2017 Revised Act Three Hamlet Test

Hamlet Act Three Open Book Test 

Act 3, Scene 1

1  What is Claudius questioning Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about? 

a. Have they been able to find out the cause of Hamlet’s disturbing behavior? 

b. Is Hamlet suffering from unrequited love? 

c. Has Hamlet complained about Claudius and Gertrude’s marriage to them? 

2.  What do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern say in response to Claudius’ questions?

a. Hamlet confesses he is feeling distracted but will not give a reason. 

b. Hamlet is not willing to be questioned and remains aloof to their questioning. 

c. Hamlet was most forthcoming in his answers to their questioning. 

d. A and B are correct

3. What was the one thing that seemed to give Hamlet joy? 

a. There was nothing that gave Hamlet joy.

b. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern informed Hamlet a theatre troupe was arriving.

c. Hamlet will be performing that night with the players. 

4. What does Claudius urge Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to do? 

a. to urge Hamlet to continue in the pursuit of these interests.. 

b. to join Hamlet in performing with the players.

c.  to urge Hamlet to continue talking to them. 

5. Why is the following line by Claudius ironic? 

“Good gentlemen, give him a further edge, 

And drive his purpose on to these delights.” 

a. Hamlet intends to use these delights to trap Claudius. 

b. Rosencrantz was lying for Hamlet did not find anything delightful. 

c. Claudius wants to continue using them to find out what Hamlet knows. 

6. What does Claudius tell Gertrude he and Polonius are going to do? 

a. They are going to hide to spy on Hamlet and Ophelia’s encounter. 

b. They are going to speak to the players and have them spy on Hamlet. 

c. They are going to give Ophelia a book to read to Hamlet. 

7.  What do Claudius and Polonius hope to discover?

a. Whether Hamlet and Ophelia are lovers.

b. To see if Ophelia loves Hamlet 

c. To see if the cause of Hamlet’s bizarre behavior is the result of his unrequited love for

    Ophelia. 

8.  What do the following lines mean? 

Polonius:
“Tis too much proved, that with devotion’s visage, 

And pious action, we do sugar o’er

The devil himself.” 

a. That we try to hide ourselves from the devil by religious acts 

b. That we hide our evil by religious deeds.

c. We try to appease the devil by pretending to be good. 

9. What do the following lines mean? 

Claudius: 

“ Oh, tis too true.

How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!

The harlot’s cheek, beautied with plastering art, 

Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it 

Than is my deed to  my most painted word.” 

a. The prostitute is uglier than his words. 

b. That Polonius’ words are like a whip and as ugly as a painted whore. 

c. That Polonius’ words are like a whip to Claudius’ conscience: the lies he uses to hide his sins are like the make-up covering the whore's face.

10. The following line: 

“How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!”

      is an example of which of the following: 

a. Metaphor

b. Imagery 

c. Simile 

d. A and B are correct 

11. Claudius is comparing his deed to which of the following? 

a. a lash 

b. to the make-up a whore wears 

c. to a harlot’s cheek

12.  What is the main question Hamlet is exploring? 

“To be or not to be, that is the question”

Answer: _______________________________

13.  What question is Hamlet considering in these lines? 

“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.” 

Answer:_________________________________

14. “The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” is an example of:

a. simile   b. synecdoche c. personification 

   15.  What is Hamlet considering in these lines?

“…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 wished.” 

Answer:_____________________________________

16. In the following lines what sudden realization does Hamlet have?

“….to die, to sleep - 

To sleep,  perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub, 

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, 

When we have shuffled off that mortal coil, 

Must give us pause.” 

Answer:______________________________________

17.  In lines 68 -  77 what are the burdens and pain of living a long life? 

       

1._____________________  2._____________________

3. ____________________   4. ____________________

5. ____________________   6. ____________________

7. ____________________   8. ____________________

9. ____________________  10. ___________________

18.  How do lines 70 - 76  echo the motif of delay in Hamlet? 

a. The main clause “For who would bear…” poses a rhetorical question that 

    is followed by a long list of of the pains and burdens of living which ends with the 

    adverbial clause - “When he himself might his quietus make / With a bare bodkin?” 

b.  The line is a very long periodic sentence with a long list of horrible ways for people 

    to die. 

19. What is the thing that keeps people from committing suicide? 

a.  The dread of something after death… b. The fear of eternal damnation 

20.  What is death compared to in line 79?

a. a shore  b. a distant traveler c. an undiscovered country

21.  Paraphrase the following lines in contemporary English? 

“…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?” 

