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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 does Ajax compare living without honor to?

2. What did Ajax do in the middle of the carnage that he wrought?

3. What is the epode?

4. Who did Athena protect throughout the war?

5. Where is Odysseus when Athena appears to him?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Athena offer to bring Ajax out of his tent?

2. Why does Ajax list the ways he thinks his honor has been destroyed?

3. Why is Odysseus standing outside of Ajax's tent at the beginning of the play?

4. What do Menelaus and Teucer use to support their positions about Ajax's burial?

5. How, and why, does Athena protect Odysseus when she brings Ajax out of his tent?

6. What does Teucer tell Eurysaces to do when he is placed besides Ajax's body, and why?

7. What is Ajax's state of mind right before he kills himself?

8. According to Teucer, why did Ajax join the Greeks in the Trojan War, and what effect does that have?

9. What does the prophecy by Calchas say?

10. What does Athena say is the warning embodied by Ajax's behavior?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is a soliloquy, and what purpose does it serve in a play? What is the purpose of Ajax's soliloquy? Cite examples from the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Does Ajax deserve his fate? Why or why not? Use examples from the play to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

What role does Telamon have in the play? What function does she serve in it, for Ajax? Use examples from the text to support your answer.

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This section contains 671 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample