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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How is Haemon related to Antigone?
(a) He is her brother.
(b) He is her sister's fiance.
(c) He is her fiance.
(d) They have no connection.

2. In Part 3, what did Antigone borrow from Ismene?
(a) Ismene's dress.
(b) All of the answers are correct.
(c) Ismene's makeup and perfume.
(d) Ismene's jewelry.

3. What did Antigone do to try to find out if Haemon really wanted her in Part 3?
(a) Sent another woman in her place to see if Haemon would slip.
(b) Tried to seduce him.
(c) Dressed in Ismenes clothes and makeup.
(d) Wrote hm a love letter.

4. Who is looking for Antigone in Part 2?
(a) Polynices.
(b) Dionysus.
(c) Oedipus.
(d) Ismene.

5. In Part 2, what does Antigone say that she is not?
(a) Concerned.
(b) Scared.
(c) Beautiful
(d) Happy.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the name of Antigone's dog?

2. How does Antigone enter in the beginning of Part 2?

3. What was Creon's former occupation?

4. Who are Eteocles and Polynices?

5. In Part 2, Ismene tells Antigone that she is what?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Part 2, Antigone is firm in her decision to bury Polynices. Despite Ismene's valid arguments against Antigone's proposed actions, Antigone has no plans to veer from her course. Describe one of Antigone's driving forces for her plan in this section of the play.

2. What is the purpose of Antigone's letter to Haemon in Part 6?

3. In Part 4, the Chorus highlights the stillness at the heart of tragedy. What is the significance of stillness in the play?

4. What does Antigone ask the Nurse to do with her dog? Why is Antigone asking this of the Nurse?

5. What is ironic about Ismene's plea to Antigone to give up her plan to bury Polynices?

6. In examining Antigone, one is drawn to the conclusion that Anouilh is influenced greatly by the genre of Greek tragedy. There are several key differences, however. One of those differences is the role of the gods in the lives of common men and women. In what manner does Anouilh firmly plant his storyline in the modern day by supplanting man's influence for the influence the gods?

7. Who were the brothers who fought for the throne? How were they related to Antigone? Why might their demise be so important to the plot of the story?

8. Prophecy is a large part of the story of Oedipus, his children, and the city of Thebes. A complicated and convoluted story, Oedipus's fate, and hence that of his children and Thebes, was foretold long before his birth and began with Oedipus's father, Laius's, evil act of kidnapping and murdering his friend's young son. In Part 2, the reader begins to get a feel for the inevitability of this curse and its after effects on the city of Thebes. What are Antigone's feelings about this curse as shown in Part 2?

9. Why do you think the author chose to introduce Antigone and her sister, Ismene, as such contrasting characters? What purpose might this serve to the storyline?

10. Many of Antigone's actions can be defined as either selfish or unselfish. Some may blur the lines. In Part 3, do you think Antigone's treatment of Haemon is selfish or unselfish, or can an argument be made for a bit of both?

(see the answer keys)

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