.” The Fool to Lear
33. “Ay, every inch a king.” Lear on his fall from grace
34. “ As flies to wanton boys, are we to th’gods, / They kill us for their sport.” Gloucester on fate
35. “Frailty, thy name is woman.” Hamlet describing his mother
Part 3. Explication. In your blue book, critically analyze and discuss the following soliloquy from Hamlet.
In a full, substantive paragraph of 400-500 words, explain the major images, language connotations,
symbols and themes as they appear in the speech. 30 pts.
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
Extra Credit. Fill in the blanks from this famous soliloquy by Hamlet. 1 pt for each correct word.
To be, or not to be: that is the [question]:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and [arrows] of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a [ sea ] of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die: to [sleep];
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That [flesh] is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To [die ], to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to [dream]: