View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How many visitors did Beckett expect?
(a) Four.
(b) Three.
(c) None.
(d) One.

2. What is it that the Second Tempter offers Becket?
(a) A new love.
(b) The English throne.
(c) His former political position.
(d) A new life.

3. What does Beckett claim the Fourth Tempter offers?
(a) An End to Suffering.
(b) Dreams to Damnation.
(c) Promises of Nothing.
(d) Hopes that Die.

4. According to the Four Tempters, what is man's life?
(a) A fleeting moment.
(b) A cheat and a disappointment.
(c) A viscious cycle.
(d) An inconvenience to God.

5. What is not one of the events of the past seven years that the Chorus describes?
(a) The town burning down.
(b) A good harvest.
(c) The disappearance of several girls.
(d) Brewing beer.

6. After the first scene featuring the three Priests, the Chorus speaks again. What do they wish the Archbishop to do?
(a) Turn the wheel.
(b) Return to France.
(c) Bless them.
(d) Make peace with the King.

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

8. What is not one of the ways the Chorus, the priests and the Tempters describe an unexpected death?
(a) Taking a shock to the skull.
(b) Attacked by dogs.
(c) Drowning in a ditch.
(d) Slipping on a step.

9. What character(s) opens the play with the first monologue?
(a) The Chorus.
(b) Thomas Becket.
(c) The Priests.
(d) The Messenger.

10. 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) Life is suffering and suffering is death.
(b) The world is suffering and they are the world.
(c) Action is suffering and suffering is action.
(d) Suffering is everything and everything is suffering.

11. What idea does the Fourth Tempter repeat that Beckett voiced on his first entrance?
(a) Life is suffering and suffering is death.
(b) Suffering is life and life is action.
(c) Action is suffering and suffering is action.
(d) Everything is suffering and suffering is everthing.

12. According to the information in the opening monologue, how many years have passed since the Archbishop has left the city?
(a) Twenty.
(b) Seven.
(c) Five.
(d) Twelve.

13. "The wheel" is spoken of time and time again. In one instance Becket says that "Only the fool, fixed in his folly, may think he can turn the wheel on which he turns." What is the idea of a wheel supposed to symbolize?
(a) The Past.
(b) Fate.
(c) Death.
(d) Love.

14. What does the Third Tempter believe upon his arrival?
(a) He is there to cause confusion.
(b) He is in danger.
(c) He was unexpected.
(d) He was expected.

15. Why does Beckett believe that the local bishops would not support a power move like regaining his Chancellorship?
(a) Because the Pope would not allow it.
(b) Because he excommunicated them.
(c) Because the Pope excommunicated Beckett.
(d) Because the King would not allow it.

Short Answer Questions

1. What ruler of England does the Second Priest refer to as "the stubborn King?"

2. What does the First Priest compare the women of Canterbury to?

3. How does the Fourth Tempter claim Beckett can have ultimate glory and power over the King of England?

4. What month does the Second Tempter say Beckett will have power?

5. What, according to the First Tempter, "should be more than biting Time can sever?"

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 599 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample