Characters Discussed
Andrey Petrovich Bersenev
Andrey Petrovich Bersenev (ahn-DRAY peh-TROH-vihch behr-SEH-nehv), who is twenty-three years old when he is introduced, tall and swarthy, with a sharp, slightly curved nose, broad lips, and small gray eyes. He speaks with a slight lisp that becomes more marked when he is agitated. His mother died when he was quite young, and under the insistent guidance of his father he received a thorough education. He is a graduate of Moscow University. He is inclined to take an abstract and generalized view of life. Although he tries to win Yelena’s favor, he feels awkward and uneasy in her presence. She admires his intellectual attainments, but once he tells her about Insarov, she turns instead to the other man. Bersenev eventually takes up scholarly pursuits abroad, and research in Germany and France yields ponderous though learned articles of some length.
Pavel Yakovlevich Shubin
Pavel Yakovlevich Shubin (PAH-vehl ya-KOV-leh-vihch SHEW-bihn), a fair-haired and childishly attractive man, twenty-six years old at the beginning of the novel. He is a cousin three times removed of Anna Vasil’yevna. He studied medicine at Moscow University but for academic reasons was forced to leave after one year; instead, he took up art and achieved some recognition for his undeniable talent. He works at sculpture and produces various works, including satirical representations of Insarov, Anna, and himself. He remains a confidant of Bersenev, and they often discuss social and romantic matters. Although he is attracted to Yelena, he places himself in a false position and makes little headway among others who are interested in her. In the end, he settles in Rome, where he is known as a promising young artist.
Yelena Nikolayevna Stakhova
Yelena Nikolayevna Stakhova (yeh-LEH-nah nih-koh-LAH-yehv-nah STAH-khoh-vah), a twenty-year-old woman who becomes Insarov’s wife. She is tall, with a pale complexion, large gray eyes, straight features, and a sharp chin; she has dark brown hair and a delicate neck, as well as slender hands and feet. Shubin complains that her likeness is difficult to recapture in sculpture; indeed, Yelena appears subject to impetuous, almost feverish changes of mood that are not readily comprehensible to others. She has become impatient with her parents’ strictures, and she can be stern and unbending; she is also distinguished by an unflinching sense of honor and integrity. She displays great solicitude to people who are in any way unfortunate, and she goes to some lengths to protect homeless or mistreated animals. Her sense of personal independence probably plays a part in her deepening attachment to Insarov; she willingly parts company with those who would object and secretly marries him. As a devoted wife, she travels with him to Venice, where she cares for him during his final illness. Afterward, faithful to his memory, she resolves to become a nurse and care for sick and wounded soldiers, rather than return to Russia.
Dmitry Nikanorovich Insarov
Dmitry Nikanorovich Insarov (DMIH-tree nih-ka-NOH-roh-vihch ihn-SAH -rov), a twenty-five-year-old Bulgarian student. When he was eight years old, his mother disappeared and was found murdered. His father was executed after an altercation with a Turkish official. Later, Insarov lived with his aunt in Kiev, then returned to Bulgaria for two years. It is rumored that during that time he was at some personal risk; though he will not openly discuss such matters, a large scar on his neck apparently was received during a confrontation with Ottoman officials. He leaves the impression of an iron will and proud sense of personal self-sufficiency; he rarely mentions...
(This entire section contains 1081 words.)
Unlock this Study Guide Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
his own experiences but readily will hold forth on his country’s problems and prospects. He speaks Russian clearly and correctly, though in guttural tones that suggest his foreign origins. He is described as gaunt and angular, with an aquiline nose, straight black hair, and small, deep-set eyes. Although he evinces a disarming frankness, he can also appear somewhat mysterious, and it is possibly this combination of qualities that makes him attractive to Yelena. After the outbreak of the Crimean War, he considers returning to Bulgaria, as his friends there have urged him to do, but complications arise from the state of his health. After Yelena has become his wife, they visit Italy before he succumbs, after some valiant struggles, to aneurism and lung disease.
