The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Characters

Ivan Ilyich Golovin Ivan Ilyich Golovin is the man whose death gives the novella its title: a member of the Judicial Chamber, dead at forty-five on February 4, 1882, according to the death notice that colleagues read in the newspaper in ch. I. Son of a privy councillor of... Gerasim Gerasim is the pantry servant in the Golovin household, a young muzhik, clean and fresh, plumped up on city food, always cheerful and bright, as chapter VII describes him. He is the character with the fewest lines and the most weight in the book: he appears... Praskovya Fyodorovna Golovina Praskovya Fyodorovna Golovina, born Mikhel, is the wife of Ivan Ilyich Golovin. In chapter II she is the most attractive, intelligent and brilliant young woman in his circle in the provincial city, of good noble family, not at all plain and with a small... Pyotr Ivanovich Pyotr Ivanovich is Ivan Ilyich Golovin's colleague at the Judicial Chamber and the first to learn of the death: in chapter I, leafing through the newly arrived Gazette during a break in a session, he reads the death notice and announces it to the others. He... Vasya Vasya, Vasily Ivanovich, is the youngest son of Ivan Ilyich Golovin and Praskovya Fyodorovna Golovina, one of the two children of the couple who survive the three who die young. He is a gymnasium student of thirteen or fourteen in chapter I, so like his... Lisa Lisa, whose diminutive is Lizanka, is the eldest daughter of Ivan Ilyich Golovin and Praskovya Fyodorovna Golovina. In chapter II, seventeen years after her parents' marriage, she is sixteen, studies at home and grows up well. In the new house of chapter III... Schwartz Schwartz is a colleague of Pyotr Ivanovich and Ivan Ilyich Golovin at the Judicial Chamber, appearing on stage only in chapter I and remembered in a sentence in chapter IV. At the wake, the narrator shows him through the eyes of Pyotr Ivanovich: English-style...

Other characters

Fyodor Vasilievich: the colleague in the Chamber who is counting on the vacancy left by Shtabel or Vinnikov, and in whose house Pyotr Ivanovich joins the Vint game as the fifth player after the wake (ch. I)
Ivan Yegorovich Shebek: the colleague in whose office the news of the death arrives (ch. I), Ivan Ilyich's Vint partner (ch. IV), and the visitor before whom the sick man, out of inertia, maintains an opinion about a decision to overturn a ruling (ch. VII)
Sokolov: the butler of the house, with whom the widow discusses the price of the plot in the cemetery (ch. I)
Ivan Ilyich's sister: arrives in black at the wake, together with another lady, as Pyotr Ivanovich enters (ch. I)
The priest: whom Pyotr Ivanovich meets in the dining room before the funeral mass (ch. I); a priest, called by his wife, hears Ivan Ilyich's confession (ch. XI)
Ilya Efimovich Golovin: the father, a privy councillor who built a career in Petersburg out of fictitious posts with very real salaries (ch. II)
Ivan Ilyich's brothers: the elder, cold and meticulous, in the same career as their father, and the younger, who failed everywhere and whom the family avoids mentioning (ch. II)
Goppe: the colleague who steps ahead and gets the presidency of the court that Ivan Ilyich was expecting (ch. III)
Zakhar Ivanovich: the friend favored by the change in the ministry, who gives Ivan Ilyich the post paying five thousand rubles (ch. III)
The brother-in-law: Praskovya Fyodorovna's brother, on whose estate the couple spends the summer of 1880 (ch. III), and whose look, during a visit near the New Year, reveals Ivan Ilyich's condition to him (ch. V)
Fyodor Petrovich Petrishchev: examining magistrate and sole heir to a fortune, who courts Lisa (ch. III), goes to the sick man's room in tailcoat before the theater (ch. VIII), and asks for her hand (ch. XI)
The famous doctor: the first one consulted, who decides the dispute between the floating kidney and the appendix (ch. IV); the next chapter mentions a Lechetitsky, also a famous doctor, whom his wife wants to call (ch. V), and a famous doctor, whom the text does not name, returns for another consultation (ch. VIII)
Mikhail Mikhailovich: the Vint partner on the night Ivan Ilyich loses at Slam (ch. IV)
Mikhail Danilovich: the ordinary doctor, fresh and cheerful, who examines the patient with the air of someone about to fix everything (ch. VIII)
Pyotr, the footman: the servant who puts out the candles and opens one of the curtains to bring in the morning for the sick man (ch. VIII)