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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. How long is Agamemnon gone to war?

2. Where does Agamemnon go to fight?

3. Where does The Phoenician Women take place?

4. What is Aegisthus preparing to offer the goddess Nymphs in Electra?

5. Who does Electra call unfaithful, attractive to women, but a worthless coward underneath his pretty face?

Short Essay Questions

1. The end of the Electra reveals the author's (and likely the society's) point of view. What is it?

2. What of Electra's demeanor in Part Three builds the tension of the play? What does she feel when she hears word from the messenger?

3. Describe the dramatic irony in the messenger's speech to Electra in Part Three of the play.

4. What does Electra do when she first sees Orestes?

5. How is Antigone's entrance in The Phoenician Women used as an aid to the audience?

6. Why and with whom has Orestes returned to Argos? Where do we first find him in the play Electra?

7. What led to Oedipus' downfall?

8. What happened to Agamemnon? What does the exposition tell us happened with Orestes and Electra?

9. What does the chorus sing of once Orestes and Electra exit in Part Two of Electra?

10. How does Electra react to the strangers coming into her home?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the exposition provided by Dionysus in the beginning of The Bacchae. What has this character come here to do? Why?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the plot structure and actions which take place in The Phoenician Women. Where is the climax? What takes place in the falling action and resolution of the play?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the theme of "Revenge" in the play, Electra. How does this theme carry the action of the play? What characters embody this theme?

(see the answer keys)

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