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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. In what city-state does Clytemnestra rule?

2. Who says that good character cannot be judged by riches, poverty or courage?

3. Who appears in the heavens at the end of Electra?

4. Clytemnestra claim's she only avenged whose death?

5. What kind of knife does Orestes ask for to butcher the animal?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is Antigone's entrance in The Phoenician Women used as an aid to the audience?

2. How is the death of Aegisthus revealed? What effect does this have on the audience?

3. What is Electra doing when she first enters the play? What does her farmer chide her for?

4. How are the deaths in the end of Electra received by the characters?

5. What is the central conflict in The Phoenician Women?

6. What does Orestes say of Electra's husband (as he pretends to be the messenger)?

7. How does Clytemnestra's fate show how punishment for women is different than for men?

8. Who are the Phoenician Women? What are their feelings in the play?

9. Describe the dramatic irony in the messenger's speech to Electra in Part Three of the play.

10. Why do the brothers in The Phoenician Women fight against fate?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the details of the exposition in Electra from the opening speeches.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the theme of "Wealth and Poverty" as it applies to the play Electra. How does this theme drive the action of the characters?

Essay Topic 3

Compare and contrast the characters of Polyneices and Eteocles in The Phoenician Women. How are these characters related? How are they similar? How are they different?

(see the answer keys)

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