Master and Man quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which literary genres best describe "Master and Man"?

   • Naturalism, Social Realism & Protest Fiction
   • Satire, Dark Comedy & Farce
   • Correct answer: Realism, Parable & Philosophical Fiction
   • Gothic Horror, Ghost Story & Supernatural Fiction
   • Romanticism, Adventure & Travel Narrative

   Realism, Parable & Philosophical Fiction is the best fit. The story combines meticulously observed detail (the blizzard, the horse, the peasant household) with a clear moral structure: a greedy man discovers through crisis that self-sacrifice is life's true purpose. This blend of realist technique and parable-like moral vision is characteristic of Tolstoy's late fiction.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Why is Vasili Andreevich in such a hurry to travel despite the dangerous weather?

   • He needs to deliver medicine to a sick relative in a neighboring village
   • Correct answer: He is racing to buy a grove of trees before competing timber-dealers from town outbid him
   • He has been summoned by the district magistrate and risks arrest if he is late
   • He is eager to sell a horse to a neighboring landowner before the animal's health declines

   Vasili Andreevich is desperate to close the deal on the Goryachkin grove before timber-dealers from town can outbid him. The landowner is asking 10,000 rubles, but Vasili Andreevich plans to get it for about 8,000. His greed drives the entire journey into the blizzard.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Where does Vasili Andreevich get the money for his trip?

   • Correct answer: He combines 700 rubles of his own with 2,300 rubles of church money he holds as elder
   • He sells his tavern to raise the necessary funds for the purchase
   • His wife secretly gives him her savings that she has hidden in a locked chest
   • He borrows the full amount from a money-lender in the neighboring village

   As church elder, Vasili Andreevich has custody of 2,300 rubles in church funds. He combines these with 700 of his own rubles to make 3,000. Using church money for a personal land deal reveals his casual dishonesty and sense of entitlement.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What is Nikita's relationship with alcohol at the time of the story?

   • He is secretly drinking throughout the journey, hiding a flask inside his sheepskin coat
   • He has never touched alcohol in his life due to a religious vow he made as a young man
   • He goes on a drinking bout about twice a year and joined the other workers drinking at the holiday feast
   • Correct answer: He swore off drink two months ago after drinking away his coat and boots, and is keeping the vow

   Nikita is an habitual drunkard who swore off drink after his last binge cost him his coat and leather boots. He has kept his vow for two months despite the holiday vodka flowing everywhere. His temptation at the Grishkino household shows the struggle is ongoing.

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5. 5

   Question 5. How does Vasili Andreevich treat Nikita financially?

   • Correct answer: He pays about forty rubles haphazardly, mostly in overpriced goods from his shop rather than cash
   • He provides no money at all but gives Nikita free room and board as full compensation
   • He deducts fines from Nikita's wages for every mistake and keeps careful written accounts of the debt
   • He pays Nikita the full eighty rubles a year such a man is worth, always in cash and on time

   Nikita is worth eighty rubles a year but receives only about forty, given irregularly and mostly as overpriced goods from Vasili Andreevich's shop. Despite this exploitation, Vasili Andreevich sincerely believes he is Nikita's benefactor.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What Pushkin poem does Petrushka quote as the travelers leave Grishkino?

   • Ruslan and Ludmila -- "By the sea stands a green oak"
   • Eugene Onegin -- "My uncle, what a worthy man"
   • The Bronze Horseman -- "On the shore of empty waves"
   • Correct answer: Winter Evening -- "Storms with mist the sky conceal"

   Petrushka recites lines from Pushkin's "Winter Evening": "Storms with mist the sky conceal, / Snowy circles wheeling wild. / Now like savage beast 'twill howl, / And now 'tis wailing like a child." He has memorized the poem from Paulson's primer.

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7. 7

   Question 7. In the story, Vasili Andreevich trusts in the horse's "sagacity" to find the road. What does "sagacity" mean?

   • Raw physical strength and endurance in harsh conditions
   • Correct answer: Keen mental discernment and good judgment; wisdom
   • Stubbornness and refusal to follow directions
   • Nervous sensitivity to changes in weather and temperature

   Sagacity means keen judgment or wisdom. Tolstoy uses it to describe Mukhorty's instinctive ability to sense the road under the snow. The irony is that the horse shows more practical wisdom than his human master.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Why does Nikita decline the vodka offered at the Grishkino household?

