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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. During the beginning of the chess game with Turati, who seems to be winning?

2. How does the woman Luzhin meets in Germany (his future wife) think of his father?

3. Who begins to teach Luzhin chess?

4. At the end of Luzhin's first day of play against Turati, what does Luzhin feel unable to do?

5. How is Luzhin greeted when he arrives at his aunt's house?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Valentinov view Luzhin?

2. The morning after the party, what are relations like between Luzhin's father, his aunt, and his mother?

3. Who does Luzhin nearly run into on the first day he skips school?

4. How does Luzhin feel about playing chess blind?

5. How doe Luzhin's fiancee seem like a dream to him?

6. How does Luzhin senior's wife react when he has to go to town for the day?

7. Describe Luzhin's future wife when he meets her in Germany.

8. What authors does Luzhin like to read?

9. Why does Luzhin's father decide that the boy he wants to write about, based on his son, will die young?

10. Explain the nickname that the other boys give Luzhin at school.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Luzhin is a master chess player. Discuss chess in the novel.

1) When Luzhin sees a chess board, the pieces are just placeholders. He perceives something entirely abstract behind the board. What is it that Luzhin perceives? Why is it appealing to him? What does his relationship with chess show about his personality?

2) Near the end of the novel, Luzhin sees his life as a chess game. How is his life like a game of chess? Who is his opponent? What is he attempting to win? How does the chess analogy show how Luzhin is perceiving his world and his limitations in perceiving the world?

3) Why does Luzhin feel the need to hide his love for chess? In what ways is Luzhin ambivalent about chess? Is chess truly deadly unhealthy for Luzhin, as his psychiatrist says?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the intellectual versus the social in the novel.

1) How does Luzhin fit into the intellectual world? How does he fit into the social world? How do these two worlds conflict?

2) How does Luzhin's wife fit into the intellectual and social worlds in the novel? How does this affect their relationship?

3) How does Luzhin's father fit into the intellectual an social worlds in the novel? How does this affect their relationship?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Luzhin's character.

1) How is Luzhin different from other people? What are the consequences to him in his life?

2) Why is Luzhin obsessed with chess? What does Luzhin see and enjoy that most people don't?

3) What kind of world would Luzhin be happy in? In what ways is Luzhin mismatched to society, and why?

(see the answer keys)

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