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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 Maggie call Michael?

2. What shame does Chris bring on the family years before?

3. What does Gerry Evans want Chris to do?

4. What medication does Uncle Jack take?

5. Why does Kate ask God to forgive her?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Maggie mean when she tells Michael that someday he's going to fill some woman's life with happiness?

2. What does Agnes mean when she asks Chris, "Do you want to make a pagan of yourself?"

3. What reasons does Kate use for refusing to go to the harvest dance?

4. How has Chris brought shame upon the Mundy family?

5. What is Maggie's reaction to hearing that her old friend Bernie O'Donnell is in town, and why does she react this way?

6. When Irish music comes from the radio, which of the sisters begins to dance first, and in what mood does she dance?

7. Why do you think Rose can describe the Festival of Lughnasa to her sisters?

8. How does Kate feel about Michael, and how can you tell?

9. How far do the Mundys live from the rest of the village, and what significance is there in that distance?

10. What significance does Austin Morgan have in this story?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When Rose is lost, the hierarchy within the group of sisters changes. Who is usually in charge and who takes over during the emergency? Using quotations from the play, explain this dynamic and tell why you think the change took place.

Essay Topic 2

What difference does the fate of the Sweeney boy, who was burned in the festival of Lughnasa, make to the story? Cite what was believed to have happened and what actually happened. Why do you think this detail is included in the play? Is the boy a metaphor? If so, what does he represent?

Essay Topic 3

The music of the 1930s has an important role in this play, as it had on the characters' lives. Analyze what you think the playwright was showing us, the audience, with the use of "Anything Goes" and "Dancing in the Dark." Listen to these once-popular songs on the Internet before writing about them, as a great deal more than the title is to be learned from them.

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This section contains 898 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample