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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. What year is Mourning Becomes Electra taking place?

2. What does Lavinia tell Peter she hates in the first scene of the play?

3. Lavinia always reminds her mother of what?

4. Ezra is a highly regarded ___________ of the town.

5. Lavinia writes her father a letter about whom?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Christine plan to kill Ezra with the help of Captain Brant?

2. What do Seth and the other men dare Abner Small to do at the beginning of the third play?

3. Describe the Mannon mansion in the opening scene of the play.

4. What does Hazel say about the Mannon house as she and Peter prepare it for Lavinia and Orin's return from the islands?

5. Describe Ezra's death scene.

6. What does Orin mean when he tells her that he can forgive her for anything, except being with Brant?

7. What significant information does Captain Brant learn from the drunken sailor near his ship?

8. Who is Josiah Borden?

9. How does the conversation between Seth and the townspeople in the first scene of the play hint at secrets in the Mannon family?

10. What causes Ezra to have a heart attack the morning after he returns from the war?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the character of Lavinia and O'Neill's interpretation of her as Electra. How does her character drive both the plot and themes of the play? What is the meaning behind the title of the play?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the symbolic significance of each of the following: The Mannon house; the song "Shenandoah"; the family resemblances and the islands.

Essay Topic 3

What statement does Mourning Becomes Electra make on the nature and power of guilt?

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This section contains 746 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample