The Servant quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which literary categories best describe "The Servant"?

   • Gothic Horror, Ghost Story & Dark Romance
   • Correct answer: Realism, Moral Tale & Working Life
   • Romantic Adventure, Hero Quest & Wild Nature
   • Modernism, Inner Voice & Broken Time
   • Fantasy, Fairy Tale & Magic Helper

   Realism, Moral Tale & Working Life is the best fit. The story shows ordinary working people in a real city, with real worries about jobs, wages and old age. It is also a moral tale, because it turns on one clear choice between helping yourself and sparing someone else.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Why is it especially hard for Gerasim to find work when he returns to Moscow?

   • The army has taken most of the city's jobs for young men of Gerasim's age
   • The merchants of Moscow have agreed among themselves not to hire village lads
   • Correct answer: It is just before Christmas, when men hold on to even poor jobs hoping for a present
   • His old employer has warned every merchant in town not to take him on again

   The story opens a short while before Christmas, when a man sticks even to a poor job because he expects a present. Few servants are leaving their places, so there are few openings for Gerasim.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Why did Gerasim lose his place with the merchant he worked for in the last two years?

   • Correct answer: He was summoned to his village for military duty, though he was not drafted
   • He was caught leaving his post on night watch and was dismissed for it
   • He quarreled with the coachman, who then told tales about him to the master
   • He left to go back to the brewery where he had washed bottles as a boy

   Gerasim was summoned back to his village for military duty, but he was not drafted. By the time he returned, his old position had been filled. Later Yegor uses this fact to persuade Sharov that Gerasim is a good worker.

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4. 4

   Question 4. How has Yegor Danilych won his master Sharov's complete trust?

   • By once saving Sharov's life when the sleigh horses bolted
   • By lending Sharov money when his business was going badly
   • By working without pay in his first years in Sharov's service
   • Correct answer: By his glib tongue, telling tales on all the other servants

   The narrator says it was chiefly Yegor's glib tongue that won his master's confidence: "He told on all the servants, and Sharov valued him for it." This detail warns the reader early that Yegor gets ahead by running other people down.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What does "Ingratiated" mean in this story?

   • Shown thanks to someone for a kindness they did in the past
   • Correct answer: Won someone's favor by deliberately doing things to please them
   • Made someone angry through many small, repeated offenses
   • Earned someone's respect through years of hard, honest labor

   To ingratiate yourself is to win someone's favor on purpose, by pleasing them. The story says Yegor had ingratiated himself with his master, mainly by carrying tales about the other servants. The word suggests his favor was earned by flattery and informing, not by honest work.

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6. 6

   Question 6. When Yegor boasts that Sharov would gladly take him back, why does Gerasim praise him?

   • He truly hopes to become a coachman like Yegor someday
   • He wants Yegor to lend him money for food and lodging
   • Correct answer: He sees his friend is boasting and decides to please him
   • He fears Yegor will report him to the police for idleness

   The story says Gerasim saw his friend was boasting, and it occurred to him to gratify him. So he says it is hard to find men like Yegor. Gerasim is tactful and polite with the man who might help him, even though he sits there downcast.

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7. 7

   Question 7. How many years has Yegor served as Sharov's coachman?

   • Five
   • Correct answer: Twelve
   • Fifteen
   • Twenty

   Gerasim tells Yegor that a poor worker would not have been kept twelve years. Do not mix this up with Polikarpych, who has been with Sharov fifteen years.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Which complaint does Yegor make to Sharov about Polikarpych?

   • He drinks too much kvas and sleeps late nearly every morning
   • He steals hay and fodder from the stable and sells it in town
   • He is rude to visitors and has quarreled with the police inspector
   • Correct answer: He never shovels the snow on time and slips away from night watch

   Yegor says Polikarpych never shovels the snow away on time and slips away at least ten times a night when he is night watchman, because it is too cold for him. He warns that the quarterly inspector may come down on Sharov. Stealing hay and fodder is what Polikarpych's wife later accuses Yegor himself of doing.

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9. 9

   Question 9. How does Sharov first respond to the idea of dismissing Polikarpych?

   • Correct answer: He says it wouldn't be fair after so many years and would be a sin
   • He agrees at once, since he has wanted a younger man for some time
   • He says the old man may stay only if his wife works in the house
   • He decides to ask the quarterly inspector whether the old man stays

   Sharov objects: "That wouldn't be fair." He points out that Polikarpych has been with him fifteen years and says that to treat him that way in his old age would be a sin. Only after Yegor keeps pressing does Sharov reflect and give in.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does "Almshouse" mean in this story?