   • He does not trust the household and fears the vodka might be poisoned or tampered with
   • Vasili Andreevich has explicitly forbidden him from drinking while on duty
   • Correct answer: He is keeping a two-month vow of sobriety, though he is visibly tempted by the offer
   • He is too cold and tired to drink anything and only wants hot tea from the samovar

   Nikita goes through "a moment of painful hesitation" and nearly takes the glass, but remembers his oath, the boots he sold for drink, the cooper, and his son for whom he promised to buy a horse. He declines and drinks five tumblers of tea instead.

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9. 9

   Question 9. What does Vasili Andreevich think about while lying awake in the sledge during the blizzard?

   • Correct answer: He mentally calculates the value of the Goryachkin timber and dreams of becoming a millionaire
   • He remembers his childhood and regrets the choices that led him away from a simpler life
   • He prays fervently and reflects on his sins, asking God for forgiveness and rescue
   • He worries about Nikita's safety and takes the drugget off the horse to cover the sleeping peasant

   Even while trapped in a blizzard, Vasili Andreevich cannot stop calculating: "The oaks will go for sledge-runners... there'll still be some thirty sazheens of firewood left on each desyatin." He dreams of matching the Mironovs' millions. His greed is so ingrained it dominates even his survival instincts.

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10. 10

    Question 10. Did this happen in the story? Mark each statement true or false:

    • Vasili Andreevich and Nikita arrive at the village of Grishkino twice, having circled back both times.

      Happened

      They lose their way and arrive at Grishkino the first time. After warming up and getting directions, they set out again but get lost once more, and the horse leads them right back to the same village with the same frozen laundry on the line.

    • Nikita builds a fire from the sledge straw to keep them warm through the night.

      Didn't happen

      Nikita never builds a fire. Instead, he unharnessess Mukhorty, covers him with a drugget, sets up the shafts as a rescue signal, and makes himself a shelter behind the sledge with straw and sackcloth. The practical preparations are all about endurance, not warmth.

    • Vasili Andreevich rides off on Mukhorty but ends up circling back to the same sledge.

      Happened

      In a panic, Vasili Andreevich mounts Mukhorty and rides off alone, but he circles through the blizzard -- passing the same wormwood stalks twice -- before Mukhorty falls into the same ravine near the sledge, ending up only fifty paces from where he started.

    • Isay the horse-thief steals Mukhorty while the travelers sleep in the blizzard.

      Didn't happen

      Isay appears only in Grishkino, where he gives them directions. He has no further role. Mukhorty dies of exposure during the night while still tethered near the sledge.

    • Nikita survives the ordeal and lives another twenty years before dying peacefully at home.

      Happened

      Nikita is rescued alive, though he loses three toes to frostbite. He continues working as a laborer and then a watchman, eventually dying at home under the icons with a lighted taper in his hands, as he had wished.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does Nikita do when they are finally forced to stop for the night?

    • He sends the horse running free toward the nearest village to bring help back to them
    • He builds a snow cave large enough for both men and the horse to shelter in together
    • Correct answer: He unharnessess the horse, covers him, and sets the shafts upright as a rescue signal
    • He ties the horse to a nearby tree and wraps himself in the horse's blanket to sleep

    Nikita methodically unharnessess Mukhorty, covers him with the drugget, then ties the shafts together and sets them upright so "when the snow covers us up, good folk will see the shafts and dig us out." He credits this survival knowledge to "the old folk."

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12. 12

    Question 12. Critics often describe "Master and Man" as a parable. What is a parable?

    • A short story in which animals speak and act like people to teach a practical lesson about life
    • Correct answer: A simple narrative that illustrates a moral or spiritual lesson through representative characters
    • A humorous tale that mocks the conventions and expectations of literary tradition
    • A long descriptive passage that establishes setting and atmosphere before the action begins

    A parable is a simple story that conveys a moral or spiritual truth. "Master and Man" functions as a parable because its characters represent broader types (the greedy merchant, the humble servant) and its plot leads to a clear moral conclusion: self-sacrifice is the only path to genuine fulfillment.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What is ironic about Vasili Andreevich's attempt to escape alone on Mukhorty?

