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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 event results in an investigation that discovers radical literature?

2. Who else arrives in Chapter 5 and takes part in Mrs. Stavrogin's conversation?

3. In whose house is Peter spreading rumors in the days before the fête?

4. Why did Nicholas initially take an interest in Captain Lebyatkin?

5. How does the Verkhovensky circle feel about Nicholas Stavrogin?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the first chapter of Part I end?

2. What happens when Peter mentions that Stepan believes that Dasha has fallen into disrepute in Switzerland?

3. What is Verkhovensky's status in Russian society?

4. What business does Peter conduct with Kirilov in the raining cold of the night?

5. What kind of uprising is Peter planning?

6. What is Shigalyov's new plan of social organization?

7. Why does Lisa Tushin approach Shatov?

8. Why is Stepan's house searched?

9. Who is responsible for killing Mary and Captain Lebyatkin?

10. What stories are in circulation about Dasha's past?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the role of the crowd in The Possessed? How do the gathered factory workers or the guests at the fête behave like one character with a unified will or behavior of their own? How does Dostoevsky describe the crowds? What power do they have? What weaknesses?

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

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?

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