person
Ivan Karlovich Shvey
Ivan Karlych
also: Иван Карлович Швей, Иван Карлыч, the German, немец
A Russian-born ethnic German, senior foreman at the Funk and Co. steel foundry, who returns from a four-month posting in Tver to discover what he takes for his wife's infidelity, storms off in a fit of jealous rage and letter-writing, and then finds the whole thing was a misunderstanding over a lodger. His speech and self-identification oscillate comically between insisting he is Russian and threatening, in the same breath, to "fight Germany" or "fight Russia."
Reading notes
- The Good German §13 poor German!
The narrator's single moment of open sympathy for Ivan Karlych, marking him by nationality at the exact instant his domestic happiness collapses -- the story's Russian title, "Добрый немец" ("The Good German"), is doing double duty here: affectionately mocking, and genuinely tender.
- The Good German §23 an honest, learned master craftsman
"Ученый мастер" ("learned/trained master craftsman") marks Ivan Karlych's trade status: a foreman with formal technical training, a cut above an ordinary factory hand, which is precisely the social standing he keeps citing as the wife-elevating favor Natasha owes him.