    • A city jail for people who are unable to pay their debts
    • A church where the poor gather to pray on holy days
    • Correct answer: A charity home for poor people who cannot support themselves
    • An inn where travelers stay for a small nightly fee

    An almshouse is a home run by charity for poor people, often the old, who cannot support themselves. Yegor tells Sharov the old man will go to the almshouse and that it will be better for him. He makes being thrown out of work sound like a kindness.

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11. 11

    Question 11. How does Gerasim feel when Sharov agrees to hire him?

    • Uneasy, because he already suspects the old servant will suffer
    • Correct answer: Stunned with joy, so overcome that his legs can scarcely carry him
    • Calm and unsurprised, since Yegor had promised him the place
    • Disappointed, because the work pays less than his last position

    Gerasim is fairly stunned by the great stroke of fortune, and his joy is so overwhelming that his legs will scarcely carry him. This makes his later choice to give up the job all the more striking.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does Yegor give Gerasim after promising to speak for him?

    • Correct answer: A ten-kopek piece
    • A loaf of rye bread
    • A pair of felt boots
    • A letter for the master

    Yegor gives Gerasim a ten-kopek piece and tells him it may come in handy. For all his boasting, Yegor does help his friend in small ways as well as large.

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13. 13

    Question 13. How does Gerasim learn what losing the job will mean for Polikarpych and his wife?

    • Yegor tells him the whole story while they drink tea in the coachman's room
    • Polikarpych's wife stops him in the street and begs him to refuse the job
    • Sharov explains it to him while asking where he lived and what he could do
    • Correct answer: Crossing the yard, he hears them talking behind their frosted-over window

    As Gerasim crosses the yard, a beam of light from Polikarpych's window falls across his way. The panes are frosted over, so he cannot see in, but he can hear everything the old couple say.

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14. 14

    Question 14. What does Polikarpych's wife threaten to do?

    • Report to the police that the master breaks city rules
    • Go to Gerasim's village and shame him before his family
    • Correct answer: Tell the master how the coachman steals hay and fodder
    • Write to the inspector about the snow left in the yard

    She calls Yegor a serpent and says she will go straight to the master and tell him how the coachman deceives him and steals the hay and fodder. Polikarpych tells her not to: "Don't, old woman. Don't sin."

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15. 15

    Question 15. Whom do Polikarpych and his wife hold most to blame for losing their place?

    • Correct answer: The coachman, Yegor, who wants a good place for his friend
    • Gerasim, who came back to Moscow to take work from old men
    • His wife, whose charwoman's work kept him from his duties
    • The inspector, who made the master fear trouble with police

    Polikarpych says: "The master's not so much to blame as his coachman. Yegor Danilych wants to get a good position for his friend." His wife agrees and calls the coachman a serpent. Neither blames Gerasim, which may be part of why Gerasim feels their sorrow so sharply.

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16. 16

    Question 16. The story says what Gerasim overheard "stabbed him like a dagger." What is this device, and what does it show?

    • A metaphor showing that he plans revenge on the coachman
    • Correct answer: A simile showing how sharply the couple's grief hurts him
    • Foreshadowing of a coming fight between Gerasim and Yegor
    • Personification making the frosted window seem to speak

    The comparison uses the word like, so it is a simile. Comparing the old couple's words to a dagger shows how deeply and suddenly they hurt Gerasim. He realizes what misfortune he would bring them, and it makes him sick at heart.

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17. 17

    Question 17. How does Yegor react when Gerasim says he cannot take the place?

    • He laughs and says he always knew a village lad would lose his nerve
    • He begs Gerasim to think it over for the sake of their village friendship
    • He offers to find Polikarpych another job so that Gerasim can stay on
    • Correct answer: He flies into a rage, calls Gerasim an idiot, and says he is disgraced

    Yegor flies into a rage, calls Gerasim an idiot and a rascal, and says, "you have disgraced me!" He asks what Gerasim means, but his anger is about his own standing with the master. Gerasim never tells him the real reason.

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18. 18

    Question 18. The story ends with Gerasim hurrying off down the street, still without work. How does he feel, and why?

    • Correct answer: Happy and lighthearted, since he has not brought ruin on the old couple
    • Ashamed and afraid, because he has lost his only friend in the city
    • Angry at Sharov for keeping a servant who cannot do the work well
    • Worried that the old woman will now tell the master tales about him

    The last line says, "He felt happy and lighthearted." Nothing outside him has improved: he is jobless in winter and Yegor is angry. His happiness comes from a clear conscience, because he has refused to profit from the old couple's ruin.

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19. 19

    Question 19. What does "Glib" mean in this story?

