View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do Marya's boredom and depression turn into?

2. What does Marya say she got, in her marriage to Sergey?

3. How does Marya say her marriage to Sergey affects her relationship with the world?

4. What political stance do the Muslim Tartars typically take?

5. How does Tolstoy describe Marya and Sergey's feelings for each other?

Short Essay Questions

1. How has Marya's attitude about marriage changed by the end of the story?

2. What happens in the first ambush Lukashka sets up?

3. What causes Marya and Sergey to get beyond their jealousies?

4. What does Ivan Ilych learn on his deathbed?

5. What is Eugene Irtenev's relationship with Stepanida?

6. What does Dmitri Olenin think he will find in the Caucasus?

7. Describe Dmitri's departure from the Caucasus.

8. Which ending of "The Devil" seems to be preferable?

9. What happens to end the truce between Ivan Ilych and Praskovya Federovna?

10. What causes Marya's depression?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Tolstoy see marriage? Analyze marriages in three stories, and describe the uses, benefits and disadvantages of marriage in Tolstoy's writing.

Essay Topic 2

To what extent are Tolstoy's stories instructional, and what are they teaching? Describe the educational value of three of Tolstoy's stories.

Essay Topic 3

What epiphanies do Tolstoy's characters have, and what do they learn from them? Is Tolstoy consistent in the kinds of things his characters learn, or is he using his characters to elicit feelings or epiphanies in the reader?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 753 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample