person
Ivan Mikhailovich Yat
Yat
also: Иван Михайлович Ять
A telegraph clerk and Dashenka's former, now-jilted suitor; spends the banquet paying florid court to Zmeyukina, needling the newlyweds with pointed remarks about marrying for money, and repeatedly trying and failing to deliver a toast, in Chekhov's "The Wedding" (1889).
Reading notes
- The Wedding §107 marry for advantage, for money
Yat's ostensibly general remark that "these days everyone's eager to marry for advantage, for money" is transparently aimed at Aplombov and immediately read as such ("That's a hint!", loc. 108); it is the same charge of mercenary marriage that runs through Chekhov's companion pieces about weddings (cf. "The Wedding, with a General" and "A Marriage of Convenience"), here turned into open banquet-table conflict.
- The Wedding §201 madame, how happy I am to hold you in my arms
Yat's supposed Morse-code "translation" is really just an excuse to say something suggestive to the room; Revunov-Karaulov's uncomprehending reply ("Which madame is this you're on about?", loc. 202) shows the flirtatious content sailing entirely past its intended, oblivious audience.