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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. When Mrs. Luzhin comes to bed on her wedding night, where is her husband?

2. What fault does Luzhin's fiancee find with the material Luzhin selects?

3. What is Luzhin like when his fiancee sits with him at the sanatorium?

4. How often do the Luzhins dine with Mrs. Luzhin's parents?

5. Who does Kurt think Luzhin is at first?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Luzhin think is the point of the "game" being played against him?

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

3. What word keeps going through Mrs. Luzhin's mind on her wedding night, and what does it mean?

4. How does Luzhin falling unconscious affect his fiancee?

5. How does Luzhin's fiancee's mother react to the idea that Luzhin is drunk?

6. How does Luzhin react to the parties of intellectuals that his wife entertains?

7. How does Luzhin read?

8. How does Luzhin kill himself?

9. What does Luzhin see in the window of a stationery store that fascinates him?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the relationships of parents and children in the novel.

1) How does Luzhin relate to his father? How does this relationship affect Luzhin throughout his life? How does this relationship evoke the relationship of Luzhin's father and grandfather?

2) What do parents expect from their children in the novel? What does Luzhin's father expect from him? What about his mother? What do Luzhin's wife's parents expect from her?

3) How do parents and children feel about each other? Do they love each other? What other emotions are related to parents and children?

Essay Topic 2

Luzhin's father expects his son to follow the patterns of the father's novels. Discuss Luzhin's father's expectations.

1) What effects do his father's expectations have on Luzhin? How much is Luzhin aware of his father's expectations, and how does he react to them?

2) How are Luzhin's father's expectations echoed in his wife's expectations?

3) What would Luzhin's father's relationship with a normal, average son be like? How would his expectations play out?

Essay Topic 3

After Luzhin's breakdown, he goes through a period of retirement from chess, in which he in many way relives his childhood. Discuss this repetition of the past and the air of fatalism it has.

1) Is Luzhin fated to be drawn back to chess? What forces seem to draw him irrevocably to chess?

2) Is Luzhin replaying his childhood because the forces of his character naturally cause him to have the same relationships and do the same types of things? Is this fate? Can Luzhin change? Can the world around him change?

3) In what ways is Luzhin's childhood different from his adulthood with his wife? How does Luzhin change? Does this show any ability to break free of the repetition?

(see the answer keys)

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