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The Idiot

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Study Guide

Summary
- Plot Overview
Characters
Main Ideas
- Themes
- Motifs
- Symbols
- Key Facts
Quotes
- Important Quotations 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. Whom does Myshkin meet on the train at the beginning of the novel?

Rogozhin and Lebedev
General Yepanchin and Lebedev
Rogozhin and Nastassya Filippovna
Rogozhin and Keller

2. Where has Myshkin spent the years prior to returning to Russia and why?

He was born and raised in France because this was Pavlishchev's favorite place in the world
He spent four years in Lyon watching public executions
He spent four years in a Swiss sanitarium in an attempt to cure his idiocy
He spent four years in an Italian clinic to cure his epilepsy

3. Who was Prince Myshkin's benefactor and guardian?

Burdovsky's father
Pavlishchev
Lebedev
General Yepanchin

4. Why does Prince Myshkin immediately proceed to the Yepanchins upon arrival to St. Petersburg?

He is hoping to find a place to stay
He knows that acquaintance with the Yepanchins is likely to help his career
He is in love with Aglaya Yepanchin
He is distantly related to the General's wife

5. Who is Marie?

A girl Myshkin knew in Switzerland who was seduced and abandoned by her seducer
One of the Yepanchin daughters
A nurse at the Swiss clinic where Myshkin spent four years
Lebedev's daughter

6. What does General Yepanchin give Nastassya Filippovna as a birthday present and why?

A pair of diamond earrings because he lusts after her
A string of pearls because he lusts after her
A pair of diamond earrings because he is trying to convince her to marry Ganya
A string of pearls because he is trying to convince her to marry Ganya

7. Why is General Yepanchin glad that Myshkin can join his family for lunch?

He is excited by the thought of his new acquaintance
He is impressed by Myshkin's skills as a calligrapher
He is excited to introduce his wife's relative to everyone
Having the prince join them avoids a scandal in the family

8. What is Totsky's "worst action," according to his story at Nastassya Filippovna's party?

He stole a three-ruble note and blames the maid
He cursed at an old lady who dies
He indirectly caused a young man's death through his purchase of a bouquet of camelias
He seduced a young girl and made her his mistress

9. Why does Ganya want to marry Nastassya Filippovna?

He loves her
Totsky and General Yepanchin have promised him 75,000 rubles
The marriage to such a beautiful woman complements his vanity
He hopes to rise in his social status through this marriage

10. How much money does Rogozhin bring to Nastassya Filippovna's on the evening of her party?

40,000 rubles
75,000 rubles
85,000 rubles
100,000 rubles

11. With what does Rogozhin attempt to kill the Prince?

A pistol
A butcher knife
A rifle
A garden knife

12. With what painting of Rogozhin's is Myshkin impressed?

A portrait of Rogozhin's father
A painting of a Christ who has just been taken off the cross
A painting of a Christ on the cross
A painting of Christ with children

13. What prevents Rogozhin from killing the Prince?

An epileptic fit
His conscience
Kolya's entrance
The police

14. What poem does Aglaya recite in front of her family and the Prince in Pavlovsk?

Krylov's fable about an ass
Lermontov's "Masquerade"
Pushkin's "The Poor Knight"
Pushkin's "The Brass Horseman"

15. What detail does Aglaya change during her reading the Pushkin's poem at Lebedev's cottage?

She replaces the initials A.M.D. with N.F.B.
She replaces the words "poor knight" with "Lev Myshkin"
She calls the "poor knight" Don Quixote
She says the poem is by Tolstoy

16. How does Ganya prove that Burdovsky cannot possibly be Pavlishchev's son?

He brings in Burdovsky's mother
He reads a letter from Burdovsky's real father
He brings a picture of Burdovsky's family
He knows that Pavlishchev left the country more than a year before Burdovsky was born

17. What object outside his window in St. Petersburg does Hippolite spends so many hours staring at?

A bridge
A wall
A lamppost
A bench

18. Why does Hippolite's suicide attempt fail?

He forgets to put a firing-cap on his pistol
The prince prevents him
His shot misses
He forgets to put in the bullets

19. Why does Nastassya Filippovna speak on such friendly terms with Yevgeny Radomsky?

She loves him
She wants to ruin his reputation
They are childhood friends
His uncle has seduced her

20. Where and at what time does Aglaya arrange the meeting with the Prince?

Near a park bench at night
In Lebedev's cottage at seven o'clock in the evening
Near a park bench at seven o'clock in the morning
In the Yepanchin garden at midnight

21. What does Aglaya send to Myshkin as a sign of peace?

A letter
A hedgehog
An apple pie
A poem

22. What does Prince Myshkin break at the dinner party at the Yepanchins'?

A Venetian glass vase
A Persian teapot
A Japanese figurine
A Chinese vase

23. What prompts Aglaya to run away from the meeting with Nastassya Filippovna?

Myshkin tells Aglaya that Nastassya Filippovna is very unhappy
She remembers her sisters will be looking for her
Her mother walks in
Myshkin says he will marry Nastassya Filippovna

24. Where does Myshkin spend the night after following Rogozhin and Nastassya Filippovna to St. Petersburg?

Rogozhin's study
His hotel
A park bench
The train station

25. Who visits the Prince in Switzerland?

Prince S.
Radomsky
Lebedev
Kolya

Previous section Context Next section Study Questions

Popular pages: The Idiot

Character List CHARACTERS
Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin: Character Analysis CHARACTERS
Important Quotations Explained MAIN IDEAS
Themes MAIN IDEAS

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