Dead Souls | Short Essay Assignments

Short Essay Questions

The 60 short essay questions listed in this section require a one to two sentence answer. They ask students to demonstrate a deeper understanding of the text. Students must describe what they've read, rather than just recall it.

Short Essay Question - Part One: Chapter 1, (pages 5-18)

1. Describe Tchitchikov's hotel room.

2. What does Tchitchikov ask the servant at the hotel?

3. How does Tchitchikov spend his first day in N?

4. Why do the people of N. take such an interest in Tchitchikov?

Short Essay Question - Part One: Chapter 2 (pages 18-38)

5. Why does Petrushka smell bad?

6. Why does the narrator not go into detail about Selifan?

7. Why does Tchitchikov decide to try his scheme on Manilov even...
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