# The Popadya — Short Fiction character guide

> The Popadya in Short Fiction by Leonid Andreyev.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Popadya, the tortured Popadya

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

## Snapshot

The priest's wife, worn down by drink and a household of strangeness, she meets her daughter Nastya's flat confessions with the same dull, unsparing honesty.

## Who they are

The Popadya lives inside a family where the son is an idiot who eats cockroaches and the daughter speaks of killing people as calmly as of chores. She drinks heavily, and Nastya says she would kill her too, yet the two of them share a strange, unadorned candor that passes for intimacy. Her exhaustion and her bluntness anchor the story's domestic misery, showing how the sacred household of a priest has quietly curdled into something the church itself will soon have to answer for.

## Relationships

### [Father Vassily](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/characters/father_vassily)

_family_

Father Vassily and The Popadya are married, sharing a domestic and spiritual partnership.

### [Father Vassily](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/characters/father_vassily)

_family_

Father Vassily and The Popadya are married, sharing a domestic and spiritual partnership.

### [Father Vassily](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/characters/father_vassily)

_family_

Father Vassily and The Popadya are married, sharing a domestic and spiritual partnership.

## In the story

### [The Little Angel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/chapters/the-little-angel)

Sashka's mother, who is struck and bitten by her son.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/chapters/i)

Olga Stepanovna, the mother, is deeply distressed by Vera's condition and later suffers a stroke upon learning of her daughter's death.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/chapters/iii)

Silent, grieving wife who faints during Father Ignaty's outburst.

### [Life of Father Vassily](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/chapters/life-of-father-vassily)

Father Vassily's wife, who shares in his burdens and represents the domestic side of his clerical life.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/chapters/i)

Father Vassily's wife, who becomes alcoholic and grief-stricken after the drowning of their son.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/chapters/ii)

Grief-stricken and alcoholic after the death of her son Vassya, she drunkenly demands that her husband help her conceive a new son, leading to a frenzied and piteous scene.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/chapters/iii)

Pregnant, abstains from liquor, finds peace and joy, picks mushrooms in the forest, gives birth to a son.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/chapters/iv)

Drinks heavily, barricades the door against the idiot, and confronts her husband about his faith.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/chapters/v)

Terrified after witnessing Nastya imitating the idiot in front of a mirror, she hesitates to enter the house and confides in Father Vassily.

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/chapters/vi)

Suffers hysterics after her husband's outburst; later shows renewed tenderness and secretly blesses him each night, fighting her own battles with madness and drunkenness.

### [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/chapters/vii)

Father Vassily's wife, who anxiously observes his distress and is told of his crime.

### [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/chapters/viii)

Finds hope and faith in a new life, but dies after being severely burned in a fire.

### [XI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/chapters/xi)

Mentioned as having burned to death along with her son, contributing to the villagers' fear of Father Vassily.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/characters/the_popadya
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/characters