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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. When Lincoln arrives at the Edwards' home in Act 2, Scene 5, does he sense tension between Mary Todd and her sister?

2. What does Mary Todd's sister predict if she marries Lincoln?

3. Who is President of the United States at the time Edwards visits New Salem to meet Lincoln?

4. In a poem given to Lincoln by his teacher in the first scene, life is compared to what?

5. What is Billy Herndon's reaction to Lincoln's reasons for breaking off the engagement?

Short Essay Questions

1. Act 1, Scene 2 portrays Lincoln's first step toward a political destiny. The audience (or reader) knows that Lincoln will become one of the country's great Presidents. What symbols does the author use in this scene to heighten that feeling of political destiny?

2. Does Lincoln's teacher agree or disagree with the argument Webster makes for maintaining the Union in the speech Lincoln reads in the first scene of the play?

3. How does Nancy Green describe Lincoln's fear of falling in love in Act 1, Scene 3?

4. Ninian Edwards is Lincoln's friend and an admirer, he tells Mary Todd. And yet, he is still unsure what she sees in Lincoln as a potential husband. What does Mary Todd tell her brother-in-law in response to that question?

5. How does Mary Todd characterize the man her sister married and the life they have together? And what is wrong with that life, according to Mary Todd?

6. What is Ann Rutledge's mood when she enters to clear the glasses of the men who have left the tavern in Act 1, Scene 2? Why is she feeling that way?

7. Is Lincoln liked or disliked in the community of New Salem, according to his teacher in Act 1, Scene 1?

8. In Act 2, Scene 4, Lincoln continues to resist running for any office with more authority than the Electoral College. Why?

9. Lincoln is reluctant to consider running for State Assembly. What is his main objection?

10. The informal committee that came to recruit Lincoln to run for State Assembly in Act 1, Scene 2 has a larger political purpose in mind. What is it?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the John Keats poem, "On Death," which Lincoln reads at the end of Scene 1, reflect his personality or philosophy? What does the poem say about life and why does Lincoln seem to agree with it? Does his reaction to Ann Rutledge--later, when she says she can envision falling in love with him--signal a change in his outlook from his initial reaction to the poem?

Essay Topic 2

This play, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, can be viewed as the opening scene of the larger drama of Lincoln's presidency. Many of its themes--his preoccupation with an early death, his sense of duty, his melancholy and self-doubt--will continue through the rest of his life. What new or little-known information about Lincoln, or insights about well-known facts, does the play present that might affect a person's perception of the Civil War President?

Essay Topic 3

Mary Todd is a determined woman, according to her depiction in the play. She settles on Lincoln as a husband over the objections of her sister and even takes him back after he jilts her and is out of touch for several years. Meanwhile, his words and demeanor suggest that Lincoln might have had other motives than love in wanting to join his destiny with Mary's. After 18 years, they do not seem happily married and, when he is elected, they argue. Besides love, what were Lincoln's motives in marrying Mary Todd? What were her motives for agreeing? Was their decision to marry good or bad? Support your opinion with examples from the play.

(see the answer keys)

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