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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 does Golyadkin dream about after he speaks to Klara Olsufyevna?

2. What tone does Golyadkin take with his younger colleagues?

3. Where does Golyadkin go from Krestyan Ivanovich’s office?

4. Why does Golyadkin stop to visit Krestyan Ivanovich?

5. How does Golyadkin speak?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Describe the weather into which Golyadkin is expelled from the banquet.

3. Describe Golyadkin’s first encounter with his double.

4. What confession does Golyadkin make to Krestyan Ivanovich?

5. Describe the chase the stranger leads Golyadkin on.

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

7. Describe Golyadkin’s arrival at work the morning after the banquet.

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

9. Describe the scene of Golyadkin’s waking after chasing Golyadkin Junior.

10. Describe Golyadkin’s relationship with Petrushka.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

What explanation does Dostoevsky give the reader to explain Golyadkin’s guilt, or the visitation by his Double? What are the advantages and disadvantages of Dostoevsky’s leaving this ambiguous?

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)

This section contains 958 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample