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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. Who do the drunk men find waiting up by a lighted window at Luzhin's fiancee's parents' house?

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

3. What does Luzhin eventually win in the raffle at the ball?

4. What does Luzhin's new landlady chide him for forgetting?

5. What is Luzhin's fiancee eating when her parents tackle her about giving up Luzhin at the beginning of Chapter 10?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Valentinov want Luzhin to do for him?

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

3. How does Luzhin feel at his wedding reception?

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

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

6. How does Luzhin kill himself?

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

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

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

10. How does Luzhin's fiancee feel about their new apartment as she furnishes it?

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

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 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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