I. Answer these questions in one or two words
1. Who is the suitor in the story?
Answer: The suitor in the story is Pyotr Petrovitch Milkin.
2. Who asked for a stag party?
Answer: Pyotr Petrovitch Milkin’s friends asked for a stag party.
3. How many daughters did Kondrashkin have?
Answer: Kondrashkin had seven daughters.
4. What ‘heredity vice’ did Pyotr refer to as an excuse to avoid getting married?
Answer: “Drinking bouts” is the “heredity vice” that Pyotr refers to as an excuse to avoid getting married.
5. For which crime did Pyotr say that he was on trial?
Answer: Forgerywas the crime that Pyotr said he was on trial for.
6. What ‘horrible secret’ did Pyotr contrive to get rid of the Kondrashkin family?
Answer: The “horrible secret” Pyotr contrived to get rid of the Kondrashkin family was that he was a runaway convict.
7. Why did Pyotr meet his friend, Dr Fituyev?
Answer: Pyotr meets his friend, Dr Fituyev for a fake certification of his mental insanity.
II. Answer these questions in a few words each.
1. Why did Pyotr’s friends ask for a stag party?
Answer: His friends wanted him to throw a stag party because they assumed he was about to tie the knot with Nastya.
2. How did Kondrashkin counter Pyotr’s argument that his convictions and views were different from those of Nastya?
Answer: As a rebuttal to Pyotr’s claim that his beliefs and views were fundamentally incompatible with Nastya’s, Kondrashkin argued that he would never find a wife whose views were completely similar to his own.
3. Why did Pyotr say that he was unworthy of Nastya? How did Kondrashkin react to it?
Answer: In Pyotr’s eyes, Nastya was unworthy of him because of his poverty and alcoholism. Kindrashkin brushed off Pyotr’s flaws, saying that he had never witnessed Pyotr under the influence of alcohol.
4. How did Kondrashkin dismiss Pyotr’s claim that he was guilty of taking bribes?
Answer: When Pyotr accused him of accepting bribes, Kondrashkin said that everyone does it.
5. Why did Kondrashkin fear that Pyotr might be sent to Siberia?
Answer: Due to Pyotr’s embezzlement trial, Kondrashkin was worried that he would be exiled to Siberia.
6. Why did Kondrashkin call Pyotr dishonest?
Answer: Because Pyotr concealed the fact that he was a fugitive from justice, Kondrashkin labelled him dishonest.
7. Why did Dr. Fituyev refuse to give Pyotr the certificate he wanted?
Answer: Because Pyotr refused to get married, Dr. Fituyev declined to give him a fake certificate of insanity. In Dr. Fituyev’s opinion, a person who doesn’t want to get married isn’t crazy; on the contrary, he is wise.
III. Answer these questions briefly in your own words.
1. Why did Pyotr get so disturbed by the rumours of his marriage? What did he try to do to get rid of the disturbing situation?
Answer: The rumours of his wedding upset Pyotr because he had no intention of getting married. The reason for this was that he was primarily a womaniser who was on a dating binge and didn’t want to tie himself down to any one woman. He decided to confront the Kondrashkin father head-on to end any chance of a marriage happening between him and the girl.
2. Which crimes of Pyotr’s, according to Kondrashkin, might land him in Siberia? How did he react to Pyotr’s ‘confession’ of these crimes and why?
Answer: Due to Pyotr’s embezzlement trial, Kondrashkin was worried that he would be exiled to Siberia. Although Kondrashkin was initially shocked to learn of Pyotr’s criminal past, his shock quickly turned to pain and fear upon learning that Pyotr was a fugitive from justice. The shock and horror he felt rendered him mute and immobile. He then sank into an armchair, muttering his regret at having allowed a snake to reside in his home, and he insisted that Pyotr never return.
3. Why did Pyotr decide to adopt ‘Hamlet’s device’? Why did he fail in this venture?
Answer: To get out of his marriage to Nastya Kondrashkin, Pyotr decided to use “Hamlet’s device.” He was unsuccessful in this endeavour because his friend, Dr. Fituyev, refused to issue Pyotr a phoney certificate of insanity because of Pyotr’s refusal to get married. Dr. Fituyev held the opinion that a person who does not wish to get married is neither insane nor foolish.
