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This test consists of 5 short answer questions and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What does Stepan ask of the police during the search?

3. Who does Peter allow into the fête?

4. What reason does the narrator have for visiting Lembke?

5. What does Lisa Tushin challenge Stavrogin to do?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Is there a consistent morality in The Possessed? Do violent people always pay a price for their acts of violence? Are criminals and scoundrels always caught and punished, or made to suffer somehow? Is innocent suffering redeemed?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

What is the role of literature in The Possessed? What kinds of literature are there, and what do characters expect from writers and from novels and from tracts? What effect do writers and literature have on society?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 312 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample