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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. With whom does Antony intend his foot soldiers to stay in Act 4, Scene 10?

2. What does Caesar say the world shall bear freely if the battle of Alexandria goes well?

3. To whose "prepared nails" does Antony refer?

4. Whom does Cleopatra say she and her companions shall make proud to take them?

5. Who accompanies Antony at the outset of Act 4, Scene 12?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Cleopatra comport herself towards Antony in Act 4, Scene 4?

2. What does the sudden music expose within the soldiers of Antony before the battle at Alexandria?

3. How does Antony react to the desertion by Enobarbus?

4. How has the battle gone so far, in Act 4, Scene 7?

5. In what way is Antony's disposition towards the battle at Alexandria changed on the second day?

6. What characterizes Enobarbus' speech which he calls upon the moon to witness?

7. Why does Cleopatra feign submission to Caesar at the end of the play?

8. What happens to Enobarbus after his speech in Act 4, Scene 9?

9. What does Antony mean by saying that his men have "shown all Hectors" and why is this significant?

10. What is meant by Charmian's statement that "The soul and body rive not more in parting / Than greatness going off"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compose a carefully crafted and well-planned analytical essay on the character of Mark Antony. As the story's protagonist, he is regarded as an extraordinary man whose life ends in exceptional calamity and disintegration. What are his principal character traits? In what ways does Antony stand out from the rest of the characters in the story? How do these contribute to his being an extraordinary man? What affects his downfall? What characterizes the disintegration of Antony's life? How does Antony's life drive the lives of others and the plot of the story? What way of life does Antony represent?

Essay Topic 2

Keeping in mind that a tragedy is a story of human action which, by the means of free will and fate, results in exceptional calamity and the death or disintegration of the life of an extraordinary man, analyze the relationship between the story of Antony and Cleopatra with the archetypal indications of tragedy in a well-thought-out essay. What indicates the story to be a tragedy? What is the significance of all the central elements of the story insofar as they relate to tragedy? In what does the play's tragedy specifically consist?

Essay Topic 3

A seldom explicitly mentioned theme throughout the play is the fidelity and infidelity of minor characters despite maltreatment and disregard for their more fundamental rights. Thoughtfully explicate this theme in a well-developed essay. How do the various minor characters demonstrate their fidelity and to whom? For what reasons do the characters evidently remain loyal? Contrariwise, which characters forsake their obligations to fidelity, and for what reasons are they motivated to do so? What do these various relationships of disparate levels of fidelity indicate about the fundamental human tendencies regarding loyalty?

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