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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. What does Cleopatra insist Charmian give her to drink at the last scene of Act 1?

2. Towards where do the ships of the defeated flee?

3. With what does Caesar reward his army in the beginning of Act 4?

4. Whom does Caesar send to win Cleopatra from Antony?

5. Whose presence does Enorbarbus say must puzzle Antony?

Short Essay Questions

1. For what reason does Mecaenas imply that striking Antony while the beleaguered triumvir is in his rage is strategically sound

2. For what reasons are tensions brewing between Antony and Caesar in Act 3, Scene 4?

3. For what reason does the Soothsayer tell Antony he must go back to Egypt?

4. What characterizes Antony's speech after Actium, before Cleopatra arrives, at the palace in Alexandria?

5. Why is it suggested by Agrippa that Mark Antony be married to Octavia?

6. What characterizes the reports that the messenger gives to Cleopatra of Octavia?

7. How do his companions react to Antony's speeches in Act 4, Scene 2?

8. How does Cleopatra expose her true self in Act 3, Scene 13?

9. What is the result of Antony's fleeing from Actium?

10. In what way does Antony compose himself in Act 4, Scene 2?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Of all Cleopatra's many unique character traits, none is perhaps as efficacious on the action and plot of the story as her vanity. In a well-written essay, analyze the cataclysm that is caused by her vain pursuits. In what instances does she show her vanity? How does it affect characters and their actions? What sparks her vain tendencies? What is the evident moral consequence of indulging one's own vanity, as demonstrated by Cleopatra?

Essay Topic 3

Throughout Antony and Cleopatra's stormy relationship in the play, it is shown that their love is always a hair's-breadth away from becoming hate, and vice-versa. In a well-developed analytical essay, examine the nature of Antony and Cleopatra's relationship insofar as it alternates from one extreme to another. What propels the characters to launch from one condition to another? How is hate assuaged and love incited? In what way are the two conditions similarly portrayed?

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