# Zina — Futility character guide

> Zina in Futility by William Gerhardie.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Uncle Kostia, the Zina - Uncle Kostia

**First appearance:** 0005-i

## Snapshot

The schoolgirl Nikolai wants to marry, whose family circles the goldmines and the house in the Mohovaya while her cousins multiply and tongues are put out at her.

## Who they are

Zina is the girl at the center of Nikolai's late-life passion, a schoolmate of his own daughter and the object of a courtship that scandalizes the household. Her people urge her to 'stick to him' for the mines and the mortgaged Petersburg house, while Fanny Ivanovna's three sisters put out their tongues at her little sisters. She embodies the family's tangled appetites and the quiet cruelty of its social wars.

## Relationships

### [Nikolai Vasilievich](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se/characters/nikolai_vasilievich)

_romantic_

Nikolai is romantically involved with Zina, though the relationship is strained by his other entanglements.

### [Nikolai Vasilievich](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se/characters/nikolai_vasilievich)

_romantic_

Nikolai is romantically involved with Zina, though the relationship is strained by his other entanglements.

### [Nikolai Vasilievich](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se/characters/nikolai_vasilievich)

_romantic_

Nikolai is romantically involved with Zina, though the relationship is strained by his other entanglements.

## In the story

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se/chapters/v)

The seventeen-year-old girl Nikolai plans to marry, a classmate of his daughter Sonia.

### [IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se/chapters/ix)

The young flapper with Nikolai, idealistic and devoted, proposing suicide as a solution to his troubles.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se/chapters/i)

The narrator dines with Zina's people on the Petrograd side, a gathering of revolutionary intelligentsia.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se/chapters/ii)

Uncle Kostia's wife; Nikolai Vasilievich hopes to marry her after divorcing his current wife.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se/chapters/iv)

Referred to as Uncle Kostia; walks with the narrator on the morning of the Bolshevik Revolution, expressing pessimistic views on the cyclical nature of violence and sacrifice.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se/chapters/iii)

Attends the dance reluctantly, dances poorly with Nikolai Vasilievich, and looks shamefaced and pitiful.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se/chapters/iv)

Asks the narrator to speak to the Admiral about finding work for Uncle Kostia.

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se/chapters/vi)

Part of the Zina-Uncle Kostia wing; her group has awkward relations with Fanny Ivanovna and the three sisters.

### [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se/chapters/vii)

Mentioned as having many cousins, including Madame Olenin's new baby.

### [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se/chapters/viii)

Participates in jazzing with her sisters and others.

### [The Spring Dinner and the Waiting Game](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se/chapters/x)

Nikolai Vasilievich made financial promises to her and her people; she visits him in prison.

### [Chapter XI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se/chapters/xi)

Mentioned as the object of Nikolai Vasilievich's nightly visits.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se/chapters/iv)

Zina's father is present playing cards at the Olenins' dacha.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se/characters/zina
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/futility_se/characters