person
Ivan Ivanych
also: Иван Иваныч, the father of the family, дачный отец семейства
A suburban (dacha) father of a family and State Councillor who arrives at a friend's house at the end of his tether, begging to borrow a revolver, and delivers the story's long comic monologue on the miseries of a commuting family man's errand-ridden existence.
Reading notes
- One of Many §19 the word 'husband,' translated into the ladies' tongue, means a rag, an idiot, and a dumb beast
This line -- "слово 'муж' в переводе на дамский язык значит тряпка, идиот и бессловесное животное, на котором можно ездить" -- is period-typical comic misogyny voiced in character by the story's harried narrator-protagonist as part of his self-pitying tirade against domestic obligation; it caricatures HIS wife's supposed contempt for him, not a authorial claim about women generally, and belongs to a well-worn 1880s comic genre of the henpecked-husband monologue. The translation preserves the line's exaggerated, bitter humor in full rather than softening or cutting it, consistent with editorial practice of rendering period material faithfully rather than sanitizing it.
- One of Many §34 Give me the machine! Climb up and ride me yourselves while you're at it!
Ivan Ivanych's final outburst -- offering himself to be ridden like a beast of burden -- calls back to his own line in section 19 describing a husband as "a dumb beast that can be ridden." The story closes on this same demeaning image turned into black comedy at his own expense, underscoring that his real complaint throughout has been at being treated as livestock for other people's convenience.