Shuehorn and the Questionable Query Quiz

Answer: Hamlet in "Hamlet"

These immortal lines are spoken by Hamlet in the play of the same name in one of the most famous soliloquies of all time. An interesting note is that most soliloquies are spoken while the character is alone on stage, but in this case, Ophelia is present, she just can't get a word in edgewise!

The full text is as follows:

"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: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of disprized love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd 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?
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."

http://www.monologuearchive.com/s/shakespeare_001.html

Answer: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" caused a commotion when it first came out, due to the subject matter and the biting dialogue.

Here is the full text of George's diatribe that was partially quoted above:

"You take the trouble to construct a civilization...to build a society based on the principles of...you make government and art, and realize that they are, must be, both the same...you bring things to the saddest of all points...to the point where there is something to lose...then all at once, through all the music, through all the sensible sounds of men building, attempting, comes the Dies Irae. And what is it? What does the trumpet sound? Up yours."

The most famous rendering of the play is probably the movie version by Elizabeth Taylor as Martha and Richard Burton as George.

The other three titles are works by Albee as well, though the real title of his work is "The Death of Bessie Smith" not "Who Killed Bessie Smith?" I changed that one to make it look like a question.

Albee celebrated his 80th birthday in 2008 and directed a revival of two of his plays in an off-Broadway production at the Cherry Lane Theater in New York that same year.

Answer: Oleanna

All of these are plays by Mamet, but the one in which an insecure female college student ends up ruining the career of a college professor (justly or unjustly, depending on your point of view) is "Oleanna." One reviewer said that no matter which side you are on, you're wrong, and this controversial work does inspire strong reactions in its audiences.

Answer: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead"

"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" takes two minor characters from Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and makes them the protagonists of the story, including all of the dialogue that exists in the bard's work, but adding other scenes and background to turn the story inside out. I once had the good fortune to see this play staged at the same time and on the same set with the same actors as Hamlet.

It is the best known of Stoppard's works.

Answer: The Tempest

Prospero says this to his daughter Miranda in this stormy play by William Shakespeare. This is one of the many works of Shakespeare that examines the difficulties of parent-child relationships, likening the father's power to that of God and the tragic outcome of their interactions to the frailty of human nature.

Answer: False

The quote is from "The Picture of Dorian Gray," which is indeed a work by Oscar Wilde, but it was actually his only novel. Wilde did not write it as a stage play. It was later adapted for the film and theater, with the first stage production in the 1970s. It is often mistakenly referred to as "The Portrait of Dorian Gray."

Answer: Macbeth in "Macbeth"

The full text of Macbeth's tormented speech is as follows:

"Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?"

He was hallucinating with guilt before committing the murder... Probably should have reconsidered, but then the tragedy would not have been a tragedy!

Answer: False

The actual title to the stage play is "Six Characters in Search of an Author". "The Simpsons" show did a satire on this called "Five Characters in Search of an Author." The original work, a satire rejecting traditional dramatic works, was performed in Italian and later translated to many languages, including English.

Answer: Twelve Angry Men

The original presentation of "Twelve Angry Men" was actually a 51-minute televised play, or teleplay, by Reginald Rose. After the success of this launch, Rose was able to expand it and adapt it for the stage.

Sidney Lumet later made the first screen adaptation of the work. The characters were all identified simply as Jurors with their Juror numbers.

"The Journey to Justice" was a play about the assassination of RFK.

"The Trial" is a story by Kafka about the immoral nature of the justice system.

"Waiting for Godot," by Samuel Beckett, also deals with the theme of frustrated justice, but not in a courtroom setting.

Answer: Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet"

Romeo's full speech reads as follows:

"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she."

The second line gives the speaker's identity away. This is one of Shakespeare's best loved works, and one that has been updated and modernized many times.