Vera Alexandrovna

Vera is Natalya and Islayev's adopted daughter. As a seventeen-year-old, Vera is caught in the precarious situation of still being considered a naïve child, when in fact she proves to be a perceptive and precocious young woman. Vera is smitten with Beliayev and when she comes to believe that he loves only Natalya, she agrees to marry Bolshintsov, who had been previously undesirable to her.

Alexei Nikolayich Beliayev

Beliayev is a twenty-one-year-old student hired by Natalya to tutor Kolya. In contrast to other characters in the play who profess their honorable nature, Beliayev's honor appears to be genuine when it comes to caring about others. He describes himself as lazy; however, his intelligence and ingenuity contrast with this quality. His translation of a book into French without knowing the language attests either to his facility with languages or his willingness to misrepresent himself and his...