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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What cover do the fifteen people use for gathering at Virginsky's house?
(a) They are there to help him move.
(b) They are there to celebrate his birthday.
(c) They are there to celerate the birth of his son.
(d) They are there to help him through his illness.

2. What kind of poem does Liputin read to the crowd?
(a) An obscene farce.
(b) A call for revolution.
(c) A patriotic ode.
(d) A pastoral idyll.

3. Why do the townspeople think the Lebyatkins were killed?
(a) To avenge their persecution of the aristocrats.
(b) To free Stavrogin to have his affair with Lisa Tushin.
(c) To punish them for blackmailing the radical group.
(d) To limit the radicals' liabilities.

4. Why was it a mistake to charge a high price for the fête?
(a) The people who came wanted food.
(b) The people expected to be entertained.
(c) No one could afford to come.
(d) Expensive tickets excluded the writers.

5. For whom are the swine a metaphor in the story of Luke?
(a) Peter and his revolutionaries.
(b) Captain and Mary Lebyatkin.
(c) Stavrogin and voluptuaries like him.
(d) Mrs. Lembke and her young radicals.

6. Why is The Possessed an inaccurate transposition of the story of the swine in Luke?
(a) Russia's tumultuous revolution dwarfs the revolutionary action of the novel.
(b) The devils are more destructive in the story, and also more difficult to control.
(c) The devils that haunt Russia are not as easy to cast out as Peter and his radicals.
(d) The devils reside in the human heart, and can never be cast out completely.

7. Who alone knows the purpose of the meeting at Virginsky's house?
(a) Virginsky.
(b) Peter Verkhovensky.
(c) Liputin.
(d) Mrs. Stavrogin.

8. Who does Peter allow into the fête?
(a) Writers and artists.
(b) Criminals and prostitutes.
(c) Lower-class people.
(d) Radical agitators.

9. What does Stavrogin want Fedka to do?
(a) Return to prison.
(b) Kill Shatov.
(c) Kill Mary and Captain Lebyatkin.
(d) Start a riot.

10. Shatov is happy to see his wife in spite of what?
(a) Her illness.
(b) Her infidelity.
(c) Her poverty.
(d) Her disdain for him.

11. What does Lisa overhear of Stavrogin's conversation with Peter?
(a) She hears that Fedka killed Mary and Captain Lebyatkin.
(b) She hears that Stavrogin killed Mary and Captain Lebyatkin.
(c) She hears taht Peter killed Mary and Captain Lebyatkin.
(d) She hears that Stavrogin knows who killed Mary and Captain Lebyatkin.

12. What reason does the narrator have for visiting Lembke?
(a) He wants to know why he is being searched.
(b) He wants to prevent Stepan Verkhovensky from doing anything silly.
(c) He wants to arrange to get out of the country.
(d) He wants to testify against Peter Verkhovensky.

13. What led to the release of the demons in Russia in the nineteenth century?
(a) The publication of Darwin's Origin of Species.
(b) The invention of the railroad.
(c) Convulsions associated with modernization.
(d) The invention of the printing press.

14. How does Stepan Verkhovensky react to the search of Peter's house?
(a) He runs away.
(b) He helps the police.
(c) He resists the search with force.
(d) He hides in a closet.

15. What is Peter Verkhovensky concerned about when he rushes out of Virginsky's house?
(a) A raid that is planned for his house.
(b) A letter that might expose the group.
(c) Getting his manuscript to the press in time for printing.
(d) An arrest warrant that has been issued for him.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who kills Shatov?

2. What kind of speech does Stepan Verkhovensky give?

3. What does Blum say about the search at Peter Verkhovensky's?

4. Who carries out the raid on Peter's house?

5. Russia's salvation seems to reside where, in Dostoevsky's opinion?

(see the answer keys)

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