Test on William Shakespeare's Hamlet

1. William Shakespeare's Hamlet represents the language and literature of: (a) ancient Greece (b) ancient Rome (c) medieval Italy (d) Renaissance Spain (e) Renaissance England

2. Hamlet was first published in the early years of the: (a) 1400's (b) 1500's (c) 1600's (d) 1700's

3. Hamlet represents the literary genre of: (a) comedy (b) tragedy (c) epic (d) allegory (e) nonfiction

4. As pointed out by P.M. Pasinetti in his NAWM introduction, allusions to and interpretations of Hamlet occur in other literary works, perhaps the important being that by: (a) Francois Voltaire in Candide (b) Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe in Wilhelm Meister (c) Fyodor Dostoevsky in Notes from Underground (d) Henrik Ibsen in Hedda Gabler (e) Kojima Nobuo in The American School

5. P.M. Pasinetti asserts that one reason for the great popularity of this particular Shakespeare play is its combined focus on: (a) love and violence (b) philosophy and entertainment (c) Europe and America (d) individual and society

6. Serious works of Classical or Art or Concert music derived from this Shakespeare play were composed by: (a) Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern (b) Franz Liszt and Pyotr (Peter) Tchaikovsky (c) Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (d) George F. Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach

7. A serious painting derived from this Shakespeare play is Ophelia by the important nineteenth-century artist: (a) Vincent Van Gogh (b) Paul Gaugin (c) John Everett Millais (d) Claude Monet (e) Edouard Manet (f) Eddie Money

8. As P.M. Pasinetti and the play make clear, the play opens with dread or threat that comes from: (a) the outside world (b) inside the country (c) both outside and inside (d) new scientific theories

9. P.M. Pasinetti points out that a link between this Shakespeare play and Machiavelli's The Prince is their focus on: (a) the royal court (b) repressive police forces (c) dominating women (d) the new physical sciences

10. P.M. Pasinetti, following other scholars of the European Renaissance, notes that Hamlet could be categorized among the literary and philosophical works of the Renaissance that have as their outlook: (a) optimism (b) objectivity (c) pessimism (d) pacifism

11. Pasinetti notes that Hamlet is pervaded by all the following patterns of imagery except which one: (a) disease (b) decay (c) facades (d) cannibalism

12. Overall, Shakespeare's play, as indicated by P.M. Pasinetti, portrays a society that is a: (a) parliamentarian monarchy (b) dystopia (c) democracy (d) utopia

13. Hamlet's principal interest in art or drama, as exemplified by the play he arranges to be staged (and also suggested in P.M. Pasinetti's introduction), is: (a) materialist, what the financial costs are of the work (b) utilitarian, to aid or force political actions (c) practical, in all the means and materials of producing the work (d) aesthetic, emphasizing art for art's sake

14. Probably the primary interesting or fascinating feature of Hamlet's personality for so many readers and viewers of the play in history is his: (a) procrastination (b) asexuality (c) goodness (d) cheerfulness

15. Both in the play and in P.M. Pasinetti's analysis, King Claudius is portrayed as: (a) despicable (b) admirable (c) a mixture of despicable and admirable (d) beyond good and evil

16. In the play and as explained in P.M. Pasinetti's analysis, Hamlet's and the play's attitude toward the Middle Ages and its values seems to be: (a) indifferent (b) critical (c) bitter (d) nostalgic

17. Hamlet probably reflects in part Shakespeare's and his countrymen's and countrywomen's current gloomy concern about the: (a) royal succession (b) new technology (c) Scandanavian invasions (d) rise of the middle class

18. From 1949 on, some literary critics, following a certain kind of literary criticism based on Freudian psychology, noted an embarrassing subject in Hamlet reminiscent of one of the more famous plays of: (a) Aeschylus (b) Sophocles (c) Euripides (d) Aristophanes

19. Like dramatists before him, extending all the way back to the ancient Greeks, Shakespeare makes use, as in Act 1 of the play, of which inherently dramatic or dramaturgical grammatical element: (a) linking verb (b) partitive preposition (c) demonstrative pronoun (d) compound adjectives

20. The primary language form of Shakespeare's Hamlet is: (a) prose (b) rhymed verse (c) blank verse (d) free verse

21. In Hamlet, Shakespeare makes substantial use of all the following language forms except which one: (a) prose (b) rhymed verse (c) blank verse (d) free verse

22. Line 10 of Act 1, Scene 1, like other similar lines in the play is called: (a) incomplete (b) half (c) sprung (d) echeloned

23. The form of such lines as 1.1.10 is based on: (a) number of syllables (b) mechanics of the early printing press (c) special grammatical rules of Old English (d) training of the early typesetters

24. Accent marks such as those for "gaged" in 1.1.91 or "unimproved" in 1.1.96 are based on: (a) Shakespeare's special Stratford-Upon-Avon pronunciation (b) peculiarities of the Renaissance printing press (c) number of syllables (d) black magic