22. In line 83, the word “conscience” might be taken to mean:

a. guilt b. thought c. awareness

23. How do the following lines support the motif of waiting and procrastination in Hamlet? 

“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, / And thus the native hue of resolution/

Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought / And enterprises of great pitch and  

             moment / With this regard their currents turn awry / And lose the name of action.” 

a. Over thinking or contemplation weakens the strength and resolution to carry out 

    great and important deeds. 

b. Too much thinking can make someone too sick to carry out attacks. 

24.  The quotation in question 23 is an example of which figurative language? 

a. personification b. extended metaphor c. simile 

24.  The quotation compares human action to:

a. a ship on a current b. a military action c. a futile activity 

25.  What examples of figurative language are found in the  italicized phrases in the following 

       lines spoken by Ophelia?

“My honored lord, you know right well you did, / And with them words of so sweet

breath composed / As made the things more rich. Their perfume lost, / Take these 

             again, for to the noble mind / Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.

a. Personification b. Simile c. Imagery d. Extended metaphor 

e. C and D 

26. “Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind” is an example of: 

a. Simile b. Irony c. Personification d. Synecdoche

27.  Why is Ophelia returning gifts given to her by Hamlet? 

a. Her father has ordered her to return the gifts. 

b. The returning of the presents would give her a reason to talk to Hamlet 

                while her father and Claudius watch. 

c. Both a and b

28.  What is Hamlet saying about beauty and honesty in the following lines: 

“That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty.” 

Ophelia: “Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?’ 

Hamlet: “Ay truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is

                           a bawd, than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness.” 

Hamlet: “….for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it….” 

Answer:__________________________________________________________________

            _________________________________________________________________________. 

29. Analyze the following lines by Hamlet. What is he saying about men? 

“…Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I 

could accuse me of such things, that it were better my mother had not borne me. I am 

very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offenses at my beck than I have thoughts 

to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should 

such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves all. 

Believe none of us.” 

Answer: __________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________.

30.  The phrase is an example of which of the following:

“I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry.”

a. Imagery  b. Allusion c. Metaphor d. Personification 

31.  The  phrase below is an example of which of the following: 

“Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow…”

a. Personification b. Allusion c. Simile d. Metaphor

32.       In the phrase, “Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape 

calumny….” Hamlet is wishing Ophelia: 

a. to be cold, unloving, and frigid in marriage  

b. that despite being chaste, she should still have malicious lies told about her. 

c. to be a chaste and virtuous wife 

d. Both A and B 

33. What is Hamlet threatening in the following lines: 

“I say we will have no mo marriages. Those that are married already, all but one shall 

live, the rest shall keep as they are….” 

Answer: ______________________________________________________________

34. The italicized phrase is which of the following: 

“That I of ladies most deject and wretched, 

That sucked the honey of his music vows.

a. imagery and metaphor b. personification and allusion c. synecdoche

35. The italicized phrase is which of the following: 

“Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,

Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh….”

a. metonymy b. simile and imagery c. metaphor and allusion 

36. What does Ophelia think is the cause of Hamlet’s behavior? 

“Oh, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown….

Now see that noble and most sovereign reason

Like sweet bells jangled, out of time and harsh; 

That unmatched form and feature of blown youth 

Blasted with ecstasy.” 

Answer:_________________________________________________________

37. What is Claudius’ opinion regarding Hamlet’s sanity and behavior? 

a. Hamlet is mad from unrequited love for Ophelia 

b. Hamlet is mad but not in love with Ophelia 

c. Hamlet is not insane and not in love with Ophelia. 

38. “There’s something in his soul 

        O’er which his melancholy sits on brood, 

        And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose 

        Will be some danger.” 

        Claudius’ lines compare Hamlet’s melancholy or obsession to: 

a. something that is incubating and when it hatches it will be dangerous.

b. something in his soul which really is not to be concerned about 

c. when the cause is discovered for his depression, then he can be helped. 

39.  After secretly observing Hamlet, Claudius has decided to take which course of

       action: 

Answer: _________________________________________________________.

40. The reasons Claudius gives for his decision regarding Hamlet are: 

a. Hamlet will demand the protection money England owes Denmark.

b. The change of scenery: the sea and a different country will lift his depression.

c. He will have Hamlet killed and that will discharge the English’s king’s debt 

d. A and B are the correct answers.

41. What is Polonius’ opinion regarding the cause of Hamlet’s behavior?

Answer: ______________________________________________________

42. What is Polonius’ attitude toward Ophelia after her scene with Hamlet? 

Answer:______________________________________________________

43.  What is Polonius’ suggestion to Claudius regarding Hamlet? 

a. After the play, the Queen speak firmly to Hamlet in her chambers while

    Polonius hides and listens. 

b. Hamlet be dispatched immediately to England with himself as a chaperone.

c. Hamlet should be kept locked in his own chambers and under twenty-four hour

    supervision.