person
Nikolai Trofimych Tsvetkov
Doctor Tsvetkov
also: Цветков, Николай Трофимыч, Nikolai Trofimych, Tsvetkov
Olga Ivanovna's family physician and old acquaintance, called in to treat her dying son Misha; over the course of the evening he presses her, with growing anger, to admit at last that the boy is his son, revealing that he already knows two other men -- Petrov and the lawyer Kurovsky -- have also been paying for the child's upbringing.
Reading notes
- The Doctor §28 Николай Трофимыч
Olga addresses the doctor by his full name and patronymic (Nikolai Trofimych) here, the formal register of a woman speaking to her physician and social equal, in contrast to the intimate "Nikolai" she uses once grief and old intimacy resurface later in the story.