The Hamlet MCQs

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Author: Nasir Iqbal | Assistant Professor of English Literature


Updated on: November 16, 2025
Estimated Reading Time: 18 min

The Hamlet MCQs

1. Where is Frenchman’s Bend located relative to Jefferson?

A. Far East
B. Southeast
C. Near North
D. Northwest

B. Southeast.
Frenchman’s Bend lies twenty miles southeast of Jefferson, located in a remote, hill-cradled, rich river-bottom area.

2. What ruins mark the original site of the pre-Civil War plantation in Frenchman’s Bend?

A. Varner’s Store
B. Old Frenchman’s place
C. Littlejohn’s Hotel
D. Colonel Sartoris’s home

B. Old Frenchman’s place.
The ruins of the enormous house, stables, and slave quarters are still known as the Old Frenchman’s place.

3. What is Will Varner’s occupation besides being a farmer and landholder?

A. Election commissioner
B. Railroad conductor
C. Blacksmith
D. County lawyer

A. Election commissioner.
Will Varner is the largest landholder, beat supervisor, Justice of the Peace, and election commissioner in both counties.

4. What unique piece of furniture does Will Varner use when he visits the Old Frenchman’s place?

A. Folding lawn chair
B. Homemade chair
C. Barrel-stave hammock
D. Woven rattan stool

B. Homemade chair.
Varner sits in a chair made by his blacksmith, who sawed a flour barrel half through the middle.
5. What is the approximate age range of Will Varner?

A. Late forties
B. Early fifties
C. About sixty
D. Over seventy

C. About sixty.
Varner is described as being about sixty, indicated by the spring of his hair, which is still more red than gray.

6. What unusual quality does Jody Varner emanate?

A. Odor of sanctity
B. Rabelaisian turn
C. Invincible bachelordom
D. Subtle harriedness

C. Invincible bachelordom.
Jody Varner emanates a quality of invincible and inviolable bachelordom, suggesting the masculine singular, or perennial Best Man.

7. What items does Jody Varner frequently deal in at the store, besides general goods?

A. Stolen mules
B. Foreclosed mortgages
C. Sewing machines
D. Football shoes

B. Foreclosed mortgages.
Jody manages the store, where they deal mostly in foreclosed mortgages and oversee his father’s farm holdings.

8. What does Will Varner believe Jody sits at the Old Frenchman’s place planning?

A. Farm crops
B. Next mortgage foreclosure
C. New business deals
D. Family vacation

B. Next mortgage foreclosure.
The people believed Will Varner sat there planning his next mortgage foreclosure in private, although he denied it to Ratliff.

9. What characteristic of the new tenant, Snopes, does Jody plan to exploit for profit?

A. His club foot
B. His family size
C. His barn-burning reputation
D. His trading skill

C. His barn-burning reputation.
Jody plans to threaten Snopes with the rumor of barn-burning to make him quit the farm before gathering time, saving the furnish bill.
10. How does Jody plan to signal to Snopes that the time has come to leave the farm?

A. Tell Will Varner
B. Send a note
C. Lay rotten shingles
D. Foreclose the mortgage

C. Lay rotten shingles.
Jody suggests finding rotten shingles with a match laid across them on Snopes’ doorstep after laying-by.

11. What is the name of the traveling salesman who provides news and trades goods across four counties?

A. Pat Stamper
B. Lump Snopes
C. Ratliff
D. Jody Varner

C. Ratliff.
Ratliff is the sewing-machine agent who travels four counties, selling machines and trading land and livestock.

12. What specific physical trait does Ab Snopes possess due to an old injury?

A. Twitching eye
B. Stiff foot
C. Missing fingers
D. Facial scar

B. Stiff foot.
Ab Snopes limps stiffly and stomps out on that stiff foot; Colonel Sartoris supposedly shot Ab for stealing a stallion.

13. What did Major de Spain fine Ab Snopes for tracking horse manure across his expensive rug?

A. Ten bushels of corn
B. Twenty dollars cash
C. Twenty bushels of corn
D. The return of the rug

A. Ten bushels of corn.
Judge Benbow charged Ab ten bushels of corn for ruining the hundred-dollar rug, reducing the initial twenty bushels.

