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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. What does the Nurse fear at the beginning of the play?
(a) Medea will take violent revenge.
(b) She will lose her job in the divorce.
(c) The children will be upset when they see their parents fighting.
(d) Jason will kill Medea for being too contrary.

2. To whom does the Nurse say Medea cries for comfort?
(a) The servants.
(b) Creon.
(c) Her children.
(d) The gods.

3. Who did the Tutor overhear making plans?
(a) Creon.
(b) Medea.
(c) Jason.
(d) Aegeus.

4. What supernatural ability is Medea said to have?
(a) The ability to foretell and change the future.
(b) She is able to read thoughts and project her own.
(c) It's not specifically said, but she is called a witch.
(d) The ability to curse people to die horribly.

5. Who is the first character to appear in the play?
(a) Jason.
(b) Medea.
(c) The Nurse.
(d) Creon.

Short Answer Questions

1. What function does the chorus's ode serve after the fight between Medea and Creon?

2. Why does Medea promise she won't hurt Creon?

3. Why does Jason say Medea is lucky?

4. What does Jason claim motivated him to leave Medea for the princess?

5. What are the women of this play communally struggling against?

Short Essay Questions

1. Is there merit to Medea's final justification to the chorus about why she must kill her children? Why or why not?

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

3. Knowing her plans for her children, why do you think Medea asks Jason to beg Creon to allow them to stay?

4. What do you think the messenger means when he says the princess "smiled at the lifeless image of herself" in the mirror?

5. How does the King of Corinth model the theme of selfishness that Euripides introduces in the first scene?

6. What is significant about the way Creon encountered the poison?

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

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

9. What is the significance, in the first scene, of the Nurse urging the children to hide from their mother until her anger has passed?

10. What function does the chorus of Corinthian women serve?

(see the answer keys)

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