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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 is the one thing Luzhin finds wrong with the old jacket he begs his wife to let him keep?

2. What does Luzhin do when he gets into the cab with his new wife after the wedding reception?

3. After Luzhin disappears, what does Petrishchev think?

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

5. Where does Luzhin disappear to at the ball?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does Luzhin kill himself?

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

4. What letter does Luzhin send to a stranger?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Luzhin is a master chess player. Discuss chess in the novel.

1) When Luzhin sees a chess board, the pieces are just placeholders. He perceives something entirely abstract behind the board. What is it that Luzhin perceives? Why is it appealing to him? What does his relationship with chess show about his personality?

2) Near the end of the novel, Luzhin sees his life as a chess game. How is his life like a game of chess? Who is his opponent? What is he attempting to win? How does the chess analogy show how Luzhin is perceiving his world and his limitations in perceiving the world?

3) Why does Luzhin feel the need to hide his love for chess? In what ways is Luzhin ambivalent about chess? Is chess truly deadly unhealthy for Luzhin, as his psychiatrist says?

Essay Topic 2

Luzhin is only known by his family name throughout most of the novel, and other major characters are never named at all. Discuss the use of names in the novel.

1) Why is Luzhin only known by his family name throughout the novel? Why is his personal name revealed at the end of the novel?

2) Why are the characters closest to Luzhin, like his wife, never named?

3) Why are characters who are relatively unimportant, like guests at a party or people the Luzhins run into on the street, given names? What does this show about the author's perspective?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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