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 does Mrs. Luzhin criticize about her body, as she examines herself in the mirror on her wedding night?

2. Who is depicted atop the bookcase in the new apartment?

3. What is the one thing Luzhin finds wrong with the old jacket he begs his wife to let him keep?

4. How does Luzhin's mother-in-law speak to him after the wedding?

5. What book does Mrs. Luzhin read aloud to her husband?

Short Essay Questions

1. What books that his fiancee brings him in the sanatorium does Luzhin enjoy?

2. How does Luzhin's fiancee's mother react to the idea that Luzhin is drunk?

3. What memory of his father does Luzhin recall when he stops to buy fruit?

4. What does Luzhin think when the lights come on again after Ivan has knocked over the lamp?

5. What word keeps going through Mrs. Luzhin's mind on her wedding night, and what does it mean?

6. What does Luzhin realize when he overhears his wife talking to her visitor?

7. How does Luzhin's fiancee feel about their new apartment as she furnishes it?

8. How does Luzhin react to the parties of intellectuals that his wife entertains?

9. How does Luzhin kill himself?

10. How does Luzhin feel at his wedding reception?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss fulfillment in the novel.

1) What motivates characters to pursue the activities they pursue? What motivates Luzhin? What motivates his wife?

2) Where do characters in the novel find fulfillment? Are any of the characters successful in feeling fulfilled?

3) What prevents fulfillment? How do characters perceive others' desires for or quests for fulfillment? How do characters conflict over what makes them fill fulfilled?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the relationships of parents and children in the novel.

1) How does Luzhin relate to his father? How does this relationship affect Luzhin throughout his life? How does this relationship evoke the relationship of Luzhin's father and grandfather?

2) What do parents expect from their children in the novel? What does Luzhin's father expect from him? What about his mother? What do Luzhin's wife's parents expect from her?

3) How do parents and children feel about each other? Do they love each other? What other emotions are related to parents and children?

Essay Topic 3

After Luzhin's breakdown, he goes through a period of retirement from chess, in which he in many way relives his childhood. Discuss this repetition of the past and the air of fatalism it has.

1) Is Luzhin fated to be drawn back to chess? What forces seem to draw him irrevocably to chess?

2) Is Luzhin replaying his childhood because the forces of his character naturally cause him to have the same relationships and do the same types of things? Is this fate? Can Luzhin change? Can the world around him change?

3) In what ways is Luzhin's childhood different from his adulthood with his wife? How does Luzhin change? Does this show any ability to break free of the repetition?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 950 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample