# Ariadne — Short Fiction character guide

> Ariadne in Short Fiction by Anton Chekhov.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Ariadne Grigoryevna

**First appearance:** 0000-a-living-chattel

## Snapshot

A magnetic woman whose charm turns other people's evenings, ambitions, and affections into instruments she can quietly play.

## Who they are

Ariadne Grigoryevna moves through drawing rooms and summer verandahs as the still center of other people's attention, drawing confidences and inspiring sudden projects like Yartsev's historical play. Her power lies less in what she says than in the way men rearrange themselves around her, half in love, half performing. She matters because the stories she inspires reveal how easily clever people mistake infatuation for purpose.

## In the story

### [Champagne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_5_se/chapters/champagne)

A beautiful, dissolute woman who arrives at the station claiming to be the narrator's aunt, sparking a destructive affair.

### [Ariadne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_5_se/chapters/ariadne)

A beautiful, cold, and ambitious young woman who dreams of wealth and a title. She carries on a secret affair with Lubkov while stringing along the narrator.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_5_se/chapters/iv)

Not present in this chapter.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_5_se/characters/ariadne
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_5_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_5_se/characters