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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 month does the Second Tempter say Beckett will have power?
2. What does the Messenger call the relationship between the King and the Archbishop?
3. What does Becket claim is the "substance of our first act?"
4. How does the Chorus describe itself?
5. After the first scene featuring the three Priests, the Chorus speaks again. What do they wish the Archbishop to do?
Short Essay Questions
1. Why does the Chorus fear the "love of God?"
2. What is the initial and more general accusation the Knights' hold against the Archbishop?
3. Why does Becket fear that giving into the Fourth Tempter would be doing "the right deed for the wrong reason?"
4. After the temptations, what do the Chorus want Becket to do? Why?
5. Taking into consideration the many opportunities to escape his fate, his many followers begging him to change course, and Becket's own prideful nature, why would Becket choose the path of martyrdom?
6. Why was the Fourth Tempter most effective in his temptation compared to the other three?
7. What does Becket mean when he states to the Priests, "The moment foreseen may be unexpected when it arrives?"
8. What is the importance of the banners that the Priests enter with and the mention of all of Saints?
9. How does Becket believe a martyr should be defined?
10. What happens when the Priests enter at the beginning of Part II to change the ambiance of the play? Do you believe it is effective?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
The Chorus serves as a sort of guide and narrator throughout the play.
Part 1) Why does Eliot make the Chorus a group of women? How does this create a different dramatic effect from a male chorus?
Part 2) Describe which social group the Chorus represents and why that is important to its purpose in the plot.
Part 3) What is the Chorus' relationship to Becket and why is that important to their relationship to the audience (the reader)? Is the Chorus a surrogate for us?
Essay Topic 2
From the beginning of Murder in the Cathedral, we are told of the monotonous and rather unfulfilled lives that are led by the women of Canterbury. In one instance we are told that they believe they are "living and party living."
1) How is the return of Thomas Becket to Canterbury a good thing for its people? What can he offer them that they have been missing in their lives?
2) How does Becket's return affect them negatively?
3) Using examples from the text, how can monotony be a good thing? How is it bad?
Essay Topic 3
The three Priests have been without the Archbishop's leadership for seven years. His return is important to their spiritual well-being.
Part 1) What is the Priests' outlook on Becket's return? What is the opinion of the First Priest? The Second? The Third?
Part 2) Compare the similarities and differences between the individual opinions of the Priests and that of Becket's in regard to his return. What viewpoints do these people represent?
Part 3) Describe how Becket's return was important to these three men and how it reflects the needs of the community of Canterbury as a whole. What is his relationship to this group?
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This section contains 1,185 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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