A Midsummer Night's Dream Test, Answer Key, Essay Rubric, and Study Guide

Use this test to evaluate students' knowledge of William Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. The exam addresses essential character details, significant plot points, and relevant literary devices. Additionally, students will explore the development of theme and evaluate whether Shakespeare intended for his audience to approach the play's moral very seriously. A test prep study guide, answer key, and standards-based essay rubric are included. Materials are delivered in editable Word Document and printable PDF formats. (Alternatively, a self-grading Google Drive option is available.) A breakdown of exam content follows.

Students will demonstrate knowledge of characters including the following:

• Bottom

• Demetrius

• Egeus

• Helena

• Hermia

• Hippolyta

• Lysander

• Oberon

• Peaseblossom, Moth, Cobweb, and Mustardseed

• Philostrate

• Puck

• Pyramus

• Quince

• Starveling, Snout, Snug, and Flute

• Theseus

• Titania

Students will demonstrate knowledge of key plot points including the following:

• Egeus' attitude toward women

• The choices Hermia has according to Theseus

• Whether and/or how Theseus' feelings change concerning Hermia’s punishment

• The history of Helena and Hermia's relationship

• How Bottom's play-performer peers react to his disappearance

• Lysander's feelings toward Demetrius

• Tensions between Oberon and Puck

• How much time the story encompasses

• Bottom's advice to his play-performer peers after he returns

• The content of the play-within-a-play

Students will demonstrate knowledge of the context of several quotations:

• Examine well your blood (Act 1.1).

• I will move storms (Act 1.2).

• Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase; / The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind / Makes speed to catch the tiger (Act 2.1).

• I am your spaniel (Act 2.1).

• Things growing are not ripe until their season, / So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason (Act 2.2).

• The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace (Act 2.2).

• I will purge thy mortal grossness so / That thou shalt like an airy spirit go (Act 3.1).

• And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch! / Could not a worm, an adder, do so much? (Act 3.2).

• But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food (Act 4.1).

• Now it is the time of night / That the graves all gaping wide, / Every one lets forth his sprite, / In the church-way paths to glide (Act 5).

Students will apply knowledge of literary devices including the following:

• Allusion

• Epiphany

• Hyperbole

• Metaphor

• Personification

• Simile

• Situational irony

• Verbal irony

Finally, students will generate an essay in which they articulate a significant theme and explore how it is developed over the course of the play. They will evaluate whether Shakespeare wanted his audience to approach the play's moral very seriously, defending their claim with textual evidence.

Materials are available for teaching a variety of Shakespeare's plays:

• Hamlet - Google and printable

• Julius Caesar - Google and printable

• King Lear - Google and printable

• Macbeth - Google and printable

• Much Ado About Nothing - Google and printable

• Othello - Google and printable

• Romeo and Juliet - Google and printable

• The Merchant of Venice - Google and printable

• The Taming of the Shrew - Google and printable

• The Tempest - Google and printable

* This resource is also included in a whole store growing bundle.