View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Stepan Kasatsky's relation with the court of Emperor Nicholas I?

2. Where does the road take them after the travelers return to the road?

3. Who is Stepan Kasatsky?

4. What causes Father Sergius to leave the monastery?

5. What are Stepan Kasatsky's motives for whatever he undertakes?

Short Essay Questions

1. What causes Vasili Andreevich to set off for Goryachkin?

2. Why does Father Sergius ask to be reassigned to a hermitage?

3. What is Nikita's relationship with Mukhorty?

4. Describe Pozdnyshev's marriage.

5. Describe Stepan Kasatsky's relationship with Countess Korotkova.

6. Why does Murad want to fight Shamil?

7. What effect does Trukhachevsky's arrival have on Pozdnyshev's marriage?

8. What did the Tsar decide with regard to Murad?

9. What does Murad ask Prince Vorontsov for after he surrenders?

10. What happens to Vasili and Nikita after they set out from Grishkino?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Based on evidence from three stories of your choice, describe Tolstoy's view of religion and spirituality. What kind of God does Tolstoy invoke in his stories? What religion informs this divinity?

Essay Topic 2

Analyze three stories and describe Tolstoy's views on illness. How does illness function in a narrative sense, in the stories? How does it function in a philosophical sense, as a counterweight to spiritual truths?

Essay Topic 3

How do characters in three of Tolstoy's stories handle depression? What is it typically caused by, and what are the effective solutions to it?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 681 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample