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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In the time the play was written, what would the audience have typically known before coming to the theater?
(a) The names of the actors involved.
(b) The end of the story.
(c) The story of the play.
(d) When to applaud.

2. What two characters are getting divorced?
(a) Medea and Creon.
(b) Aegeus and Medea.
(c) Jason and Medea.
(d) Jason and Hecate.

3. Why does Jason say dealing with Medea is hopeless?
(a) He can't understand her through her thick accent.
(b) She won't ever tell him what she really thinks.
(c) She is too stubborn and outspoken.
(d) He loves her too much to hurt her.

4. What has Jason said is his intent with regard to his children?
(a) He wants to send them away for military training.
(b) He doesn't intend to help support them.
(c) He wants them to be shipped back to Medea's homeland.
(d) He intends to move them in with him and his new wife.

5. What will happen if Medea and her children are in Corinth at sunrise in two days?
(a) They will be killed.
(b) Jason will have to claim them as his family.
(c) They will be allowed to stay for the festival.
(d) They will be forcibly banished.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Medea think Jason is a coward?

2. What does Medea think about the way women are treated by men in Greece?

3. What prevents Medea from returning to her homeland?

4. What has Jason agreed to do while Medea and her children are in exile?

5. Why is Medea being banished?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Jason think his life is over?

2. Why does Aegeus say Medea must make it to his kingdom on her own?

3. To which character(s) is Aegeus a foil? Explain.

4. What makes Medea's anger and despair seem so untoward to the Chorus?

5. Do you agree or disagree with Creon's decision to banish Medea? Why or why not?

6. Does Jason's sudden concern for his children in the final scene seem consistent with the rest of the play? Why or why not?

7. Do you think, with the chorus being so sympathetic to Medea, that it undercuts her claims that her life is more difficult because she is a foreigner? Why or why not?

8. Why would people want to harm the children for Medea's crimes?

9. Analyze Medea's monologue in which she vacillates between killing her children and sparing their lives.

10. Is Creon's naming of Medea as a "clever witch" supposed to be taken literally or figuratively?

(see the answer keys)

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