# Kate — Short Fiction character guide

> Kate in Short Fiction by Ivan Bunin.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Katherine

**First appearance:** 0001-short-fiction

## Snapshot

Anna's elder sister, Katherine manages the household alone, weeps for her absent husband, and reads saints' lives aloud in a high singsong voice.

## Who they are

Katherine married young and took her husband into the household, but when he began leaving for whole years at a time she vowed to have no more knowledge of him—meeting him cheerily, mending his shirts, yet sleeping apart like strangers. Childless and quietly weary, she seeks solace at a nearby nunnery and with the holy old man Rodion, learning to read saintly books she intones aloud to her younger sister. Her patient, sorrowing piety forms the quiet backdrop against which Anna's own strange, growing self takes shape.

## Relationships

### [Anna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_30_se/characters/anna)

_family_

Anna and Kate are sisters or close female relatives, sharing a bond of familial affection and occasional tension.

### [Anna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_30_se/characters/anna)

_family_

Anna and Kate are sisters or close female relatives, sharing a bond of familial affection and occasional tension.

## In the story

### [Gentle Breathing](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_30_se/chapters/gentle-breathing)

A servant who wakes Olga to announce Malyntin's arrival.

### [Aglaia](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_30_se/chapters/aglaia)

Anna's older sister, who manages the household, grieves her husband's absence and childlessness, and introduces Anna to religious life.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_30_se/characters/kate
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_30_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_30_se/characters