Question 216·Hard·Boundaries
In her essay on Shakespeare's historical drama, literary scholar Marcella Tiberio argues that the characterizations in the ______ reveal anxieties about monarchical succession.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For punctuation and boundary questions, first strip away introductory phrases to find the core subject and verb, then check whether any answer choice inserts a comma between them—those are almost always wrong. Next, look at the words around the blank and decide whether the information is essential (no commas) or nonessential (commas on both sides). For titles following general nouns ("the play Hamlet," "the novel Frankenstein"), remember that standard usage does not insert commas between the noun and its title.
Hints
Identify the subject and verb
Cover the prepositional phrase "In her essay on Shakespeare's historical drama" and focus on the main clause. What word or group of words is doing the action of "reveal"?
Look at the noun and the title together
The blank comes after the word "play" and before the verb "reveal." Think about how we usually punctuate a general word like "play" when it is followed by the specific title of that play.
Check the commas around the blank
For each answer choice, read the sentence and notice where commas appear. Do any of them place a comma between the subject and the verb "reveal"? Do any split "play" from the name of the play?
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand the sentence structure
Read the full sentence with a placeholder in the blank:
"In her essay on Shakespeare's historical drama, literary scholar Marcella Tiberio argues that the characterizations in the play ___ reveal anxieties about monarchical succession."
The subject of the main clause is "the characterizations in the play ___" and the verb is "reveal." We must not put a comma between the subject and its verb.
Decide how to punctuate the noun + title
The blank is part of the phrase "the play ___," where the blank will be filled by the title of the play.
When a generic noun (like "play," "novel," "movie") is followed by a specific title (like "Richard II"), we normally do not use a comma between them: we write "the play Richard II," similar to "the novel Moby-Dick" or "the movie Titanic." Commas here would wrongly separate the noun from its identifying title.
So any answer that places a comma immediately after "play" is incorrect because it breaks up that tight noun + title unit.
Avoid splitting the subject from the verb
Next, look at what comes right before the verb "reveal." The full subject is "the characterizations in the play [title]." There should be no comma between this subject and the verb.
So any answer that places a comma after the title (right before "reveal") improperly inserts a comma between the subject and the verb, which violates Standard English conventions.
Match the correct punctuation pattern to a choice
We need a version that:
- Does not have a comma right after "play" (so that "play" and its title stay together), and
- Does not have a comma after the title, right before "reveal" (so the subject and verb are not split).
Only choice C) "play Richard II" meets both conditions, so the correct answer is C) play Richard II.