    • Mukhorty throws him immediately and runs back to the sledge without him
    • He reaches the forest but realizes he has left his money in the sledge and must return
    • The horse carries him to safety at a forester's hut, but he is too frozen to knock on the door
    • Correct answer: He rides in a complete circle and ends up back at the sledge, only fifty paces from where he started

    Vasili Andreevich abandons Nikita to save himself, but Mukhorty carries him in circles through the blizzard. He passes the same wormwood stalks twice and finds his own horse tracks in the snow. He ends up back at the sledge -- his selfish flight was completely futile.

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14. 14

    Question 14. What detail makes Vasili Andreevich realize he has been riding in a circle?

    • He recognizes the shape of a particular snowdrift he had passed earlier in the journey
    • He hears Nikita calling from the sledge and realizes the sound is getting closer, not farther
    • Correct answer: He sees horse tracks in the snow beside the same wormwood stalks he already passed twice
    • Mukhorty suddenly stops and refuses to move, which always means the horse senses the sledge

    Vasili Andreevich twice mistakes wormwood stalks for a village. The second time, he notices "a horse's track partly snowed over" beside them -- his own tracks. "He had evidently gone round in a small circle." The discovery fills him with existential terror.

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15. 15

    Question 15. What does Nikita mean when he thinks of "the Chief Master" while facing death?

    • Correct answer: He means God, the higher master who sent him into this life and in whose power he will remain
    • He is recalling his own father, the original "master" who taught him everything he knows
    • He is thinking of the Tsar, who as head of state is the ultimate master of all Russian subjects
    • He means the village elder who assigned him to work for Vasili Andreevich in the first place

    Nikita reflects that "besides the masters he had served here, like Vasili Andreevich, he always felt himself dependent on the Chief Master, who had sent him into this life." This means God. Nikita's faith gives him peace in facing death -- a peace Vasili Andreevich's wealth cannot provide.

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16. 16

    Question 16. What emotion overwhelms Vasili Andreevich as he lies on top of Nikita, warming him?

    • Bitter resentment that his life of hard work and ambition is ending so unfairly
    • Correct answer: A peculiar joy such as he had never felt before, accompanied by solemn tenderness
    • Calm resignation and acceptance that death is an inevitable part of every person's journey
    • Intense physical pain from the cold that gradually numbs his body from the extremities inward

    Vasili Andreevich experiences "a peculiar joy such as he had never felt before" and "a strange and solemn tenderness." Tears come to his eyes. His entire life of accumulation never produced genuine happiness -- only this act of self-sacrifice does.

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17. 17

    Question 17. What literary device is at work when Vasili Andreevich insists the road is just ahead while the reader knows he is hopelessly lost?

    • Personification -- giving human qualities to non-human things like the blizzard
    • Situational irony -- the outcome of events turns out to be the opposite of what was expected
    • Foreshadowing -- a hint that something bad will happen later in the narrative
    • Correct answer: Dramatic irony -- the audience understands the situation better than the character does

    Dramatic irony occurs when the audience has more information than the characters. Readers can see that Vasili Andreevich's confidence is delusional -- he insists the forest is just ahead while the storm grows worse and his horse sinks deeper into drifts. His certainty makes the danger more frightening.

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18. 18

    Question 18. What is Vasili Andreevich's final realization before he dies?

    • He regrets not having written a will and worries that his son will not inherit his businesses
    • He realizes that Nikita was right all along and they should have stayed in Grishkino for the night
    • Correct answer: He understands that his money, shop, and property were meaningless -- love was his true purpose
    • He accepts that the land deal is lost and a competitor will now buy the Goryachkin grove

    Vasili Andreevich thinks of his former self in the third person: "He did not know what the real thing was... He did not know, but now I know." He remembers "his money, his shop, his house" and finds it "hard to understand why that man, called Vasili Brekhunov, had troubled himself with all those things." Love and self-sacrifice are the "real thing."

