The Peasants · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in The Peasants by Władysław Reymont.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
Yagna Borynova
major
Also known as Yagna, Borynova
Yagna enters Boryna's farm as his young wife, warned by her mother to guard her reputation and never let the old man be slighted. Yet she flares with impulsive sympathy for Antek, the son her husband has disinherited, and her tears at his name betray feelings she can barely name. Her presence splits the family and sets tongues wagging across the village, making her the still point around which the novel's early conflicts turn.
Antek Boryna
major
Also known as Antek, Boryna
Antek labors on Boryna's farm alongside his wife Hanka and the hired hands, but his father's refusal to settle the land has poisoned everything between them. He is drawn to Yagna, his father's young wife, in a tangle of resentment and desire that threatens to consume them both. His rebellion against the patriarch's authority drives the family toward open rupture, and his choices ripple through every household in the village.
Hanka Boryna
major
Also known as Hanka
Hanka moves through her morning rounds—barn, shed, wheat-fields—praying with her lips while her mind churns over Antek's faithlessness and the family's precarious hold on Boryna's land. She has endured six months that would break many, and she clings to the hope that Antek will return to himself and the farm will be theirs. Her quiet endurance and sharp-eyed management of the household make her the moral counterweight to the passions swirling around her.
Maciej Boryna
major
Also known as old Boryna, Boryna, Matthias Boryna, Matthias
Maciej Boryna holds thirty acres and a name that commands respect, but his decision to marry Yagna has turned his own sons into enemies and made his house a battlefield. He broods over Antek's defiance, the blacksmith's scheming, and the thanklessness of children who want his land before he is cold. Proud, quick to anger, and jealously guarding his authority, he embodies the old peasant order even as his choices hasten its fracture.
Yuzka Boryna
supporting
Also known as Yuzka, Boryna
Yuzka keeps Boryna's house running while her father rages at Antek and her brother-in-law the blacksmith circles for land. She is caught between her father's trust and her sister Magda's claims, asked to withhold the blacksmith's share and then gently granted leave to send Magda a piece. Her small negotiations of loyalty and fairness show the household's fractures from the inside, and her steadiness throws her father's volatility into relief.
Matthew Golab
supporting
Also known as Matthew, Golab
Matthew Golab drives the sawmill crew through a brutal frost, shouting, joking, and working harder than any man on the platform above the rushing river. Even Antek, who resents him, admits he is a good craftsman—and well paid for it. His energy and ambition mark him as a rising figure among the village's younger men, and his courtship of Nastka threads him into the web of rural alliances and rivalries.
Vitek
supporting
Also known as Vitek
Vitek works the Boryna stables for wages he hoards toward church offerings, ashamed of his bare feet in the vestry and teased by Kuba for his city recollections. He is loyal, observant, and quietly ambitious, begging Kuba to teach him to shoot and planning a future in a Warsaw stable. Through his watchful presence in the stable where the sick Kuba lies, the novel measures the distance between the feast inside the house and the suffering just outside it.
Roch
supporting
Also known as Roch
Roch drifts through the village as pilgrim and advisor, saying his beads on Boryna's porch while the parish priest and the women weigh his words. He moves between factions with a diplomat's patience, persuading the priest to back the men's plan and agreeing to lead them to the German settlers himself. His mysterious authority and evident sorrow over Yagna's shaming make him the moral hinge on which the village's early confrontations turn.
Yanek
supporting
Also known as Mr. Yanek, Master Yanek
Yanek moves between the church, his family's prosperous farm, and the village's simmering gossip, his piety carefully tended by a loving mother. When he overhears talk of Yagna's nighttime meetings and kisses, the revelation shakes him into feverish fantasies and shame he cannot confess. His struggle between religious fervor and forbidden longing makes him a mirror of the village's own divided conscience about desire and reputation.
Kuba
supporting
Also known as Kuba Yarchyk of Vola, Yarchyk
Kuba Yarchyk of Vola works the Boryna land, limping to church with Vitek and patiently explaining that God counts prayers, not boots. He keeps small confidences, slips coins to children, and tends the sick and the animals with the same unhurried tenderness. His kindness and poverty make him the moral counterweight to the village's quarrels over land and honor, and his long hours in the stable become the novel's stillest, saddest center.
Yagustynka
supporting
Also known as old Yagustynka
Old Yagustynka moves among the women at harvest and leaf-plucking, dropping proverbs and warnings that cut to the bone of village politics. She sees through Boryna's late marriage and Antek's restlessness, and her muttered verdicts on land and desire carry the weight of long experience. Her gossip is not idle: it maps the alliances and resentments that will shape the coming struggles over inheritance and honor.
