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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. Why does Mrs. Luzhin avoid mentioning large cities when talking of traveling?

2. What author does Luzhin's fiancee tell her mother that Luzhin has never read?

3. What does Mrs. Luzhin wear on her wedding night?

4. Where does Luzhin's fiancee's father want her to go away to with her mother, to forget about Luzhin?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What letter does Luzhin send to a stranger?

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

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

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

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

7. How does Luzhin act in the days before his wedding?

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

9. What does Luzhin's psychiatrist ask him about?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss fulfillment in the novel.

1) What motivates characters to pursue the activities they pursue? What motivates Luzhin? What motivates his wife?

2) Where do characters in the novel find fulfillment? Are any of the characters successful in feeling fulfilled?

3) What prevents fulfillment? How do characters perceive others' desires for or quests for fulfillment? How do characters conflict over what makes them fill fulfilled?

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 point of view of the novel.

1) What insight does the reader gain into Luzhin's character through seeing his point of view that other characters are blind to?

2) Why does the author choose to show the points of view that he does at the times that he does? Why does the author show us Luzhin's father's point of view, his wife's point of view, and his mother-in-law's point of view? What insights do these shifts in point of view give the reader?

3) What characters' points of view are not included in the novel? Why?

(see the answer keys)

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