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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 Stavrogin tell Peter he is planning to do?

2. What is Verkhovensky ashamed of?

3. How are Mrs. Stavrogin's views changing as time goes on?

4. What warning does Stavrogin give to Shatov at the end of their conversation?

5. Who is Mrs. Lembke hosting in her salon?

Short Essay Questions

1. What story does Stepan, in his fever, think is representative of contemporary Russia?

2. How are Liputin, Shatov and Virginsky described when we meet them?

3. What is Peter planning with regard to Shatov?

4. What happens to Stepan at the inn?

5. Why does Lisa Tushin approach Shatov?

6. What stories and events are swirling in the aftermath of the confrontation that ended Part 1?

7. Why is Stepan's house searched?

8. How would you characterize the opposition between Stepan and Peter?

9. How does Stepan Verhovensky feel about Verkhovensky's marriage to Dasha?

10. What is the purpose of the gathering at Mr. Virginsky's house?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the economy of The Possessed? Where does money come from, and does money come from any new places or reside in any new places as a result of the action of the novel?

Essay Topic 2

Following the allegory of the swine from Luke, are the demons cast out of the society of the novel? Are they cast out of Russian society by Dostoevsky's novel?

Essay Topic 3

Is The Possessed a Christian novel? What kind of Christianity does it align with? Old Testament or New Testament? In what ways does the novel seem atheistic, or existential?

(see the answer keys)

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