14. What happened immediately after Ab Snopes paid the fine for ruining Major de Spain’s rug?

A. Ab sold the farm
B. Ab moved away
C. De Spain’s barn burned
D. De Spain cancelled the contract

C. De Spain’s barn burned.
The same night Snopes paid the fine, Major de Spain’s barn “took fire and was a total loss”.
15. How did Ab Snopes escape Major de Spain when caught near the burning barn?

A. Ran into a ditch
B. Climbed a tree
C. Fought De Spain
D. Rode a mule

A. Ran into a ditch.
De Spain shot at the figure near the barn until it ran into a ditch, where he could not follow on his mare.

16. What does Jody Varner tell Flem Snopes he must not do, regarding their new tenant agreement?

A. Burn Varner’s barn
B. Leave the country
C. Get arrested
D. Idle gossip

A. Burn Varner’s barn.
Jody tells Flem that a man with barn-burning habits “will just have to suffer the disadvantages of them”.

17. What item did Miz Snopes save money for over four years before Ab Snopes traded it away?

A. Sewing machine
B. New stove
C. Mule
D. Cream separator

D. Cream separator.
Miz Snopes had been saving twenty-four dollars and sixty-eight cents for four years to buy a cream separator.

18. What happened to the pair of mules Ab Snopes traded his horse and mule for with Pat Stamper?

A. They pulled well
B. They ran away
C. They died in the Square
D. They got swapped back

C. They died in the Square.
After reaching the Square in Jefferson, the mules lay down, “snubbed up together,” appearing exactly like two fellows who had hung themselves.

19. When Flem first arrived, how often was he seen eating his lunch?

A. Every day
B. Never seen
C. With Jody Varner
D. With Ratliff

B. Never seen.
Flem carried a tin pail of lunch, which no man had ever yet seen him eating, indicating his secretive nature.
20. What item did Flem Snopes wear that made his presence ceremonial and unusual in Frenchman’s Bend?

A. Heavy gold collar-button
B. Glazed white shirt
C. New frock coat
D. Minute bow tie

D. Minute bow tie.
Flem wore a tiny machine-made black bow tie, which gave him a look of ceremonial heterodoxy raised to its tenth power.

21. What happens to the money Flem Snopes receives from a cash loan he makes to a village resident?

A. He saves it
B. He trades it
C. He increases it
D. He loses it

C. He increases it.
Flem made a considerable cash loan and it became known that any sum could be borrowed from him if the borrower agreed to pay enough.

22. What event coincided with the sudden disappearance of a scrub cattle herd belonging to Ab Snopes?

A. Flem’s wedding
B. Ratliff’s sickness
C. Arrival of Herefords
D. Barn burning

C. Arrival of Herefords.
The scrub cattle vanished, coincident with the appearance of a herd of good Herefords in a Varner pasture.

23. What strange relationship does Lump Snopes maintain with a cow in the barn?

A. He kills it
B. He sells it
C. He gives it to Ratliff
D. He mates with it

D. He mates with it.
Lump Snopes, revealed to be the idiot Ike, was caught trying to mate with the cow in the stable.

24. Who insists that Eula Varner must start attending school when she is eight?

A. Mrs Varner
B. Will Varner
C. Jody Varner
D. Labove

C. Jody Varner.
Her brother, Jody, emerged “almost violently” as the champion of education and insisted that Eula go to school.
25. What did the schoolteacher, Labove, use his pay money to do during his tenure?

A. Buy land
B. Fund his University studies
C. Start a trade
D. Buy new clothes

B. Fund his University studies.
Labove used the school to finance his legal and academic education, traveling back and forth to the University of Mississippi.

26. What physical item did Jody Varner force Eula to wear during her adolescence?

A. A bonnet
B. Long skirts
C. Corsets
D. Glasses

C. Corsets.
Jody badgered his mother into making Eula wear corsets and frequently checked to see if she had them on.

27. Who was the young man who broke his arm after a fight defending Eula Varner’s honor?

A. Ab Snopes
B. Labove
C. Henry Armstid
D. McCarron

D. McCarron.
McCarron arrived at Varner’s house with a broken arm after being ambushed by Eula’s other suitors at the ford.

