Tolstoy Final Exam

Russian 424 Instructor: Tatyana Dhaliwal
Tolstoy Final Exam

AK = Anna Karenina
1. (15 points) Count Leo Tolstoy once said, “Let a man but withdraw from society and retire into himself and his reason will soon strip off the spectacles through which he has hitherto seen everything in a corrupt light.” Explore this quotation in relationship to the novel AK. Use at least three (3) quotations from the novel to support your essay answer.
(1.5 pages, double spaced, New Times Roman, please use standard margins)

2. “(11 points) “Vengeance is mine, I shall repay”. What are some of the original sources for this epigraph? Analyze the epigraph’s possible interpretations in relationship to AK. It is the instructor’s opinion that the figurative ”axe” of Tolstoy’s vengeance is raised above Anna’s head when she leaves Seryozha behind and departs for Italy with Vronsky. While keeping in mind societal limitations of 19th century Russia, the 20 year age difference between Anna and Alexey Karenin, and Vronsky’s long, persistent courtship of Anna, when is the figurative ”axe” raised above Anna’s head in your opinion? Use at least three (3) quotations from the novel to support your essay answer.
(1.5 pages, double spaced, New Times Roman, please use standard margins)

3. (15 points) Write a Gerasim soliloquy about the death of Ivan Iliych in the first person non-omniscient, imitating the style of Tolstoy’s translation “Death of Ivan Iliych”.
(1 page, double spaced, New Times Roman, please use standard margins)

4. (1 point) Who was the economist responsible for the CORN model discussed in Seth’s presentation? Draw the CORN model and explain its relationship to the novel AK. (3 points)

5. What Tolstoy’s book about non-resistance to evil inspired Mahatma Gandhi towards the doctrine of non-violence? (1 point)

6. (2 points) What two (2) major societal mainstays does Tolstoy’s novel Resurrection attack?

7. ( 5 points) Describe Tolstoy’s relationship with the ROC. (10 sentences)

8. (5 points) In what ways did Sonya Behrs help Count Leo Tolstoy become a great writer? (10 sentences)

9. (10 points) Polemize for/against Tolstoy’s quote ”Upper class art is not art but counterfeit””. In what Tolstoy’s work does this quote appear? (15 sentences)

10. (17 points Discuss Tolstoy’s masterful use of irony in the following scenes from AK: 1) Levin, Oblonsky, and Vasenka Veslovsky hunt, 2) Koznyshev and Varenka’s failed proposal, 3) Dolly’s visit to Anna and Vronsky at Vronsky’s estate. (24 sentences)

11. (15 points) Part 8 of AK with its Slavophile innuendos and Tolstoy’s leanings to point out to the reader the futility of war and going to war was viciously criticized by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Why would Tolstoy end a novel about family life/adultery/happiness/religious awakening/meaning of life with the “Slavic question” thematic twist? – (1 page, double spaced, New Times Roman, please use standard margins)

Extra Credit

(10 points) (1page, double spaced, New Times Roman, please use standard margins)
War and Peace and the Russia movie version that you viewed are based on real historical events. Tolstoy devoted himself to painstaking historical accuracy of battle scenes and accurate protrayals of the tsar, Napoleon, and General Kutuzov. Yet, the fictional characters draw the reader into the novel. Why would Tolstoy and the faithful movie adaptation merge fact and fiction in this particular fashion?

(5 points) - 10 sentences.

Discuss Tolstoy's relationship with A.A. Fet or Ivan Turgenev.