person
Porfiry Semyonych
The unseen powerful official in Chekhov's "Advice" on whom a three-year-old petition depends; he never appears except as a name and, at the very end, a disembodied voice naming his own price.
Reading notes
- Advice §4 Porfiry Semyonych
The unseen official whose favor the petitioner's three-year-old case depends on; he never appears on stage, only as a name invoked with mounting reverence -- and, in the final line, as the disembodied voice behind the door.