View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does the Chorus describe itself?
(a) Representative of all people of Canterbury.
(b) Small folk.
(c) Lonely folk.
(d) Poor folk.

2. What does Beckett believe to be the last temptation and what he fears the most?
(a) Doing the right deed for the wrong reason.
(b) Doing the wrong thing for the right reason.
(c) Dying.
(d) Doing the thing you cannot do.

3. What ruler of England does the Second Priest refer to as "the stubborn King?"
(a) Edward III.
(b) Henry II.
(c) James I.
(d) Richard I.

4. What is the first word that Becket speaks on his first entrance?
(a) Stay.
(b) No.
(c) Peace.
(d) Wait.

5. Who are the first two characters who speak of "the wheel" on separate occasions?
(a) The First Priest and the Second Priest.
(b) The Third Priest and Thomas Becket.
(c) The First Priest and the First Tempter.
(d) The Chorus and Thomas Becket.

Short Answer Questions

1. What character(s) opens the play with the first monologue?

2. What is it that the Second Tempter offers Becket?

3. What is the first action that the Second Priest wants to take to welcome the Archbishop back to Canterbury?

4. In what city of England does the story take place?

5. What does Beckett claim the Fourth Tempter offers?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Becket mean when he states to the Priests, "The moment foreseen may be unexpected when it arrives?"

2. Why is it that Becket believes a martyr is never an accident?

3. Why was the Fourth Tempter most effective in his temptation compared to the other three?

4. Looking at the Interlude, how was the Fourth Tempter successful? How was he unsuccessful in his aims?

5. What is one of Becket's rebuttals of the charges against him?

6. How does Becket believe you cannot define a martyr?

7. What is the tone of the Chorus' "death-bringers" speech after the Knights exit for the first time?

8. What is the Interlude?

9. What does Thomas Becket do to attempt to have a safe passage back into England?

10. After the temptations, what do the Chorus want Becket to do? Why?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 933 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample