Ilya Ilyich Telegin

An impoverished landowner who has given up his own property and now lives on the Serebryakov estate as a dependent, nicknamed "Waffles" for his pockmarked face; Sonya's godfather. Abandoned by his wife the day after their wedding for another man, he has remained faithful to her ever since out of principle, supporting her and the children she had with her lover -- a story he tells with mild, tearful pride as a counterpoint to the play's other failed or compromised marriages. A gentle, ineffectual peacemaker throughout, he plays guitar at several key moments, including under Sonya's closing speech, and it is Telegin who quietly hides Voinitsky's pistol in the cellar after the Act Three shooting, fearing he might turn it on himself.