Pnin | Characters & Character Analysis

Pnin Characters

Timofey Pnin

Timofey Pnin was born in Russia in 1898. His parents both died shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution began and he fled the country when he was nineteen years old. He first went to Turkey, where he earned a degree in Constantinople, and then relocated to Paris. While there, he met his future wife, Liza, a fellow Russian emigrant and an aspiring psychotherapist. The two fall in love and get married but it does not last long. She leaves him for another psychiatrist, Dr. Eric Wind, and then cruelly exploits Pnin to cheaply accompany him back to America, though she has no intention of leaving Dr. Wind. He never has another relationship after Liza leaves him and seems to have a permanent hole in his heart as a result. He is subject to her every wish, even when the wishes are utterly unreasonable. He teaches Russian at Waindell College.

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