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

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

3. How does Myshkin feel when he leaves the Yephanchin house at the end of Part IV, Chapter V?

4. What animal does Aglaya buy from Koyla?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Madam Yephanchin feel about her daughter's relationship with Myshkin?

3. What does Ganja report about Burdovsky's relationship with Pavlishtchev?

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

5. What are Agalya's plans for herself and Myshkin when she first meets him in the park?

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

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

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

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

10. How do Myshkin and Agalya each interpret Myshkin's earlier letter to Agalya?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the role that money plays in the novel.

1) How does Myshkin's life and position change when he has money? How do others view him when he has money, versus when he doesn't have money?

2) Why does Rogozhin offer Nastassya increasing amounts of money to marry him? Why does Nastassya throw Rogozhin's money into the fire?

3) How do the other characters in the novel view money? Why is money important to Ganja? How does Madam Yephanchin feel about money?

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

In the society depicted in the novel, marriage is an important institution. The characters try to arrange marriages for themselves and for others. Discuss marriage in the novel.

1) How do the characters choose who they want to marry? How does Myshkin decide first to marry Aglaya and then Nastassya? How does Nastassya determine to marry Myshkin, and then run off with Rogozhin?

2) How do family members influence marriage? How do Aglaya's parents think of their daughter's marriage? What influence do they have on her marriage?

3) How does society view marriage? What relation does money and social position have to marriage? Does society influence the marriage choices that the characters make?

(see the answer keys)

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