# Ivan Ivanovich — Short Fiction character guide

> Ivan Ivanovich in Short Fiction by Vsevolod Garshin.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Ivan

**First appearance:** 0003-coward

## Snapshot

A shy clerk turned desperate suitor, whose love for a café dancer drives him from bashful letters to drunken scenes and locked rooms.

## Who they are

Ivan Ivanovich Nikitin begins as the timid man who can barely put out his hand, then swells into the drunk who bursts into Evgenia's rooms with his hat askew and his eyes blazing. He loves Nadia with a helplessness that curdles into self-destruction, drinking in taverns and sealing letters he cannot send. His arc from bashful devotion to public collapse makes him the story's most naked measure of what desire does to a small, unremarkable man.

## Relationships

### [Nadejda Nicolaievna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/characters/nadejda_nicolaievna)

_romantic_

Ivan Ivanovich is a devoted suitor to Nadejda, with deep romantic feelings.

### [Nadejda Nicolaievna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/characters/nadejda_nicolaievna)

_romantic_

Ivan Ivanovich is a devoted suitor to Nadejda, with deep romantic feelings.

### [Nadejda Nicolaievna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/characters/nadejda_nicolaievna)

_romantic_

Ivan Ivanovich is a devoted suitor to Nadejda, with deep romantic feelings.

## In the story

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/chapters/i)

A kind, talkative man who visits Nadejda, knows her real name, and offers a potential path to marriage and redemption.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/chapters/iii)

Drunk and desperate, he visits Nadejda Nicolaievna to confess his love but falls asleep, later fleeing in shame.

### [Officer and Soldier-Servant](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/chapters/officer-and-soldier-servant)

An old man who meets Nikita after the examination, lamenting the loss of his family's only helper to conscription.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/characters/ivan_ivanovich
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/characters