25. The very first interchange between Barnardo and Francisco, with which the play opens (Act 1, Scene 1, lines 1-6) [1.1.1-6], helps communicate all the following of the play's themes and concerns except which one: (a) xenophobia (b) identity (c) mystery (d) epistemology (e) life vs. death

26. The very first interchange between Barnardo and Francisco, with which the play opens (1.1.1-6), helps communicate all the following of the play's themes and concerns except which one: (a) power (b) loyalty (c) romantic love (d) time

27. Horatio's very first identification of himself in Act 1, Scene 1, along with his later explanation of how he believes the legend of roosters' behavior during Christmas (1.1.170) helps define Horatio as: (a) military-minded (b) extremely open and receptive (c) cheerful and uncomplaining (d) incomplete and limited

28. The repeated use of the figure of speech antonomasia in 1.1 (and later in the play) helps express the theme of the relationship between the: (a) European continent and Britain (b) individual and community or state (c) cold countries and florid language (d) common laws and statute laws in a government

29. The figure of speech antonomasia repeated in the play mainly relates to the recurrent subject of: (a) identity (b) love (c) Nature (d) youth

30. The repeated use of the figure of speech pun in the play (e.g., all the potential meanings, related to the homophones, of sallied, sullied, and solid in Hamlet's "O that this too too [sullied] [sallied] [solid] flesh would melt" soliloquy in 1.2) in the play helps express the play's theme of the: (a) ambiguity in the appearances of things, which have differing underlying realities (b) inability of language to be precisely expressive (c) suspicion of intellectuals and formal education (d) humor in every detail of life that makes Hamlet continuously happy

31. The repeated use of the figure of speech pun in the play mainly relates to the recurrent subject of: (a) polyphony (b) melancholia (c) duplicity (d) nationalism

32. The oxymorons (or oxymora) in the King's first speech in 1.2, together with the repetitions of the key word or combining form joint (not only in 1.2 but also in Marcellus' speech "Good now, sit down, and tell me" in 1.1.70 ff.), suggest: (a) illegal smoking (b) unnatural combining (c) prudent administering (d) orderly sharing

33. By 1.2.117, a motif that has been established, via some characters (e.g., Hamlet, Fortinbras, Laertes) in the play, is: (a) doubles (b) farms (c) genuflections (d) locks

34. Hamlet's summary evaluation of his mother toward the end of his monologue after king, queen, and courtiers vacate the palace following the king's palace audience (1.2.146, "frailty . . . ") and his summation of what he understands his mission to be from the Ghost ("O cursed spite . . . " [1.5.196-97], which is actually at odds with the precise assignment from the Ghost) help convey Hamlet's personality trait, very much in accord with the tragic hero's, of: (a) permissiveness (b) temerity (c) excessiveness (d) apathy

35. The family that is the focus of 1.3, compared to the family that is the focus of 1.2, is: (a) happy (b) matriarchal (c) dysfunctional (d) social-climbing

36. The scenes with the ghost in 1.4-1.5 (including the sound effects) draw heavily on all the following components of the English Renaissance stage except which one: (a) double doors (b) alcove (c) basement (d) balcony

37. The main prop emphasized in 1.5 helps express the symbolism of: (a) science (b) philosophy (c) art (d) religion

38. The openings of 2.1 and 2.2 help initiate the play's motif, especially pertinent to the subject of the Renaissance court, of: (a) spying (b) dancing (c) sentencing (d) legislating

39. In 3.1, in the arrangements King Claudius has made (beginning with his speech "Sweet Gertrude, leave us too" [line 8]), another backward connection (beyond that one already made in this scene) is made with 2.2 by way of the concept of: (a) filing a legal brief (b) making a military sortie (c) staging a drama (d) playing a musical instrument

40. In 3.2, what King Claudius cries for ("Give me some . . . "), which stops the performance of The Mousetrap or The Murder of Gonzago, has the symbolism of Claudius's: (a) political skillfulness (b) spiritual darkness (c) tender uxoriousness (d) inveterate drunkenness

41. The opening of 3.3 shows Claudius to have all the following qualities except which one: (a) decisiveness (b) political competency (c) sensitivity (d) fearlessness

42. Hamlet's delay in 3.3.72 and the following lines connects with what the ghost has earlier told Hamlet respecting the Christian, especially Catholic or Anglican, concept of: (a) confession and last rites (b) the Virgin Mary (c) the use of holy water (d) the Apostles' Creed (e) baptism

43. In 3.4 occurs one of the most famous uses of which element of the English Renaissance stage: (a) basement or cellar (b) canopy or "Heaven" pillars (c) alcove or study (d) balcony

44. The English Renaissance stage component mentioned in the preceding question helps convey dramaturgically the symbolism of all of the following except which one: (a) erroneous action (b) lustfulness (c) misperception (d) spying

45. 4.5 emphasizes what component of drama, important from ancient Greek plays through modern Broadway: (a) stage lighting (b) impressive scenery (c) expensive props (d) vocal music

46. In Hamlet's last four words, before he dies in 5.2, occurs paronomasia referring to which component of the Humanities: (a) music (b) painting (c) sculpture (d) architecture (d) literature