28. How long had Eula Varner’s brother, Jody, been trying to prove she was having sexual relations?

A. Five years
B. One year
C. Sixteen years
D. Since infancy

A. Five years.
Jody’s conviction that Eula was sexually active had sprung full-blown and kept him upright for “five or six years now”.

29. What was the name of Eula’s baby girl?

A. She was unnamed
B. Dixie
C. Eula Jr.
D. Mink

A. She was unnamed.
The sources do not provide the baby’s name; Ratliff notes it was “a baby six months old” and a girl.
30. What property did Flem Snopes acquire from Will Varner as a wedding settlement?

A. Littlejohn’s Hotel
B. Varner’s cotton gin
C. Old Frenchman’s place
D. Will Varner’s house

C. Old Frenchman’s place.
A deed to the Old Frenchman place was recorded to Flem and Eula Varner Snopes, cementing the wedding deal.

31. Who was Isaac Snopes’s guardian, according to Flem?

A. Will Varner
B. Lump Snopes
C. Flem Snopes
D. The Circuit Clerk

C. Flem Snopes.
Flem brought the idiot, Ike (Isaac), to the store and stated, “That was Isaac Snopes… I’m his guardian”.

32. What physical attribute of Ike (Isaac) Snopes indicates his arrested mental development?

A. His single eyebrow
B. His club foot
C. His slobbering mouth
D. His plaid cap

C. His slobbering mouth.
Ike is described as having a “slobbering mouth in its mist of soft gold hair” and a “blasted tongueless face”.

33. What reason did I.O. Snopes give for needing Eck Snopes to pay the larger share for the cow?

A. Eck had more money
B. Eck was smarter
C. Eck had more children
D. Eck would get the hide

C. Eck had more children.
I.O. claimed Eck had four children (five total family members), so he owed the larger share for the “moral value” of the cure.

34. What did Ratliff ultimately do with the two notes he held against the Snopeses (Flem and Isaac)?

A. He collected them
B. He sold them
C. He burned them
D. He traded them

C. He burned them.
Ratliff presented the notes to Flem, who took them and set fire to them, crushing the carbon to dust with his toe.
35. How did the minister, Brother Whitfield, suggest curing Ike Snopes of his unnatural cow passion?

A. Water dunking
B. Forcing him to leave
C. Feeding him the meat
D. Praying for him

C. Feeding him the meat.
Whitfield suggested beefing the animal, cooking a piece, and letting the boy eat it, to prove the “partner of his sin is dead”.

36. Who was the other man traveling with Flem Snopes who brought the Texas ponies to Frenchman’s Bend?

A. Ab Snopes
B. Buck Hipps
C. Mink Snopes
D. Jack Houston

B. Buck Hipps.
The stranger riding with Flem was Buck Hipps, described as having a cold, wind-gnawed face and bleak eyes.

37. What type of fences did the Texas ponies prefer to wear out, according to the Texan?

A. Barbed wire
B. Plank fences
C. Hog wire
D. Invisible ones

A. Barbed wire.
The Texas ponies were shackled to one another and the wagon with sections of barbed wire.

38. What food item did the Texan, Buck Hipps, constantly chew and offer to the little boy?

A. Peanuts
B. Gingersnaps
C. Plug tobacco
D. Dried beef

B. Gingersnaps.
Buck Hipps was repeatedly seen taking a gingersnap from a paper carton and chewing it.

39. What did Eck Snopes claim happened to the first pony the Texan gifted him?

A. It ran away
B. It broke its neck
C. It got stolen
D. He sold it

B. It broke its neck.
Eck explained that he and his boy ran the horse into a blind lane where it hit a rope and “broke its neck”.
40. Why did Mrs Armstid approach Flem Snopes after the pony auction?

A. To buy feed
B. To get her money back
C. To ask for medicine
D. To complain about Henry

B. To get her money back.
Mrs Armstid asked Flem for the five dollars the Texan had given Snopes, claiming the Texan said she could get it from him.

41. Who was the man Mink Snopes murdered?

A. Pat Stamper
B. Lump Snopes
C. Will Varner
D. Jack Houston

D. Jack Houston.
Mink Snopes shot and killed Jack Houston over a dispute concerning a scrub yearling that had been impounded.

