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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. Which literary term describes the narrator speaking directly to the reader?

2. How does Dostoevsky describe Krestyan Ivanovich?

3. What does Golyadkin say when he finally catches his double?

4. What does Golyadkin decide the morning after the banquet?

5. Who does Golyadkin blame the previous night’s horrors on?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the action that takes place among the characters at the banquet in the beginning of Chapter 4.

2. What does Dostoevsky say about the money Golyadkin counts and relishes?

3. Describe Golyadkin’s interaction with Andrey Filippovich after his interaction with Gerasimych.

4. What is the literary effect of the scene in Krestyan Ivanovich’s office?

5. What is Krestyan Ivanovich’s opinion of Golyadkin?

6. What is Golyadkin’s relationship with his coworkers?

7. What is the meaning and significance of Golyadkin’s statement that “it’s not me at all”?

8. Describe Golyadkin’s carriage journey in Chapter 1.

9. What blunders does Golyadkin make when he enters Krestyan Ivanovich’s office?

10. What confession does Golyadkin make to Krestyan Ivanovich?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Evaluate the proposition that The Double is best read in a state of comic diversion.

Essay Topic 2

How does Dostoevsky characterize Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin? Is he a sympathetic character? Is he realistic? Is he an Everyman? Is he a symbol of something? Using examples from the text, describe Dostoevsky’s accomplishment in creating Golyadkin.

Essay Topic 3

When is The Double most itself? What is its characteristic passage, or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?

(see the answer keys)

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