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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. In what field of battle does Antony proclaim he will engage Caesar in Act 3, Scene 7?
2. What does Antony, in Act 4, Scene 2's terminal line, say he and his fellows ought to drown?
3. What does Enobarbus say is the cause of the "odd tricks" shot out of Antony's mind?
4. Who is sent by Antony to intervene with Caesar in an attempt to prevent civil war?
5. What location is reported as being taken by Caesar in Act 3, Scene 7?
Short Essay Questions
1. Why does Enobarbus tell Menas that that which has caused amity between Caesar and Antony will likewise "prove the immediate author of their variance"?
2. For what reason does Mecaenas imply that striking Antony while the beleaguered triumvir is in his rage is strategically sound
3. What is the meaning and significance of "a Lethe'd dulness" as Pompey uses the phrase in line 27 of Act 2, Scene 1?
4. How does Caesar instruct Thyreus to win Cleopatra from Antony?
5. How does Cleopatra act in Antony's absence?
6. What is the result of Antony's fleeing from Actium?
7. For what reason does Cleopatra send Alexas to Italy?
8. What good does Caesar say that Octavia's letters had done, regarding Antony?
9. Why is it suggested by Agrippa that Mark Antony be married to Octavia?
10. What characterizes the manner with which Cleopatra reacts to Antony's decisions?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
In the third act of the play, the fortunes of the two sides of the external conflict are reversed by the machinations of free will. Examine in a thoroughly-developed analytical essay this reversal of fortune. How had the fortunes of Antony and his companions been positively progressing throughout the first few acts of the play? In what way do they regress in the second half? How is this affected in the third act of the play? What particular actions, and of whom, are responsible for the inception of the downfall of the triumvir Antony and in what do they consist?
Essay Topic 2
A seldom explicitly mentioned theme throughout the play is the fidelity and infidelity of minor characters despite maltreatment and disregard for their more fundamental rights. Thoughtfully explicate this theme in a well-developed essay. How do the various minor characters demonstrate their fidelity and to whom? For what reasons do the characters evidently remain loyal? Contrariwise, which characters forsake their obligations to fidelity, and for what reasons are they motivated to do so? What do these various relationships of disparate levels of fidelity indicate about the fundamental human tendencies regarding loyalty?
Essay Topic 3
In contrast to the more nuanced influences of the play, the direct cause of the play's tragic outcome is quite obviously the external conflict between Mark Antony and Octavius Caesar. However, the drastic importance of this conflict, its political and historical implications, have a drastic influence on the overall significance of the play. Why is the conflict important to the whole world? How is this indicated in the play? What is at stake in the conflict between the two triumvirs? What is the relationship between the greater significance of this conflict and the significance of the play as a tragedy?
This section contains 903 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |