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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 Mrs. Luzhin wear on her wedding night?

2. What flowers are depicted on Mrs. Luzhin's mother's shawl, which she wears in her cold apartment?

3. What are townspeople doing in the area where there are tennis courts in the summer, at the beginning of Chapter 13?

4. At the wedding reception, how much champagne does Luzhin drink?

5. What does Luzhin's fiancee threaten that she will do, if he starts thinking about chess?

Short Essay Questions

1. What catches Luzhin's attention to distract him from chess that he is accidentally reminded of?

2. What does Luzhin's psychiatrist say about the possibility of him marrying?

3. What does Luzhin think when the lights come on again after Ivan has knocked over the lamp?

4. What books that his fiancee brings him in the sanatorium does Luzhin enjoy?

5. Why does Mrs. Luzhin find it difficult to locate her husband at the ball?

6. What letter does Luzhin send to a stranger?

7. What are Mrs. Luzhin's political opinions about the Soviet Union?

8. How does Luzhin kill himself?

9. What is Luzhin doing when Ivan knocks over the lamp?

10. How does Luzhin feel at his wedding reception?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Luzhin is not a normal person. Discuss normalcy in the novel.

1) Luzhin is not normal. Is this necessarily a bad thing? To what extent is society responsible for Luzhin's problems, in trying to force him to be "normal"? Does Luzhin want to be normal?

2) What does "normal" mean in the novel? What does it mean to Luzhin and the people who surround him?

3) How difficult is it for Luzhin to do normal things? Why?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss art and reflections of reality in the novel.

1) How is Luzhin's father's writing a reflection of reality? How is it a projection of his father's desires, a world of wish fulfillment? How does his writing compare to reality?

2) How do Luzhin's drawings reflect reality, and how do they reflect his perception of reality?

3) How is Luzhin's chess playing an art, and how is it not an art? How does it relate and compare to music? How does it reflect reality? How does it show Luzhin's perception of reality and his own wish fulfillment?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss identity and personhood in the novel.

1) Luzhin's identity is wrapped up in chess. Why and how?

2) Does Luzhin fit the definition of a person, as other characters perceive it? How does Luzhin not fit into others' ideas of a "person"?

3) What gives Luzhin identity besides chess playing? What elements add to his identity?

(see the answer keys)

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