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MA English Literature English Literature — practice by topic

Browse 194 questions across 68 English Literature topics. Choose what you want to revise, then open a question to check its answer and worked solution.

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What does Marcellus famously say is 'rotten in the state of Denmark'?Read the answer and worked solution →In Hamlet, who delivers the soliloquy beginning 'To be, or not to be'?Read the answer and worked solution →'Frailty, thy name is woman!' is uttered by Hamlet in reference to:Read the answer and worked solution →Polonius's advice 'This above all: to thine own self be true' is given to:Read the answer and worked solution →

Worked practice questions

What does Marcellus famously say is 'rotten in the state of Denmark'?

  1. Most things
  2. Everything
  3. Something
  4. All things
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Correct answer: C. Something

1. Marcellus utters this line in Act I, Scene IV after the ghost appears. 2. The exact phrasing is 'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.' 3. It suggests corruption permeating the kingdom — proleptic of Claudius's crime. _Source: Project Gutenberg #1524 — Shakespeare's Hamlet — "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark"_

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In Hamlet, who delivers the soliloquy beginning 'To be, or not to be'?

  1. Claudius
  2. Horatio
  3. Hamlet
  4. Polonius
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Correct answer: C. Hamlet

1. The soliloquy occurs in Act III, Scene I. 2. Hamlet meditates on existence, suffering, and the fear of the unknown after death. 3. It is the most celebrated speech in English drama. _Source: Project Gutenberg #1524 — Shakespeare's Hamlet — "To be, or not to be"_

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'Frailty, thy name is woman!' is uttered by Hamlet in reference to:

  1. The Player Queen
  2. Ophelia
  3. His mother Gertrude
  4. All women
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Correct answer: C. His mother Gertrude

1. The line appears in Act I, Scene II during Hamlet's first soliloquy. 2. He is bitterly responding to Gertrude's hasty remarriage to Claudius. 3. Although the abstraction is 'woman,' the immediate referent is his mother. _Source: Project Gutenberg #1524 — Shakespeare's Hamlet — "Frailty, thy name is woman!"_

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