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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 Aglaya ask Myshkin to read?

2. How did the General's wife react to his gift to Nastassya Filoppovna?

3. What do some guests at the party criticize Myshkin for?

4. Does Nastassya accept Myshkin's proposal?

5. What is the General's plan for his daughter Aglaya?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Myshkin respond when Adelaide asks him about falling in love?

2. What does Ferdyshchenko do with his ill-gotten gains?

3. What does Myshkin predict about Rogozhin and Nastassya Filippovna?

4. What does Rogozhin describe as having happened between him and Nastassya before she left him?

5. What does Nastassya ask Myshkin, after hearing the stories of the men at the party?

6. How does Totsky describe Nastassya's behavior as she grew up?

7. How does Ganja's father embarrass him?

8. How do the Yephanchins' three daughters react to Myshkin?

9. What does Nastassya say initially to Myshkin's proposal?

10. How does Madam Yephanchin react to Myshkin going off to collect his inheritance?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss death in the novel.

1) Discuss Hippolite's attempted suicide and impending death from disease. How does Hippolite perceive death? How does he deal with impending death?

2) Discuss General Ivolgin's death from stroke. What does death mean to the General and those around him? What perspective does his first stroke and eventual death put on his disagreement with Lebedev?

3) Discuss Nastassya's death. What leads up to her death? What does her death mean to Rogozhin and to Myshkin? What does death mean to Nastassya?

Essay Topic 2

The novel centers around the characters' love relationships. Discuss love in the novel.

1) What causes characters to fall in love with each other in the novel? How can the characters, and the reader, distinguish between true love and different kinds of attraction in the novel?

2) What role does jealousy play in the characters' love relationships? What role does the characters' ideas of their self-worth play in their attraction to others?

3) What role does social position and money play in the characters' love relationships?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the role of family in the characters' lives.

1) How do the characters' families and social positions affect their lives? How do family relationships affect how the characters are accepted by society?

2) How does it affect Nastassya that her parents are killed when she is young? How do the characters' upbringings affect their personalities and attitudes?

3) How do the characters' families try to influence the characters' lives and decisions? What forces do families use to influence family members' behavior.

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