person
Ivan Kapitonych
also: Иван Капитоныч
A cowed, crushed clerk in the narrator's own office who, unrecognized on the horse-tram, briefly sheds his servility to hold forth on politics -- until he recognizes his superior and instantly reverts.
Reading notes
- Two in One §5 Ivan Kapitonych
One of the narrator's own clerks: a small, cowed, perpetually cringing office subordinate who exists, in the narrator's telling, only to fetch dropped handkerchiefs and offer holiday greetings.