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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 is Liputin?

2. What is Peter predicting in the time after the confrontation at Mrs. Stavrogin's house?

3. What does Mrs. Stavrogin want to find out at the beginning of Chapter 5?

4. What does Peter ask his father in front of the group?

5. Whom does Mrs. Lembke befriend?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Stepan Verhovensky feel about Verkhovensky's marriage to Dasha?

2. How do people explain the gathering of workers from the Spigulin factory?

3. What story does Stepan, in his fever, think is representative of contemporary Russia?

4. What is Mrs. Stavrogin's response to Stepan Verkhovensky's letter to Peter about Dasha?

5. Where does Stepan go after he leaves Mrs. Stavrogin's house?

6. How does Stepan Verkhovensky react to having his house raided?

7. What does Peter tell us about why Nicholas Stavrogin treated Miss Lebyatkin the way he did?

8. What is Julia Lembke's relationship with the youth of her town?

9. What happens to Stepan at the inn?

10. What effect do Julia Lembke's political activities have on Mr. Lembke?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What role does innocence play in The Possessed? Is it always sacrificed, as Mary Lebyatkin and Shatov are? Does it endure anywhere, in spite of Mary and Shatov's murders?

Essay Topic 2

Is The Possessed a Christian novel? What kind of Christianity does it align with? Old Testament or New Testament? In what ways does the novel seem atheistic, or existential?

Essay Topic 3

How are women depicted in The Possessed? Are they mere symbols of sexual attributes like desirability and innocence and seduction, or are they individuals with complex feelings and thoughts? How are they distinguished from the male characters, or are they treated as similarly-independent, self-reliant souls?

(see the answer keys)

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