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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Virginsky say to the radicals after Shatov's wife gives birth?
(a) He tells them that Shatov has renounced all his association with radical ideals.
(b) He tells them that Shatov will never inform on them now.
(c) He tells them that they should put down their plans and celebrate with Shatov and his wife.
(d) He tells them that Shatov is more committed to revolution now than ever before.

2. What does Stavrogin want Fedka to do?
(a) Return to prison.
(b) Kill Mary and Captain Lebyatkin.
(c) Kill Shatov.
(d) Start a riot.

3. What does Shatov ask Kirilov for after he discovers that his wife is pregnant?
(a) Money for a divorce.
(b) Money for a midwife.
(c) He asks Kirilov to raise the child.
(d) Help leaving town.

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

5. What led to the release of the demons in Russia in the nineteenth century?
(a) Convulsions associated with modernization.
(b) The invention of the printing press.
(c) The invention of the railroad.
(d) The publication of Darwin's Origin of Species.

6. What is the narrator's response to Stepan Verkhovensky's reaction to the search of Peter's house?
(a) He is intimidated.
(b) He is determined to bring Peter to justice.
(c) He is baffled.
(d) He is worried.

7. How do the revolutionaries dispose of Shatov's body?
(a) They tie rocks to his feet and throw his body in the pond.
(b) They throw him the river.
(c) They cut up his body and burn him.
(d) They bury him in the woods.

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

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

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

11. What effect does the birth of Shatov's child have on him?
(a) It fills him with dread for the world's sufferings.
(b) It fills him with forgiveness for his wife's infidelity.
(c) It renews his faith in God.
(d) It renews his commitment to revolutionary ideals.

12. Who takes the stage after Stepan Verkhovensky?
(a) Liputin.
(b) Julia Lembke.
(c) Stavrogin.
(d) A mad professor.

13. What kind of poem does Liputin read to the crowd?
(a) An obscene farce.
(b) A call for revolution.
(c) A patriotic ode.
(d) A pastoral idyll.

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

15. Where does Stepan Verkhovensky wander into in the beginning of Chapter 7 of Part 3?
(a) The Winter Palace in Moscow.
(b) An anarchists' camp.
(c) A river.
(d) The 'real Russia.'

Short Answer Questions

1. What happens to Stavrogin as the novel concludes?

2. What does Lisa overhear of Stavrogin's conversation with Peter?

3. Where does Stepan Verkhovensky set off for after the fête?

4. Russia's salvation seems to reside where, in Dostoevsky's opinion?

5. What is the overall message of The Possessed?

(see the answer keys)

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