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19. 19

    Question 19. What does Vasili Andreevich feel in his last conscious moment -- "he was Nikita and Nikita was he"?

    • Guilt that he has spent his life exploiting Nikita and others like him for profit
    • Correct answer: A mystical sense that his life continues through Nikita -- their identities have merged through sacrifice
    • A practical recognition that Nikita's survival skills are superior to his own in every way
    • Confusion and delirium caused by severe hypothermia affecting his brain

    In his final moments, Vasili Andreevich feels that "his life was not in himself but in Nikita." This mystical union -- the dissolution of ego through self-sacrifice -- is the spiritual climax of the story. The class boundary between master and servant vanishes entirely.

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20. 20

    Question 20. How close to the village were the travelers when they were found the next day?

    • Correct answer: About seventy yards from the road and less than half a mile from the village
    • In the exact center of the village square, having been blown there by the wind
    • Three versts from any settlement, in completely open steppe with no landmarks
    • Over five miles away, deep in the forest they had been trying to reach

    The peasants found them "not more than seventy yards from the road and less than half a mile from the village." This tragic proximity -- they nearly made it -- underscores the futility of Vasili Andreevich's reckless persistence.

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21. 21

    Question 21. How does the story portray the relationship between Vasili Andreevich and Nikita at the beginning?

    • As purely transactional, with both men clear-eyed about the unfairness of the arrangement
    • As a genuinely warm friendship between equals who respect each other's contributions
    • As openly hostile, with Vasili Andreevich threatening Nikita with dismissal at every opportunity
    • Correct answer: As exploitative, with Vasili Andreevich cheating Nikita while sincerely believing himself a benefactor

    Vasili Andreevich pays Nikita half what he's worth, mostly in overpriced goods from his shop, yet is "honestly convinced that he was Nikita's benefactor." Nikita knows he's being cheated but accepts it because "he had nowhere to go." Tolstoy exposes the self-deception that sustains class inequality.

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22. 22

    Question 22. What literary device does Tolstoy use when he repeatedly contrasts Vasili Andreevich's two fur coats with Nikita's torn sheepskin?

    • Metonymy -- using a physical object to represent an abstract concept like social class
    • Flashback -- interrupting the present action to show events that happened earlier in a character's life
    • Hyperbole -- extreme exaggeration used to emphasize a point about wealth inequality
    • Correct answer: Parallelism -- placing similar or contrasting elements side by side for comparison or effect

    Parallelism places similar structures side by side to highlight comparison or contrast. Throughout the story, Tolstoy juxtaposes the two men: Vasili Andreevich's two fur coats versus Nikita's torn sheepskin, one calculating profits versus the other caring for the horse, one panicking versus the other accepting fate.

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23. 23

    Question 23. What happens to Nikita after he is rescued from the blizzard?

    • He inherits Vasili Andreevich's businesses and becomes a wealthy merchant himself
    • Correct answer: He loses three toes to frostbite but lives another twenty years, dying peacefully at home
    • He moves to Moscow and becomes a successful water-carrier, sending money to his family
    • He is blamed for Vasili Andreevich's death and imprisoned by the village authorities

    Nikita spends two months in hospital and loses three toes. He continues working as a laborer and then a watchman, living another twenty years. He dies at home under the icons, having forgiven his wife and taken leave of his family -- "sincerely glad that he was relieving his son and daughter-in-law of the burden of having to feed him."

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24. 24

    Question 24. What is the significance of the title's double meaning of "Master"?

    • It is an allusion to the master-apprentice tradition in Russian craft guilds of the period
    • It refers to Vasili Andreevich as a "master" of horse-dealing, the occupation that absorbs all his mental powers
    • Correct answer: It contrasts Vasili Andreevich the earthly master with God, the "Chief Master" whom Nikita serves
    • It suggests that Nikita is secretly the true master because he controls all practical decisions

    The title operates on two levels: Vasili Andreevich is Nikita's earthly master, but Nikita recognizes a higher "Chief Master" -- God -- who sent him into this life and will not abandon him. By the story's end, the earthly master submits to the divine one, sacrificing himself as a true servant of love.

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