Simon the Soltys
supporting
Also known as Simon, Soltys
Simon the Soltys holds the village's official authority, settling disputes and offering unsolicited counsel in the same breath. He tells Boryna frankly that marrying a woman young enough to be his daughter invites scorn, and his warnings prove uncomfortably accurate as the household turns cold. As mayor he stands between the peasants and the outside world of squires and officials, making him a barometer of the community's shifting temper.
Peter the Voyt
supporting
Also known as Peter, Voyt, the Voyt, little Peter
Peter the Voyt holds the unenviable post of village administrator, a man caught between the peasants who laugh at his paunch and the officials whose orders he must carry out. When the school vote splits Lipka, he is the one expected to bend the commune toward the Government's will, even as the smith and the miller warn that refusal means soldiers, seizures, and prison. His shuffling errands for Madam Scrivener and his quiet trips to the Manor mark him as the gentry's instrument — a role that makes him useful, pitiable, and quietly despised.
Ambrose
supporting
Also known as Old Ambrose, old Ambrose
Ambrose is the ancient, churchgoing peasant whom everyone consults and no one quite trusts — a man who rings the bell for Mass, carries messages between households, and trades news for a glass of vodka. He serves as Boryna's envoy to the shrewd old Dominikova, and his reports on her terms for the marriage settlement set the whole village talking. Frail, canny, and not above a lie, he is the connective tissue of Lipka's gossip, and his word can tilt a courtship or a quarrel.
Dominikova
supporting
Also known as old Dominikova
Old Dominikova is the shrewd widow whose bargaining over her son Dominik's marriage settlement becomes the talk of Lipka, a woman the villagers compare to a bitch defending her puppies. Having handed over her best acres to her own children and been left to lodge in another's dwelling, she knows exactly what a marriage contract is worth and drives a hard bargain for her boy. Her negotiations with Boryna's household set the terms on which the young people's futures — and the old man's — will be decided.
Agata
supporting
Also known as old Agata
Agata is the Klembas' ancient kinswoman who spends each autumn and winter walking the roads as a beggar, eating 'bread of our Lord's giving,' and comes home in spring like a homing bird to her native Lipka. Decrepit, short of breath, and dressed in rags, she greets the sunrise over the fields with a joy that makes her one of the novel's most luminous figures. Her return marks the turning of the season and anchors the story in the rhythms of the poorest villagers, whose lives depend on the mercy of those slightly better off.
Gregory the Voyt
supporting
Also known as Gregory, the Voyt
Gregory the Voyt is the ex-administrator whose house, along with the Klembas' and Matthew's, is searched by gendarmes hunting for the agitator Roch. When the hunt closes in, he and Matthew lock themselves in a barn to plan, then spread false word that Roch left Boryna's at noon, buying the fugitive time to slip away by night. His loyalty to Roch places him squarely against the officials and the cautious peasants who would hand the man over, making him a quiet center of resistance in the village.
Teresa
minor
Also known as Teresa
A village woman, often the subject of gossip and romantic interest.
Nastka Golab
supporting
Also known as Nastka, Nastka Golab
Nastka Golab is the young woman whose suitors shower her with presents, gifts that Yagustynka reports are given as much to spite old Dominikova as to win Nastka herself. Even the dying Yuzka sends her a young sow, begging Nastka to pray for her soul and to come visit before it is too late. Beautiful, courted, and just out of reach, she sits at the center of the village's marriage economy, where every gift carries a calculation and every visit is watched.
Staho Ploshka
minor
Also known as Staho, Ploshka, old Ploshka
A taciturn peasant, father of Veronka.
Veronka Ploshka
minor
Also known as Veronka, Ploshka
Daughter of Staho Ploshka, a young woman in the village.
Yankel
supporting
Also known as Yankel
Yankel runs the one establishment in Lipce where peasants, the Voyt, and passing officials all cross paths, making his tavern the natural stage for the novel's simmering conflicts. He profits from the same villagers whose land and labor are being squeezed, a position that breeds both dependence and quiet resentment. When the men gather to plot resistance or the authorities come sniffing for informants, it is Yankel's counter that holds the village's pulse.
Kozlova
minor
Also known as Yesterday Kozlova
A village woman, known for her sharp tongue.
Franek Bylitsa
minor
Also known as Franek, old Bylitsa, Bylitsa
An old peasant, father of a large family.
Magda
minor
Also known as Magdalena
A servant girl, often working for the wealthier farmers.
Yacek
minor
Also known as Mr. Yacek
A young man from a neighboring village, a suitor.
Andrew Paches
minor
Also known as Andrew, Paches
A peasant, father of Martianna.
