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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 color does Luzhin choose for his suit?

2. What does Luzhin feel like, when he moves into his new apartment after getting out of the hospital?

3. What subject does Luzhin prefer for his artistic efforts?

4. When he wakes in the hospital, what does Luzhin ask a nurse?

5. After his wife's old friend from Russia visits, how does Luzhin begin seeing his life?

Short Essay Questions

1. What upsets Luzhien about the geography of the world?

2. At the ball, how does Mrs. Luzhin compare the movie actresses to her husband in her mind?

3. How to Kurt and Karl know where to send Luzhin in the taxi?

4. What does Luzhin's future mother-in-law feel as the wedding approaches?

5. What does Luzhin realize when he overhears his wife talking to her visitor?

6. Why doesn't Luzhin's fiancee ask him about his tuxedo?

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

8. How does Luzhin read?

9. How does Luzhin kill himself?

10. How does Luzhin react after meeting an old acquaintance at the ball?

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 the intellectual versus the social in the novel.

1) How does Luzhin fit into the intellectual world? How does he fit into the social world? How do these two worlds conflict?

2) How does Luzhin's wife fit into the intellectual and social worlds in the novel? How does this affect their relationship?

3) How does Luzhin's father fit into the intellectual an social worlds in the novel? How does this affect their relationship?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the portrayal of women in the novel.

1) What is Luzhin's mother like? How does she represent women in the novel? How does she compare with Luzhin's aunt?

2) What is Luzhin's wife like? How does she represent women in the novel? What are her priorities and abilities?

3) How are minor women characters portrayed in the novel? What do women, in general, seem to be like in the novel?

(see the answer keys)

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