Anna Vasil’yevna Stakhova
Anna Vasil’yevna Stakhova (vah-SIH-lehv-nah), the wife of Nikolay and Yelena’s mother. She was orphaned at the age of seven and came to enjoy a considerable inheritance. She was educated at a boarding school and by a governess. She is small and thin, with a taut, mournful disposition. Her marriage to Nikolay evidently was the result of an infatuation; as the mother of Yelena, she has exerted progressively less influence over her, until her daughter paid little heed to her. When she later learns that Yelena has married Insarov, Anna becomes ill for a brief period.
Nikolay Artem’yevich Stakhov
Nikolay Artem’yevich Stakhov (nih-koh-LAY ahr-TEHM-yeh-vihch STAH-kov), Anna’s husband and the father of Yelena. He entered military school when he was sixteen years old and then became an ensign in the imperial guards. He met Anna at a social ball and married her when he was twenty-five; in time, they moved to her house in Moscow. He had hoped to find a suitable and well-placed husband for Yelena. He has, none too discreetly, carried on affairs and maintained mistresses on the side.
Zoya Nikitishna Myuller
Zoya Nikitishna Myuller (ZOH-yeh nih-KIH-tih-shnah MYEW-lur), an eighteen-year-old woman of German and Russian ancestry who is one of Yelena’s companions. She is described as blonde, plump, and of fair complexion. Occasionally, she flirts with young men. When Shubin is found in her arms, his hopes for winning Yelena’s favor are effectively dashed. Some people object to Zoya’s German ways, but in the end she marries Kurnatovsky and defers entirely to his wishes.
Yegor Andreyevich Kurnatovsky
Yegor Andreyevich Kurnatovsky (yeh-GOHR an-DREH-yeh-vihch kewr-nah-TOV-skee), a thirty-three-year-old who had a legal education and has become a first secretary with the rank of counselor. Nikolay holds him in some esteem because of his social standing and regards him as probably the best possible suitor for Yelena. When she meets him, Yelena distrusts him and regards him as morally obtuse. He finally marries Zoya instead.
Uvar Ivanovich Stakhov
Uvar Ivanovich Stakhov (uh-VAHR ee-VAH-noh-vihch), one of Nikolay’s distant cousins. He is a retired military man who seems to have yielded to corpulence and slothfulness. He appears to change little during the entire period of the novel.
The Characters
Elena is a charming, courageous, proud young woman. Considered a novelist’s novelist, Turgenev is a master of the technique of developing character: Elena is presented not only through the narrator’s relaying her direct thoughts, and through her diary, but also through the responses of the other characters to her. Shubin is a delightful character in his own right, with his quick insight into other people, but his response to Elena creates an added dimension to her. The same is true of Andrei: Not only is he a separate, well-drawn portrait of the man who is intellectually committed to ideas—who lives ideas, as Turgenev did himself when a graduate student in philosophy—but also his serious response to Elena gives yet another dimension to her character. This technique is of central importance in drama, and, like good drama, Turgenev’s dialogue also makes the characters come alive for the reader.
The one major character who is not completely successful is Insarov. Too much the stereotypical hero, Insarov is without those human traits that could make him a fully believable figure. Although Elena represents one type of the universal Russian woman, with her ability to sacrifice her own well-being for her ideals, Insarov remains merely the man to whom such a woman devotes her life rather than a full-bodied character in his own right.
Other characters would be as well-suited to a drama of the mid-nineteenth century as to this novel because of their easily recognizable traits: Elena’s mother remains the kind but ineffectual landowner; Elena’s father is the typical man whose chief interest in life is chasing women; Zoya is the shallow, attractive young woman (a blonde) whom successful, middle-class men wish to marry. Turgenev’s accomplishment in creating such characters lies in his giving life to their individual moments, so that even though they are subordinated to Elena, they have an integrity of their own.
Finally, there is Uvar Stahov, the paternal relative, a typical Slavophile—that is, a Russian who rejects all Western European influences. At the same time, in his slothful mannerisms and in his taking a long look at life yet not participating actively in it, he represents another character type, modeled on the title figure in the novel Oblomov (1859; English translation, 1915) by Ivan Goncharov.