    • Slow and careful in speech, weighing each word
    • Sharp and bitter in speech, quick to insult
    • Shy and quiet, rarely speaking to others
    • Correct answer: Smooth and quick in speech, but not sincere

    Glib means smooth and ready with words, in a way that is easy rather than honest. Yegor's glib tongue lets him boast, flatter and run down the other servants, and it is how he talks Sharov into dismissing Polikarpych.

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20. 20

    Question 20. What is the central theme of "The Servant"?

    • Hard work and flattery are the surest way to rise in a master's service
    • Correct answer: Compassion and conscience can matter more than a person's own gain
    • City life slowly corrupts an honest peasant who leaves his village
    • Young workers deserve jobs more than the old, who have had their turn

    Gerasim badly needs work, yet he gives up the job once he sees the human cost to Polikarpych and his wife, and he walks away happy. The story suggests that a clear conscience is worth more than personal gain bought with someone else's suffering.

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21. 21

    Question 21. Early on, Yegor says a good servant's master would "dismiss the man who has taken your place." Why is this ironic?

    • Yegor himself is dismissed at the end and replaced by young Gerasim
    • Sharov dismisses Polikarpych and then hires him back the next day
    • Correct answer: Gerasim ends up refusing to be the man who pushes an old servant out
    • Gerasim's old master dismisses the new man to bring Gerasim back

    Yegor praises a world where a favored servant can push out whoever replaced him. Gerasim is offered exactly that chance to take an old man's place, and he turns it down. The coachman who gives all the advice about serving well is outdone by the young man he lectured.

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22. 22

    Question 22. Why is "The Servant" a fitting title for the story?

    • Correct answer: Gerasim, Yegor and Polikarpych are all servants who act in different ways
    • It refers only to Polikarpych, the old man who keeps the merchant's yard
    • It refers to Sharov, who must answer to the police and quarterly inspector
    • It refers to Gerasim's boyhood job as a bottle-washer in a Moscow brewery

    The title fits more than one character. Gerasim wants a place as a servant, Polikarpych is the old servant about to lose his, and Yegor is a servant who keeps his favor by informing on others. Each shows a different way to live in service.

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23. 23

    Question 23. Which statement best describes the difference between Gerasim and Yegor?

    • Gerasim is boastful and lazy; Yegor is modest and works hard for his pay
    • Gerasim trusts all masters fully; Yegor openly mistrusts every one of them
    • Gerasim is new to Moscow; Yegor has lived in the city since early boyhood
    • Correct answer: Gerasim thinks of others' suffering; Yegor looks out for his own standing

    Yegor is a foil to Gerasim. Yegor boasts, informs on other servants, and calls the old man's dismissal no harm. Gerasim, who needs the job far more, cannot bear to cause the old couple misery. (Gerasim is not new to Moscow: he has lived there from early boyhood.)

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24. 24

    Question 24. Which of these events actually happened in the story?

    • As a child, Gerasim worked as a bottle-washer in a brewery.

      Happened

      When still a mere child, Gerasim went to work in a brewery as a bottle-washer, and later as a lower servant in a house.

    • Gerasim was drafted into the army and served for two years.

      Didn't happen

      Gerasim was summoned back to his village for military duty, but he was not drafted. The two years were spent working for a merchant.

    • Yegor serves Gerasim tea and something to eat when he visits.

      Happened

      The coachman gives his guest a proper reception, with tea and something to eat, and asks how he is doing.

    • Sharov dismisses Polikarpych the moment Yegor complains about him.

      Didn't happen

      Sharov resists at first, saying it would not be fair and would be a sin. He gives in only after Yegor keeps pressing and he has reflected.

    • Yegor tells Sharov that Polikarpych can go to the almshouse.

      Happened

      Yegor says the old man won't starve, he'll go to the almshouse, and that it will be better for him to be quiet in his old age.

    • Gerasim peeks through Polikarpych's window and sees the couple.

      Didn't happen

      The panes are all frosted over, so Gerasim cannot see in. He only hears what the old couple are saying.

    • Polikarpych's wife says she will put her charges against Yegor in writing.

      Happened

      She says she will go straight to the master, tell him how the coachman steals the hay and fodder, and put it down in writing.

    • Polikarpych urges his wife to go and complain to the master.

      Didn't happen

      Polikarpych tries to stop her: "Don't, old woman. Don't sin." It is his wife who wants to go to the master.

    • Gerasim reddens and lowers his eyes when Yegor scolds him.

      Happened

      When Yegor calls him an idiot and a rascal, Gerasim finds nothing to say, reddens, and lowers his eyes.

    • Gerasim tells Yegor that he overheard the old couple talking.

      Didn't happen

      Gerasim never explains. When Yegor asks what he means, he says only, "Nothing. I don't want the place."

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