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Chekhov Stories

Anton Chekhov

Study Guide

Study Guide

Summary
Characters
Main Ideas
- Themes
- Motifs
- Symbols
- Key Facts
Quotes
- Important Quotes Explained
Further Study
- Context
- Full Book Quiz
- Study Questions
- Suggestions for Further Reading
Writing Help

Further Study

Full Book Quiz

Further Study Full Book Quiz

1. What task does Osip fulfill at his wife's dinner parties in The Grasshopper?

He enthralls the guests with tales of advancements in medical science.
He cooks the meal.
He announces dinner by banging on a gong.
He joins in the discussions about art, drama and music.

2. What river does Olga visit with her artist-lover Ryabovsky?

The Volga
The Danube
The Thames
The Seine

3. What are the professions of the "darling's" two husbands?

A landowner and a priest
A theater-owner and a timber-merchant
A wool-merchant and a veterinary surgeon
An army doctor and a shopkeeper

4. In what way does Olga embarrasses her lover, the veterinary surgeon Smirnin, in The Darling?

By kissing him in front of their guests
By parroting his ideas about disease that afflict livestock
By discussing her passion for the theater
By announcing her regret at not being a mother

5. Why does Dr. Rabin cease to take an interest in his patients in Ward No. six?

He hopes that his indifference will get him fired and that he will receive a large pension.
Gromov convinces him that the lunatics are beyond help.
His friend Mikhail tells him not to bother.
He thinks that everyone should accept the necessity of suffering.

6. What does Rabin feel after he has been tricked into entering the hospital asylum in Ward No. six?

He is happy that he can spend all day talking to Gromov.
He is worried that the other inmates will kill him.
He is unhappy and recognizes that he was wrong about the reality of suffering.
He feels optimistic that he will soon recover.

7. Why does Savka leave his lover and the narrator alone together in Agafya?

He runs off to catch a nightingale.
He decides to go fishing.
He thinks Agafya's husband is coming after him.
He thinks the narrator has a crush on Agafya.

8. What is the purpose of Kuzmichov's journey in Steppe, aside from taking his nephew Yegorushka to school?

To see the beautiful landscape of the Steppe
To talk to the priest without interruptions
To sell wool to the merchant Varlamov
To meet the beautiful Countess Dranitskaia

9. What is Yegorushka's reaction on meeting Varlamov in Steppe?

He is impressed by the wool-merchant's large size and personable attitude.
He is intrigued by his small stature and attitude of self-importance.
He detests him for his high-handed treatment of the peasants.
He is upset that Varlmov ignores him.

10. How does Yegorushka feel at the conclusion of his journey when he is left to stay at the house of his mother's friend?

He is happy and excited.
He is concerned about his mother at home.
He is resentful that his uncle dropped him off without saying a proper goodbye.
He is worried about what will happen to him in the future.

11. In what way does Misail alienate his father in My Life?

He quits his job as a clerk and becomes a laborer.
He marries a peasant girl.
He falls into heavy debt through gambling.
He calls his father a hypocrite.

12. Why is Masha drawn to Stephan in My Life?

He often pays her compliments.
He helps her set up a local school.
He frequently abuses the peasants.
He is a social outcast like her husband.

13. What significance does the gooseberry fruit have in the story Gooseberries?

It is what the landowner Aliokhin gives his guests to eat.
The fruit symbolizes the peasants' suffering.
The fruit symbolizes a simple life lived close to nature.
Ivan explains how his brother became a landowner and grew gooseberries on his estate.

14. Who or what does Ivan wish stood behind the door of "every happy, contented man" in Gooseberries?

A nagging wife
A man with a hammer
An unhappy peasant
A psychopath with a pickax

15. Why is Jerome the ferryman unhappy in The Night before Easter?

He hates rowing people across the river.
He is dying of tuberculosis.
He is in mourning for his friend Deacon Nicolas.
He is afraid of the dark.

16. What does Jerome insist Deacon Nicolas was particularly good at?

Giving advice
Listening to his friends' problems
Ferrying people across the river
Writing songs for saints

17. Who or what does "the black monk" say Kovrin is?

A raving lunatic
A mediocre professor with a tendency to hallucinate
A genius and one of God's elect
A faithless landowner

18. Why does Kovrin and Tania's marriage collapse in The Black Monk?

Tania falls in love with someone else.
Kovrin becomes embittered and cruel after his treatment for mental illness.
Kovrin has an affair.
Tania cannot cope with her husband's sickening from tuberculosis.

19. Why does the constable Loshadin say that he is willing to suffer in order to fulfill his office On Official Duty?

Because no one else will do his job
Because the landowners tip him well
Because he meets many interesting people
Because it is his duty

20. Why is the inquest postponed for two days in On Official Duty?

Dr. Starchenko commits suicide.
The corpse disappears.
A snowstorm hits the town.
Lyzhin has a nervous breakdown.

21. How does Lipa's baby Nikifor die in In the Ravine?

Aksinia scalds him with boiling water.
Grigori strangles him.
He starves after Lipa forgets to feed him.
His father throws him out of the window.

22. How does Chekhov describe Aksinia's smile in In the Ravine?

"cunning"
"wry"
"naïve"
"dim-witted"

23. What does Grigori do when beggars ask him for money?

He throws them some coins.
He gives them some home-brewed vodka.
He rides off in his carriage and shouts "God will provide!"
He beats them with his stick.

24. Who does Gurov think Anna resembles in The Lady with the Dog?

His daughter
His wife
A famous Russian actress
The Empress

25. How does The Lady with the Dog end?

Gurov commits suicide.
Anna dies of tuberculosis.
Anna and Gurov leave their spouses and live happily-ever-after in Yalta.
Anna and Gurov confess their love to each other and look to the future with hope and uncertainty.

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Popular pages: Chekhov Stories

Character List CHARACTERS
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