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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Act 1.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Beckett believe to be the last temptation and what he fears the most?
(a) Doing the right deed for the wrong reason.
(b) Doing the wrong thing for the right reason.
(c) Doing the thing you cannot do.
(d) Dying.

2. How does the structure of the dialogue change during Becket's first temptation?
(a) The play becomes one monologue.
(b) All of the characters speak in riddles.
(c) All of the characters other than Beckett fall silent.
(d) The First Tempter speaks in verse.

3. What is the first idea that Becket relates to his audience and what does he insist that the Chorus "know and do not know?"
(a) Suffering is everything and everything is suffering.
(b) Life is suffering and suffering is death.
(c) Action is suffering and suffering is action.
(d) The world is suffering and they are the world.

4. Who does Becket say saved him from the wrath of his enemies?
(a) John, the Dean of Salisbury.
(b) The King of France.
(c) The Pope.
(d) King Henry II.

5. What, according to the First Tempter, "should be more than biting Time can sever?"
(a) Loyalty.
(b) Friendship.
(c) Death.
(d) Hope.

Short Answer Questions

1. What character(s) opens the play with the first monologue?

2. What idea does the Fourth Tempter repeat that Beckett voiced on his first entrance?

3. What does the Second Tempter tell Beckett he will be like if he continues on course?

4. In what city of England does the story take place?

5. In what year does Murder in the Cathedral take place?

(see the answer key)

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