person
Alexei
also: Алексей, брат Алексей
Gusev's brother, seen only in Gusev's recurring fever-visions of home driving a sledge past the frozen pond with his children Vanka and Akulka; Gusev later worries in his waking thoughts that Alexei is unsteady, drinks, beats his wife, and does not honor their parents, and that the household will fall apart without Gusev there.
Reading notes
- Gusev §14 his brother Alexei is driving out in a sledge
The first of Gusev's recurring fever-visions of home: his brother Alexei, nephew Vanka, and niece Akulka appear repeatedly through the story's opening sections as Gusev drifts in and out of feverish half-sleep, contrasted increasingly sharply against the ship's heat, sickness, and rocking.
- Gusev §120 My brother's at home, you know, not a steady man: a drunkard, beats his wife for nothing, doesn't honor our parents
Gusev's one moment of waking, un-fevered anxiety about his family reframes the idealized sledge-and-pond visions that have recurred throughout the story (loc 14, 17, 19, 43, 45): the Alexei of his fever-dreams is simply driving happily in the snow, but the Alexei he consciously worries about here is a drunk who mistreats his wife and parents, threatening to let the whole household go to ruin.