42. How long did Jack Houston grieve for his wife after she died?

A. Six months
B. Four years
C. Seven years
D. Indefinitely

B. Four years.
Houston’s wife died six months after they married, and he grieved for her for “four years in black, savàge, indomitable fidelity”.

43. Why did Mink Snopes leave his wife and children to go to the village after the murder?

A. To get money
B. To buy food
C. To turn himself in
D. To find Ratliff

A. To get money.
His cousin, who was tracking him, believed Mink had killed Houston for the money Houston was known to carry.

44. What punishment did the court ultimately deliver to Mink Snopes?

A. Hanging
B. Time in the stockade
C. Life in Parchman
D. Exiled to Texas

C. Life in Parchman.
The jury returned a verdict of murder in the second degree, sentencing the prisoner to the State Penal Farm until he died.
45. What did Mink Snopes shout while struggling after his sentence was read in court?

A. He shouted for God
B. He cursed the judge
C. He shouted Flem Snopes’ name
D. He shouted his wife’s name

C. He shouted Flem Snopes’ name.
The prisoner struggled, shouting, “Flem Snopes! Is Flem Snopes in this room? Tell that son of a bitch——”.

46. What object did Henry Armstid use to dig with at the Old Frenchman’s place?

A. Spade
B. Shovel
C. Pick
D. Axe

B. Shovel.
Henry Armstid dragged a shovel “clashing and clanging out of the dog-kennel box” to dig at the Old Frenchman place.

47. What did the magical diviner, Uncle Dick Bolivar, use to detect the location of the treasure?

A. A divining rod
B. A peach branch
C. A hound
D. A map

B. A peach branch.
Uncle Dick Bolivar carried a peach branch, which he used to determine the digging locations in the dark.

48. How many bags of silver dollars did Ratliff and Bookwright each find on the first night of digging?

A. One bag
B. Two bags
C. Three bags
D. None

A. One bag.
Ratliff’s and Bookwright’s bags contained twenty-five silver dollars each, found after the old man stopped digging.

49. What did Ratliff and Bookwright decide they must do with the silver coins they found immediately?

A. Keep them buried
B. Spend them wisely
C. Buy the property
D. Buy new mules

C. Buy the property.
They realized they had to buy the property “quick” to explain the origin of their pre-1861 coins and hide their actions.
50. What happened to Henry Armstid after Flem Snopes moved away and the treasure digging had begun?

A. He was arrested
B. He became mad
C. He recovered his money
D. He opened a store

B. He became mad.
Armstid became profoundly mad, digging tirelessly in the garden, with a gaunt face “completely that of a madman”.

Brief Overview

The Hamlet is a novel by William Faulkner, first published on April 1, 1940. It is the first novel in the Snopes trilogy. The story details how a greedy, tricky man named Flem Snopes begins his rise to power by systematically cheating his neighbors to take over a small Mississippi town.

The story is set in Frenchman’s Bend, Mississippi. Will Varner is the chief and richest man in this area, owning much of the land and the local store. The trouble starts when the Snopes family arrives.

Flem Snopes, a quiet and shrewd man, becomes the clerk in Varner’s store. Flem quickly takes control of the business from Varner’s son, Jody.

Varner’s young, beautiful daughter, Eula, becomes pregnant. Flem quickly marries her. Varner gives Flem the Old Frenchman’s place as a wedding gift. Flem then moves Eula and their baby to Texas, signaling a change in his ambitions.

Meanwhile, Flem’s cousin, Mink Snopes, murders a neighbor named Houston. Mink is sent to jail, but Flem coldly refuses to help him.

Flem later returns and, with a Texan, holds a chaotic auction of wild, worthless horses. Many local men, including Henry Armstid, buy the frantic ponies. The horses cause injuries and immediately run away.

After the chaotic sale, Flem sells the Old Frenchman’s place to Ratliff, Armstid, and Bookwright. They dig for old, buried money rumored to be on the property. Ratliff realizes the sale was a clever, final trick by Flem.

Henry Armstid loses his mind and continues digging furiously for the lost treasure. Flem leaves Frenchman’s Bend for Jefferson, having risen to power through his cunning schemes.

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