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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. What does Hippolite do when Myshkin tells him to stop reading?

2. Who is the first visitor who arrives, while Myshkin is recuperating?

3. How does the party react when Vera says Hippolite is going to kill himself?

4. How does Myshkin react to the idea that someone stole Lebedev's money?

5. Nastassya has written Aglaya several letters that Aglaya shows Myshkin. What do these letters ask Aglaya to do?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Myshkin learn that Nastassya is in town?

2. Why hasn't Myshkin visited the Yephanchins?

3. What does Madam Yephanchin feel about her daughter's relationship with Myshkin?

4. What does Madam Yephanchin think about, as she brings Myshkin to her house?

5. How does Myshkin contradict what Aglaya has told him about Ganja?

6. What does Keller ask Myshkin for?

7. How would Myshkin probably act, if he were in Lebedev's place in the disagreement between Lebedev and General Ivolgin?

8. How do the guests at the Yephanchins' react to Myshkin's response to Radomsky's political views?

9. How does Aglaya react to winning and losing at games?

10. What does Aglaya say to Myshkin, after her proposal to him?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss death in the novel.

1) Discuss Hippolite's attempted suicide and impending death from disease. How does Hippolite perceive death? How does he deal with impending death?

2) Discuss General Ivolgin's death from stroke. What does death mean to the General and those around him? What perspective does his first stroke and eventual death put on his disagreement with Lebedev?

3) Discuss Nastassya's death. What leads up to her death? What does her death mean to Rogozhin and to Myshkin? What does death mean to Nastassya?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the expectations that characters put on others in the novel.

1) What do the members of society expect Myshkin to be like? How do they treat Myshkin when he does not meet their expectations?

2) What do the characters expect of their friends and family members in the novel? What do Aglyana's parents expect of her, and how do their expectations shape her behavior? What does Nastassya's guardian expect from her, and how do his expectations shape her behavior?

3) What does Myshkin expect from others in the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Myshkin is known for his forgiveness of others throughout the novel. Discuss forgiveness in the novel.

1) Why does Myshkin continue to forgive others for wrongs, including Rogozhin's murder of Nastassya? Are there other characters in the novel that forgive each other for wrongdoings?

2) How does the knowledge of assured forgiveness affect the characters' behavior? Does it make Lebedev more likely to be complicit in the scandalous article against Myshkin? Does forgiveness have a negative affect on characters?

3) When do the characters not forgive each other? How does the lack of forgiveness affect the characters' lives?

(see the answer keys)

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