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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 tone does Golyadkin take with Golyadkin Junior?

2. What does Petrushka tell Golyadkin in the morning after Golyadkin had spent the night with Golyadkin Junior?

3. What does Golyadkin say his opinion of Petrushka is?

4. Who does Golyadkin think he can appeal to?

5. What does Golyadkin say is the status of his situation?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Golyadkin Junior insult Golyadkin at the office?

2. How have things changed when Golyadkin wakes up in the morning after his drunken night with Golyadkin Junior.

3. What is the importance of the letter Golyadkin receives from Klara Olsufyevna?

4. What response does Golyadkin get to his letter?

5. Describe the intimacy that develops between Golyadkin and Golyadkin Junior.

6. What does the narrator say about Golyadkin’s tendency to exacerbate his feelings?

7. Describe what happens when Golyadkin reaches Andrey Filippovich’s house.

8. Why does Golyadkin Junior say he appealed to Golyadkin?

9. What is Golyadkin’s explanation for Golyadkin Junior’s existence?

10. Describe Golyadkin Junior’s entrance into the office.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What are the particular techniques Dostoevsky uses to convey the horror of Golyadkin’s situation? How does he keep the reader’s interest, and preserve the reader’s sense of strangeness in this encounter? What information is provided, and what information is withheld?

Essay Topic 2

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

Essay Topic 3

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.

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