They're All Dead Trivia Quiz

Answer: Romeo and Juliet

Mercutio, Romeo's good friend, was related to both the Prince of Verona and to the man who wanted to marry Juliet, Count Paris. This made him uniquely able to mix with members of the two warring families; he is responsible for persuading Romeo to attend the masquerade ball where he meets and falls in love with Juliet.

When Juliet's cousin Tybalt challenges Romeo to a duel, Romeo (secretly married to Juliet), refuses to face the man who is now his unacknowledged kinsman. Incensed, Mercutio takes on the challenge, and is killed as Romeo tries to restrain him. As he is dying, he delivers his most famous line, "A plague o' both your houses!" (Act 3, Scene 1).

Answer: Romeo and Juliet

Juliet's cousin Tybalt is shown in the very first scene of the play to have a short temper, and a hostile attitude to all Montagues, as he takes on Benvolio, Romeo's cousin, in a street fight. He recognised Romeo through his disguise at the masquerade ball, and is intent on vengeance for the temerity of his presence.

He challenges Romeo to a duel, which Romeo refuses to undertake, then kills Mercutio. Romeo, outraged at his friend's death, then does engage in the duel, killing Tybalt even though they are now related by marriage.

This leads to Romeo's exile by Escalus, who lays a sentence of death on him should he be seen in Verona again.

Answer: Romeo and Juliet

Count Paris spends most of the play trying to convince Juliet to marry him - a marriage which both her parents support most fervently. When he hears she is dead, he goes to the Capulet family tomb, to mourn her passing (although she is not actually dead at this stage, just catatonic under the influence of the drug provided by Friar Laurence).

While he is there, Romeo arrives and the two grief-stricken men fight a duel, each of them feeling they are defending Juliet's honour. After he kills Paris, Romeo places his body on the floor near Juliet, fulfilling Paris's dying wish.

Answer: Romeo and Juliet

Romeo's mother only makes a few brief appearances in the play, and her death occurs offstage sometime between Act 3 when she is informed that Romeo has been banished and Act V Scene 3, where we are informed that she has died of grief by Lord Montague when he arrives at the Capulet family tomb where the bodies of Romeo, Juliet and Paris have been found.

Her death is described as adding yet another layer of tragedy to the feud, which the survivors apparently end by declaring that each father will build a statue to honor the other's child.

Answer: Hamlet

Aside from Hamlet's father, who died before the play began, Polonius is the first character to die, but far from the last! He is portrayed as a bit of an officious and pompous character; the advice he gives his son Laertes in Act 1 (including "to thine own self be true") is full of commonplace masquerading as wisdom. So when he agrees to hide behind a hanging tapestry and eavesdrop on Hamlet and his mother, it rather feels as if he deserved it when Hamlet mistakes him for Claudius and stabs him through the arras, sight unseen.

This accidental death is directly responsible for those of Polonius's children, Ophelia (who goes mad with grief) and Laertes (who seeks revenge for his father's death).

Answer: Hamlet

Ophelia, Polonius's daughter, is in love with Hamlet, but her father forbids her seeing him, as he is above her station; she agrees, but he changes his mind when she reports that he has been behaving strangely - which he attributes to his unrequited love for Ophelia. The two possible-lovers have a tempestuous time of things, but it is unclear whether Hamlet's apparent coldness to her stems from disdain or is truly a symptom of his madness (whether that be real or feigned being a different issue). While she is quite rational in her early appearances, following Hamlet's rejection of her in Act II when he realises that her father and his uncle are spying on them with her consent, she becomes increasingly unstable, and after her father's death appears to have completely lost touch with reality.

Her death by drowning (described by Queen Gertrude in Act IV Scene 7) when a tree branch on which she was perched broke, plunging her into the river, is usually considered suicide, although it could in fact have been merely a tragic accident. Laertes and Hamlet demonstrate their ongoing antagonistic relationship when they squabble over her grave as to which of them loved her the most.

Answer: Hamlet

Really, this should read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, since these two courtiers always appear together. Childhood friends of Hamlet, they act as spies on behalf of his uncle Claudius, causing Hamlet to become increasingly suspicious of them. When he is sent to England after killing Polonius, they accompany him with a letter instructing the English king to have Hamlet killed.

When Hamlet discovers this, he amends the letter to instruct that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern be put to death, and leaves them to their fate when he escapes during a pirate attack on their vessel.

Their death is confirmed in Act V Scene 2 by an English Ambassador who has arrived to find pretty much everyone (except Horatio and Fortinbras) dead.

Answer: Hamlet

Act V Scene 2 sees a string of deaths, the first of which is Queen Gertrude, Hamlet's mother. She has been torn throughout the play between love of her son and loyalty to her husband Claudius (married quite soon after her first husband's death, which is a big part of the problems in the play).

As Hamlet and Laertes are fighting, Claudius tries to induce Hamlet to drink a poisoned cup of wine, but his nephew is focused on the contest. His mother, seeing him appear to tire, drinks a toast in his honor - from the poisoned cup, leading to her collapse.

She dies after Laertes and Hamlet have wounded each other, but they are both still alive.

Answer: Hamlet

Laertes spends most of the play pursuing vengeance for the deaths of his father and (later) sister, both of which he blames on Hamlet. To make sure he kills his foe, he uses a sword whose tip has been coated in poison, so that he will only need to wound Hamlet during their duel to guarantee his death. Unfortunately for him, there is a mixup when they force each other to drop their swords, and he picks up the wrong one.

When Hamlet subsequently wounds him, he realises that he is about to die as a result of his own treachery. Gertrude proceeds to finish dying of her poisoned drink, and Laertes informs Hamlet that he, too, is doomed.

Answer: Hamlet

When Hamlet realises that he has been fatally poisoned by Laertes, he finally makes the attack on his uncle that he had been planning for during the earlier part of the play. Knowing that he only need wound Claudius, he stabs him - but there is no need to wait for the poison to act, as he inflicts a mortal wound. Claudius dies, Laertes makes a short dying speech before he also succumbs, and Hamlet has a conversation with Horatio before he too dies and the Norwegian prince Fortinbras arrives to take charge.