White Nights, Second Night quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Why does Nastenka say she wants to 'begin all over again' with the narrator on the second night?

   • Her blind grandmother has discovered their meeting and forbidden another one.
   • She wants to continue the amusing nonsense they talked yesterday evening.
   • Correct answer: She thinks she acted like a child last night and wants to know him properly first.
   • She suspects that he has already disobeyed her condition and fallen in love with her.

   Nastenka explains she thought it over and concluded she had behaved 'like a little girl,' so she wants to learn about him properly before continuing.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What does the narrator call himself when Nastenka asks for his history?

   • Correct answer: A type -- specifically, a dreamer
   • An orphan with a tragic past
   • A soldier home from the war
   • A wandering hero with many adventures

   He insists he has no history because he is 'a type' -- specifically the archetypal Petersburg dreamer.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Who is Matrona in the narrator's account of his daily life?

   • The landlady who owns his lodgings in Petersburg
   • Correct answer: His old housekeeper who serves his meals
   • A lanky visitor who drops in from Pavlovsk
   • Nastenka's elderly, blind grandmother

   Matrona is described as the old servant who quietly clears his table and brings his pipe while he is lost in fantasy.

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4. 4

   Question 4. According to the narrator's confession, what does 'the dreamer' do instead of living an ordinary life?

   • Entertains friends with lively conversation
   • Reads novels from cover to cover late into the night
   • Sends his poems to journals under a false name
   • Correct answer: Withdraws into elaborate private fantasies

   The dreamer retreats into an imagined inner world of romance and adventure rather than engaging with real Petersburg life.

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5. 5

   Question 5. Why does Nastenka's grandmother pin Nastenka's dress to her own?

   • Because the blind grandmother needs help with her knitting
   • To prevent Nastenka from meeting the narrator at the canal
   • Correct answer: As punishment after Nastenka played pranks and tried to slip away
   • So that Nastenka is always nearby to read aloud to her

   Nastenka explains her grandmother started pinning their dresses together two years earlier after Nastenka 'played some pranks' and could not be trusted to stay put.

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6. 6

   Question 6. How does Nastenka respond after hearing the narrator's long confession?

   • Correct answer: She is moved to tears and recognizes the same loneliness in her own life
   • She becomes impatient and returns home to her grandmother
   • She scolds him for wasting the evening on absurd stories
   • She breaks into her childish, irrepressible laugh, just as he expected she would

   Nastenka weeps and admits she has felt the same isolation living pinned to her grandmother, showing genuine sympathy rather than mockery.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What do Nastenka and the narrator agree to by the end of the Second Night?

   • To marry and set up house together in Kolomna
   • Correct answer: To be close, devoted friends who advise each other
   • To keep every future meeting a secret from her grandmother
   • To part after two evenings and return to their lonely lives

   They shake hands and pledge warm, 'brotherly' friendship, with Nastenka asking the narrator to be her confidant and adviser.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Which of these events actually occur in the Second Night?

   • Nastenka arrives to find the narrator has already been waiting for two hours.

     Happened

   • The narrator immediately gives Nastenka a detailed, factual autobiography.

     Didn't happen

   • The narrator describes himself as a 'dreamer' who escapes into fantasy.

     Happened

   • Nastenka reveals she is secretly engaged to another man.

     Didn't happen

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these details about Nastenka's life are actually revealed in this chapter?

   • Nastenka lives with a blind grandmother who pinned their dresses together.

     Happened

   • Nastenka says she has never dreamed or fantasized about anything.

     Didn't happen

   • Nastenka asks the narrator to give her advice about her own history.

     Happened

   • Nastenka reveals she plans to move away to Moscow.

     Didn't happen

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does 'irksome' mean as used in: 'he was released from business irksome to him, and happy as a schoolboy let out from the class-room to his games and mischief'?

    • Thrilling and exciting
    • Extremely profitable
    • Secret and forbidden
    • Correct answer: Tedious and annoying

    'Irksome' means tedious or annoying, describing the business duties the dreamer is relieved to escape for the day.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does 'satiated' mean as used in: 'because he has everything, because he is satiated, because he is the artist of his own life'?

    • Correct answer: Fully satisfied, with no more desire
    • Thoroughly soaked with water or moisture
    • Placed or located in a particular spot
    • Hungry and longing for something more

    'Satiated' describes being completely fulfilled, matching the dreamer's claim that his fantasy world leaves him wanting nothing more.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does 'crestfallen' describe in: 'till, utterly crestfallen, it hides away from them under a chair in the dark'?

    • A kitten's accidental tumble from the top of a chair
    • A kitten's sleepy weariness after an energetic game
    • Correct answer: A kitten's dejected retreat after being mishandled by children
    • A kitten's proud, confident strutting about the room

    'Crestfallen' means dejected or humiliated, fitting the kitten's insulted retreat in the narrator's extended metaphor for the dreamer's rare visitor.

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