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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who does Peter allow into the fête?
(a) Writers and artists.
(b) Criminals and prostitutes.
(c) Lower-class people.
(d) Radical agitators.

2. How does the audience respond to Karminazov's reading?
(a) They begin to riot.
(b) They weep at the beauty of it.
(c) They sing Karminazov's praises.
(d) They are bored.

3. What is Shigalyov's plan for the new social organization?
(a) Enslave 90% of humanity.
(b) Eliminate the aristocracy.
(c) Abolish industrialism and return to farming.
(d) Liberate the peasants.

4. What does Lisa Tushin challenge Stavrogin to do?
(a) Divorce Mary Lebyatkin.
(b) Murder his mother.
(c) Murder Mary and Captain Lebyatkin.
(d) Get Lebyatkin to stop writing her letters.

5. Who had a hand in manipulating Lisa to be with Stavrogin?
(a) Liputin.
(b) Shatov.
(c) Peter.
(d) Virginsky.

6. What resonance does the story of the swine from Luke have with the novel?
(a) Dostoevsky appears to believe that Russia is possessed by demons.
(b) Dostoevsky appears to believe that lovers are possessed by demons.
(c) Dostoevsky appears to believe that educated people are possessed by demons.
(d) Dostoevsky appears to believe that revolutionaries are possessed by demons.

7. Why are workers from the Spigulin factory massing in the street?
(a) They are organizing themselves for the new, post-revolutionary society.
(b) They are demanding the release of political prisoners.
(c) They are petitioning for the governor to intervene in a payment dispute.
(d) They are enjoying their day off.

8. What kind of speech does Stepan Verkhovensky give?
(a) An attack on materialism.
(b) A jeremiad against the people themselves.
(c) A justification of revolutionary acts.
(d) A defense of high culture.

9. What had some poor people done to prepare for the fête?
(a) Pawned their belongings to buy gowns.
(b) Stolen money from Lembke.
(c) Broken into the banquet hall.
(d) Moved away to make room for Lembke's guests.

10. How many people are in Peter Verkhovensky's secret group of radicals?
(a) Ten.
(b) Fifteen.
(c) Five.
(d) Twenty-five.

11. Who does the chief of police begin to arrest?
(a) The people who complain about the lack of food.
(b) The people who disseminate radical literature.
(c) The people who set fire to the hall.
(d) The people who bring alcohol into the fête.

12. What does Stepan ask of the police during the search?
(a) He asks for money as an inducement to help them.
(b) He asks for a more thorough search.
(c) He asks for immunity if he testifies against Peter.
(d) He demands the name of the officer in charge.

13. What crime is Fedka implicated in?
(a) Arson.
(b) Treason.
(c) Theft.
(d) Murder.

14. Who is on the stage when Karminazov goes to speak?
(a) Shatov.
(b) Stepan Verkhovensky.
(c) Liputin.
(d) Captain Lebyatkin.

15. Who does Peter leave Virginsky's house to meet?
(a) Lisa Tushin.
(b) Captain Lebyatkin.
(c) Kirilov and Stavrogin.
(d) His father.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the overall message of The Possessed?

2. Why does Lisa want to leave Stavrogin at the beginning of the Part 3, Chapter 3?

3. Who carries out the raid on Peter's house?

4. How does Stepan Verkhovensky react to the search of Peter's house?

5. Whom does Lisa find after she leaves Stavrogin's?

(see the answer keys)

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