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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. How does Golyadkin speak?

2. What language does most of the discourse at the banquet take place in?

3. What amount of money is this?

4. What does Golyadkin find unusual about Petrushka the morning after the banquet?

5. Where does Golyadkin Junior lead Golyadkin when he chases him?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Golyadkin’s shipping trip to Gostiny Dvor.

2. What is the meaning and significance of Golyadkin’s statement that “it’s not me at all”?

3. What is the literary effect of the scene in Krestyan Ivanovich’s office?

4. Where does Golyadkin go after leaving Olsufy Ivanovich’s house?

5. Describe the chase the stranger leads Golyadkin on.

6. Describe the scene of Golyadkin’s waking after chasing Golyadkin Junior.

7. What is Golyadkin’s purpose in getting into Olsufy Ivanovich’s banquet?

8. Describe Golyadkin’s arrival at work the morning after the banquet.

9. What does the scene in Krestyan Ivanovich’s office tell the reader about Golyadkin’s personality?

10. Describe Golyadkin’s arrival at Olsufy Ivanovich’s house.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the essence of The Double? If you could sum up the insights it brings the reader to, what is the story ultimately about, or rather, what does the story get the reader to see?

Essay Topic 2

Would you recommend The Double? For what purposes would you recommend The Double, and what kinds of readers would you recommend it for? What other book would you recommend that would cover the same material or tell the same story in a different way?

Essay Topic 3

What are the particular techniques Dostoevsky uses to convey the horror of Golyadkin’s situation? How does he keep the reader’s interest, and preserve the reader’s sense of strangeness in this encounter? What information is provided, and what information is withheld?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 906 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample