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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. Ezra tells Christine there is always ___________ between them.

2. What is Amos Ames' trade?

3. Who is Everett Hills?

4. Lavinia thinks of Peter as a _________.

5. What color dress is Christine wearing in Act Three of the first play?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Lavinia react when Seth tells her that Adam Brant might be a Mannon?

2. What causes Lavinia to think Christine has something to do with Ezra's death?

3. What is significant about Play One, Act Two taking place under the watchful eye of Ezra's portrait?

4. How does the conversation between Seth and the townspeople in the first scene of the play hint at secrets in the Mannon family?

5. What is Orin writing down in Play Three, Act Two?

6. Why does Christine compare the Mannon house to Abe Mannon?

7. Why does Lavinia refuse Peter's marriage proposal in the first act of the play?

8. What does Orin say about the Mannon house when he first sees it, after returning from the war?

9. How does Ezra tell Christine he is feeling the morning after he returns from the war?

10. Why is Christine able to bond with Orin and not Lavinia?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss how O'Neill makes the key thematic point through Mourning Becomes Electra that humanity doesn't change much in two thousand years.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the character of Lavinia and O'Neill's interpretation of her as Electra. How does her character drive both the plot and themes of the play? What is the meaning behind the title of the play?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the use throughout the play of the literary components of foreshadowing, irony and metaphor.

(see the answer keys)

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