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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. Which of the sisters refuses to watch Chris dancing with Gerry Evans?

2. Where is Gerry Evans going?

3. What happens to the Sweeney boy at Lughnasa?

4. What does Kate bring Chris from town because she is "far too pale?"

5. What animals does Maggie feed?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Chris wear during the sisters' dancing that upsets Kate?

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

4. We as readers are told that Rose is "simple." How does the playwright make that clear to the audience?

5. Why does Chris call Danny Bradley a bastard?

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

7. Why does Kate become angry when Rose repeats the idea that twins are a double blessing?

8. What is significant about the names Nora and Nina that Bernie O'Donnell gave to her twin daughters?

9. What do you think Michael means when he talks of a widening breach between what seemed to be and what was?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Dancing is a central metaphor in this play, and Michael ends the play with a monologue about what dance meant to him. Compare and contrast the effects of dance on him as a boy, when he is frightened by the wild, strange behavior of his family members as they dance, with his reflections on dance at the end of the play.

Essay Topic 2

Maggie asks riddles of young Michael, and he never offers any possible answers, even when she chides him for being stupid. In the end, she herself has forgotten the answer to the riddle she poses. Analyze the playwright's use of riddles in this way. What do you think he is trying to say about Maggie? About Michael? About life?

Essay Topic 3

Gerry Evans' character is in many ways an act. He pretends to be a salesman, but can't sell. He pretends to be fighting for a noble cause in Spain, but doesn't know for sure what that cause is. In Michael's last glimpse of him, he is imitating Fred Astaire. After his father's war injury, Michael tells us that Gerry Evans cherished the "role" of wounded war veteran. Analyze Gerry Evans' role as almost a husband, and almost a father. Do you see him as evil and harmful? Do you see him as helpless and hopeless? Is there a tragic flaw in his character - or several? If so, what are they?

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