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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 Hippolite say he is going to read?

2. What does the note Varya finds on Ganja's desk ask for?

3. Who does Myshkin stop one of the officer friends of the Yephanshins from hitting?

4. Who wrote the note that Varya finds on Ganja's desk?

5. Who does Ganja blame for Burdovsky's claim against Myshkin?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Ganja's attitude toward his father?

2. What are Agalya's plans for herself and Myshkin when she first meets him in the park?

3. How does Myshkin answer Nastassya's question to him, and what is Rogozhin's response?

4. How do Myshkin and Agalya each interpret Myshkin's earlier letter to Agalya?

5. How would Myshkin probably act, if he were in Lebedev's place in the disagreement between Lebedev and General Ivolgin?

6. What leads up to the violence in the park?

7. How does Aglaya react to winning and losing at games?

8. What happens when Hippolite tries to kill himself?

9. What does Madam Yephanchin feel about her daughter's relationship with Myshkin?

10. How does Madam Yephanchin react, after Burdovsky and his companions object to the information Ganja reveals about Burdovsky?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the nature of goodness in the novel.

1) In what ways does Myshkin embody goodness? Is Myshkin's goodness always truly good?

2) Why can't Myshkin's goodness survive in St. Petersburg society? Is goodness doomed to tragedy and failure?

3) Does Rogozhin have any goodness in him? In what ways are the other characters good?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss fate in the novel.

1) What forces, both within the characters themselves and outside the characters, dictate the paths that the characters' lives take in the novel? To what extent are the characters able to make choices about their lives and control their own destinies?

2) In the novel, there are moments of prophecy, as when Myshkin predicts that Nastassya will marry Rogozhin, and then Rogozhin will murder her. What do these moments of prophecy say about fate and destiny in the novel?

3) Could the novel have ended in any other way, for these particular characters in this particular society?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss death in the novel.

1) Discuss Hippolite's attempted suicide and impending death from disease. How does Hippolite perceive death? How does he deal with impending death?

2) Discuss General Ivolgin's death from stroke. What does death mean to the General and those around him? What perspective does his first stroke and eventual death put on his disagreement with Lebedev?

3) Discuss Nastassya's death. What leads up to her death? What does her death mean to Rogozhin and to Myshkin? What does death mean to Nastassya?

(see the answer keys)

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