Characters
- Nikolai Ivanov - A government official concerned with peasant affairs, Chekhov paints him as the quintessentially melancholy Russian from the upper social strata. Severely afflicted by internal conflicts; his loss of appetite for life, love of his wife, and external pressures; managing his estate and his debts, collide in a melodramatic climax.
- Anna (née Sarah Abramson) - Ivanov's wife of 5 years who (unknowingly) suffers from Tuberculosis. She renounced her Jewish heritage and converted to Russian Orthodox in order to marry Ivanov.
- Paul Lebedev- Chairman of the rural district council. Confidant and good friend to Ivanov.
- Zinaida - Lebedev's wife. She is a wealthy lender to whom Ivanov owes a large sum of money.
- Sasha - The Lebedevs' 20-year-old daughter. She is infatuated with Ivanov, an infatuation which ends in her nearly marrying him.
- Eugene Lvov - A pompous young doctor on the council's panel, and an honest man. Throughout the play, he moralizes and attacks Ivanov's character. He later resolves to reveal what he believes are Ivanov's intentions in marrying Sasha.
- Count Matthew Shabelsky- Ivanov's maternal uncle, a geriatric buffoon.
- Martha Babakina - A young widow, estate-owner, and the daughter of a rich businessman. She has a turbulent relationship with the Count.
- Michael Borkin - A distant relative of Ivanov and manager of his estate. Somewhat of a jester, he comes out with many money-making schemes throughout the play - including his proposal for the Count and Martha Babakina to marry.
- Dmitry Kosykh - An excise officer.
Read more about this topic: Ivanov (play)
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“White Pond and Walden are great crystals on the surface of the earth, Lakes of Light.... They are too pure to have a market value; they contain no muck. How much more beautiful than our lives, how much more transparent than our characters are they! We never learned meanness of them.”
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“I make it a kind of pious rule to go to every funeral to which I am invited, both as I wish to pay a proper respect to the dead, unless their characters have been bad, and as I would wish to have the funeral of my own near relations or of myself well attended.”
—James Boswell (1740–1795)