View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What entertainment do the Prince and the Yephanchins watch after they walk in the park?

2. Who tells Myshkin that an officer wants to duel him?

3. What is Madam Yephanchin's position about the possibility of Myshkin marrying her daughter Aglaya?

4. What does Ganja tell Varya he wants to do at the beginning of Part IV?

5. What does Burdovsky want from Myshkin?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when Hippolite tries to kill himself?

2. How does Myshkin contradict what Aglaya has told him about Ganja?

3. How would Myshkin probably act, if he were in Lebedev's place in the disagreement between Lebedev and General Ivolgin?

4. Why does Burdovsky feel he is owed something from Myshkin?

5. How does General Ivolgin act when he talks to Myshkin after his argument with Lebedev?

6. Why does Hippolite want to kill himself?

7. How do the guests at the Yephanchins' react to Myshkin's response to Radomsky's political views?

8. What does Aglaya say to Myshkin, after her proposal to him?

9. How does Myshkin learn that Nastassya is in town?

10. How does Madam Yephanchin react, after Burdovsky and his companions object to the information Ganja reveals about Burdovsky?

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

Discuss fate in the novel.

1) What forces, both within the characters themselves and outside the characters, dictate the paths that the characters' lives take in the novel? To what extent are the characters able to make choices about their lives and control their own destinies?

2) In the novel, there are moments of prophecy, as when Myshkin predicts that Nastassya will marry Rogozhin, and then Rogozhin will murder her. What do these moments of prophecy say about fate and destiny in the novel?

3) Could the novel have ended in any other way, for these particular characters in this particular society?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the nature of goodness in the novel.

1) In what ways does Myshkin embody goodness? Is Myshkin's goodness always truly good?

2) Why can't Myshkin's goodness survive in St. Petersburg society? Is goodness doomed to tragedy and failure?

3) Does Rogozhin have any goodness in him? In what ways are the other characters good?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 868 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample