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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 First Priest compare the women of Canterbury to?
(a) Frogs in the treetops.
(b) Chickens in a coop.
(c) Worms in the belly.
(d) Horses in the stalls.

2. In what year does Murder in the Cathedral take place?
(a) 1170.
(b) 1710.
(c) 1077.
(d) 1070.

3. In Part One, where does the action of the play take place?
(a) The Archbishop's hall.
(b) The King's palace.
(c) Outside the gates of the Cathedral.
(d) The Cathedral.

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

5. What doesn't the Third Priest see in "the art of temporal government?"
(a) Violence.
(b) Intrigue.
(c) Frequent Malversation.
(d) Duplicity.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Beckett believe that the local bishops would not support a power move like regaining his Chancellorship?

2. What metaphor does the Third Priest use to compare the relationship between the King and the Archbishop?

3. What are the priests eager to know once the Messenger has delivered his initial message?

4. How does the Third Tempter describe himself?

5. According to the Four Tempters, what is man's life?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Becket believe you cannot define a martyr?

2. What does Becket ask his flock to remember?

3. What is Becket's relationship to his congregation?

4. What is the Interlude?

5. Was Thomas Becket prepared for his temptations?

6. Why does Becket fear that giving into the Fourth Tempter would be doing "the right deed for the wrong reason?"

7. At the beginning of Part II, how does the Chorus describe the oncoming Spring? What do you think Eliot intended it to relay the audience?

8. How does Becket get the Priests to unbar the door and allow the Knights to enter?

9. What is the opinion of the Messenger of the relationship between the King and the Archbishop?

10. How does Becket believe man can "mourn and rejoice at once for the same reason?"

(see the answer keys)

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