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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. Who do the drunk men find waiting up by a lighted window at Luzhin's fiancee's parents' house?

2. Where is the first place Mrs. Luzhin suggests they travel?

3. What is Luzhin like when his fiancee sits with him at the sanatorium?

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What does Luzhin's psychiatrist ask him about?

4. What is Mrs. Luzhin reminded of when she reads Soviet newspapers?

5. How does Luzhin falling unconscious affect his fiancee?

6. How to Kurt and Karl know where to send Luzhin in the taxi?

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

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

9. At the ball, how does Mrs. Luzhin compare the movie actresses to her husband in her mind?

10. How does Luzhin feel at his wedding reception?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Luzhin is only known by his family name throughout most of the novel, and other major characters are never named at all. Discuss the use of names in the novel.

1) Why is Luzhin only known by his family name throughout the novel? Why is his personal name revealed at the end of the novel?

2) Why are the characters closest to Luzhin, like his wife, never named?

3) Why are characters who are relatively unimportant, like guests at a party or people the Luzhins run into on the street, given names? What does this show about the author's perspective?

Essay Topic 2

Luzhin has difficulty with human relationships. Discuss love and human connection in the novel.

1) How does Luzhin form human connections, with his parents, his manager, his wife, his in-laws, and others? How are his human connections different from other people's?

2) Does Luzhin find love in the novel? Does he love others, and does he get love in return? How do his wife and his father love him?

3) Discuss the love relationships other than Luzhin's. How do his parents love or not love each other? How do his in-laws love each other? What other examples of love are there in the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss obsession in the novel.

1) Why is Luzhin obsessed with chess? Is this unhealthy, as his psychiatrist suggests?

2) What are other characters' obsessions? Does Luzhin's father have an obsession? Does his wife have one? What about other characters?

3) Can Luzhin's obsession be broken? Should it be?

(see the answer keys)

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