Yasyek Topsy-turvy
minor
Also known as Yasyek, Yasyek Topsy - turvy
A simple-minded village boy, often mocked.
Eva
minor
Also known as Eva
A young woman, briefly courted by Antek.
Klembova
minor
Also known as old Dame Klembova
Wife of old Klemba, a village matron.
Gregory Rakoski
minor
Also known as Gregory
A peasant from a different village, mentioned briefly.
Lipka Boryna
minor
Also known as Lipka, Boryna of Lipka
A relative of the Borynas from the hamlet of Lipka.
Lapa
minor
Also known as old Lapa
An old peasant, often seen in the village tavern.
Matthias Klemba
minor
Also known as Matthias, Klemba, old Klemba, little Matthias
An old peasant, patriarch of the Klemba family.
Michael Caban
minor
Also known as Caban, Michael
A peasant, involved in village disputes.
Bartek Koziol
minor
Also known as Koziol, Bartek
A peasant, head of the Koziol family.
Mary Balcerek
minor
Also known as Mary, Balcerek
A neighbor, often helping with chores and gossip.
Thomas Sikora
minor
Also known as Sikora, Thomas
A peasant, known for his piety.
Voytek Kobus
minor
Also known as Voytek, Kobus
A peasant, often silent but present in village gatherings.
Ploshkova
minor
Also known as Ploshkova
Wife of Staho Ploshka, a village woman.
Adam Klemba
minor
Also known as Adam, young Klemba
Son of old Klemba, a young peasant.
Balcerkova
minor
Also known as Balcerkova
Wife of Balcerek, a village woman.
Burek
minor
Also known as Burek
A dog owned by a villager, mentioned in passing.
Tereska
minor
Also known as Tereska
A young girl, daughter of a villager.
Filipka
minor
Also known as Filipka
A village woman, mentioned in gossip.
Valek the Wry
minor
Also known as Valek
A peasant with a physical deformity, often teased.
Joseph Vahnik
minor
Also known as Joseph, Vahnik
A peasant from a neighboring area.
Krasula
minor
Also known as Krasula
A cow owned by a villager, mentioned in farm scenes.
Old Prychek
minor
Also known as Prychek
An elderly peasant, rarely seen outside his home.
Gulbas
minor
Also known as young Gulbas
A young peasant, involved in a brawl.
Margaret Klemba
minor
Also known as Margaret
Daughter of old Klemba, a village girl.
Yendrek Boryna
minor
Also known as Yendrek
A relative of the Borynas, possibly a son.
Ulisia
minor
Also known as Ulisia
A village woman, mentioned in passing.
Maryna
minor
Also known as Maryna
A young woman, briefly mentioned.
Dominik
minor
Also known as Martianna Dominik
Son of Dominikova, a young peasant.
Lysula
minor
Also known as Lysula
A village woman, known for her chatter.
Yudka
minor
Also known as old Yudka
An old woman, often begging.
Vavrek of Vola
minor
Also known as Vavrek
A peasant from the hamlet of Vola.
Martianna Paches
minor
Also known as Paches
Daughter of Andrew Paches, a village girl.
Bociek
minor
Also known as Bociek
A peasant, mentioned in a list of villagers.
Vincent Soha
minor
Also known as Soha
A peasant, father of James Soha.
Adam Vahnik
minor
Also known as Adam
A peasant, relative of Joseph Vahnik.
Kruchek
minor
Also known as Kruchek
A peasant, mentioned in a dispute.
Valentova
minor
Also known as Valentova
A village widow, mentioned briefly.
Simon Paches
minor
Also known as Simon
A peasant, relative of Andrew Paches.
Paul Boryna
minor
Also known as Paul
A relative of the Borynas, mentioned briefly.
Vachnikova
minor
Also known as Vachnikova
Wife of a Vahnik, a village woman.
Old Sohova
minor
Also known as Sohova
An elderly village woman.
Franka
minor
Also known as Franka
A young woman, mentioned in gossip.
Mary Pociotek
minor
Also known as Marianna
A village woman, mentioned in passing.
James Soha
minor
Also known as Soha
Son of Vincent Soha, a young peasant.
Florka Prychkova
minor
Also known as Prychkova, Florka
A village woman, wife of Prychek.
Kate
minor
Also known as Kate
A servant girl, mentioned briefly.
Voytek Gayda of Volitsa
minor
Also known as Voytek
A peasant from Volitsa, mentioned in a list.
The Voytova
minor
Also known as Voytova
Wife of the Voyt, a village matron.
Maciek
minor
Also known as Maciek
A young boy, mentioned in a village scene.