Additional/extra questions and answers/soluions
1. When did Pyotr realise that everyone assumed he would marry Nastya?
Answer: As a result of hearing from a friend that everyone knew he spent entire days with Kondrashkin’s daughters, dining there, accompanying Nastya on a stroll while singing love songs and presenting her with bouquets of flowers, Pyotr realised that he was under pressure to propose to Nastya. One of Pyotr’s pals had even requested a stag. As a result, he has finally come to terms with everything.
2. What was Kondrashkin thinking when he invited Pyotr over to meet Anastasia at his place?
Answer: Since Kondrashkin wanted Pyotr and Anastasia to get married, he welcomed Pyotr to his home so that he could meet Anastasia.
3. Why does Kondrashkin think Pyotr is dodging the issue and being dishonest?
Answer: When Kondrashkin finds out that Pyotr wants to leave town without marrying Nastya, he accuses him of ducking the issue and being dishonest. They all hoped that Pyotr would marry Nastya, but he spent his time with the daughters of Kondrashkin, who fed and entertained him.
4. Enumerate all of the reasons Pyotr has for not proposing to Anastasia, as well as Kondrashkin’s responses.
Answer: To avoid tying the knot with Anastasia, Pyotr came up with excuses to not propose. He said that Nastya was a beautiful young woman, but he couldn’t marry her because of their philosophical differences. Kondrashkin countered that spouses often have their own unique sets of beliefs and that these differences are often adjusted or resolved over time. Pyotr continued by saying he was poor, a drunk, and had a family history of binge drinking and accepting bribes, but Kondrashkin still didn’t believe him.
Pyotr continued by saying he could not get married because he was on trial for embezzling money from his workplace. But Kondrashkin told him that he would be sent to Siberia for his trial and that if the girl loved him, she would follow him there if he sent her an invitation. In addition, living conditions in Siberia were superior to those in their current location. Milkin responded that he, too, was facing charges of forgery. According to Kondrashkin, the repercussions would stay the same under those conditions.
Milkin fabricated a backstory in which he posed as a fugitive from justice. The old man was visibly shaken by Pyotr’s confession; he stared at him in silence for a few seconds before reprimanding him. The father was confused as to why his son, a fugitive from justice, hadn’t been picked up yet. Milkin said that he was not easily apprehended because he was using an alias. Hearing this, Kondrashkin argued that marrying Nastsya wouldn’t be a problem because he could continue to live as a secret agent until the day he died.
Finally, Pyotr lied that he was insane and therefore could not marry Anastasia in order to avoid tying the knot with her. The old man, however, did not buy into his story because he knew a madman could not make a convincing case. Finally, Pyotr promised to bring him a doctor’s note certifying his insanity.
5. What did Pyotr choose to do when he realised he wouldn’t be able to convince Kondrashkin?
Answer: After many failed attempts to persuade Kondrashkin, Pyotr decided to bring a letter from a friend who was a doctor, stating that Pyotr was insane.
6. Why did the doctor refuse to certify Pyotr as insane?
Answer: In spite of their friendship, Fituyev did not sign Pyotr’s certificate of insanity because he did not believe Pyotr was mad because he did not wish to wed. The ability to say that he does not want to get married is a sign of wisdom, and only the wise can muster such a declaration.
7. Is Kondrashkin justified in trying to wed Pyotr to his daughter at any cost, in your opinion?
Answer: No, Kondrashkin was right in pushing Pyotr to marry his daughter at any cost because Pyotr wasn’t willing to marry his daughter, and thus a union would only result in unhappiness and chaos for everyone involved eventually.
8. What was Kondrashkin’s hope?
Answer: Since they had become close, Kondrashkin wanted nothing more than for Pyotr to marry his daughter Anastasia. Pyotr, meanwhile, acted very much like a prospective suitor. Throughout the day, he was frequently found at Kondrashkins’ home, where he ate, sang, and drank. Since Kondrashkin saw them together, he assumed they were romantically involved.
9. What made Pyotr think of fleeing ignominiously?
Answer: When Kondrashkin insisted that Pyotr propose to Anastasia despite knowing that Pyotr was a fugitive from justice, Pyotr finally cracked and began to sweat. So, he had to humiliatingly escape from Kondrashkin or face even worse consequences.
10. For what reason did Pyotr’s pals assume he was set to wed Natsya?
Answer: Nastya Kondrashkin, the daughter of the court councillor, was a frequent recipient of flowers and ballads from Pyotr. On occasion, he would even join her family for dinner. These events had convinced Pyotr’s friends that he was seriously considering proposing to Nastya.
