View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What part of Edward's body does he chastise Gaveston not to kiss?

2. What does Edward swear to send Gaveston?

3. Which vice does Mortimer Junior say is the "venom" that Gaveston has brought to the realm (I.ii.31)?

4. What does Mortimer Junior threaten to do if Gaveston return to England?

5. According to Mortimer Junior, who is aiding the Scots?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is Edward III caught between Kent and Mortimer at the end of Scene 2?

2. What is Mortimer's plan regarding Edward III?

3. How does Isabella greet the victory of Scene 5?

4. What request is made of King Edward by the nobles in Act 3, Scene 1?

5. What are the fates of Edward, Spencer Junior and Baldock after they are discovered?

6. Describe Edward and Gaveston's parting in Scene 4.

7. What is Margaret and Spencer's plan at the end of Scene 1?

8. How does Mortimer fall from grace in the final scene?

9. What plan have the nobles mad by the end of Scene 2?

10. Why does Spencer Junior send Levune to France at the end of Act 3?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Marlowe adeptly connects the larger, international crises of Edward II's England to the private and domestic quarrels the are the centerpiece of the plot. Write an essay, focusing on the two foreign armies that plague England throughout the play. How does Edward react to news of their success? How do major victories for them affect his relationship with the nobles? How are certain of these defeats the result of poor decisions Edward makes throughout the play?

Part 1) France.

Part 2) Scotland.

Essay Topic 2

In Marlowe's medieval England, murder is a carefully chosen and strategically effective means for altering the political dynamics of the realm. Write an essay about the key murders of the play and their effects in three parts:

Part 1) What are the noble's essential issues with Gaveston, and what other tactics do they attempt before murdering him? What is the final straw for the nobles, and what do they achieve with Gaveston's murder?

Part 2) Who decides that Kent must die, and how does he go about accomplishing this end? What is Kent's role in the political world of Edward II, and how does his removal change the dynamic?

Part 3) The murder of a king i s a major decision, rife with awful possibilities. Why do Isabella and Mortimer Junior decide to have Edward II killed after he is deposed? What do they hope to achieve? What is the ultimate result of this murder?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay about the noble's as a group. What does Marlowe intend to say about the nobility of this time? Are they unified for a single purpose, or is each separately focused on personal advancement? At which points over the course of the narrative do individual nobles break from the collective will of the group? Which nobles are they, and why does each choose to break ranks? What is Marlowe saying about the way that history is made by individual men?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 996 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample