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

2. When will the First Tempter remember Becket?

3. According to the Chorus, what does the Archbishop bring into Canterbury?

4. In Part One, where does the action of the play take place?

5. Who does the Third Tempter represent?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do the Four Tempters describe life?

2. In his address to the audience, the Third Knight claims that they are "perfectly disinterested." What does he mean?

3. What does Becket decide to do by the end of Part I?

4. What is one of the more specific crimes the Knights bring up in their accusations?

5. What seems to be Becket's hubris that many characters mention and the Tempters attempt to play upon?

6. What is a literary tool that Becket uses in writing the interlude?

7. What is the initial and more general accusation the Knights' hold against the Archbishop?

8. How does the Chorus perceive the actions of the play and its part in it?

9. Explain what is offered by the Second Tempter and why it would appeal to Thomas Beckett

10. Why does the Third Tempter state that joining forces with the barony would be a good idea?

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

Becket once enjoyed the perks of exercising power in a major political office. One of Becket's major vices is his pride. By his entrance into the world of Murder in the Cathedral, Becket forgoes secular power to the power of the Church's law, the law of the Pope and the law of God. A major theme throughout Murder in the Cathedral is the Battle between the church and the state.

1) Using examples from the text, how did King Henry II and Thomas Becket conjoin politics and religion? How effective were their actions?

2) Historically, what are some examples of the politics of government interfering in the affairs of the church (and vice versa)? Compare these examples to the themes of the play.

(see the answer keys)

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