# The Peasants — Character guide

> Key figures in The Peasants by Władysław Reymont.

- [Yagna Borynova](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/yagna_borynova.md): 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, an
- [Antek Boryna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/antek_boryna.md): 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 
- [Hanka Boryna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/hanka_boryna.md): 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 wo
- [Maciej Boryna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/maciej_boryna.md): 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 
- [Yuzka Boryna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/yuzka_boryna.md): 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 bla
- [Matthew Golab](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/matthew_golab.md): 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
- [Vitek](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/vitek.md): 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 Kub
- [Roch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/roch.md): 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 pries
- [Yanek](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/yanek.md): 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 revela
- [Kuba](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/kuba.md): 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 animal
- [Yagustynka](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/yagustynka.md): 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 mutter
- [Simon the Soltys](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/simon_soltys.md): 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,
- [Peter the Voyt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/peter_voyt.md): 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 
- [Ambrose](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/ambrose.md): 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 Bory
- [Dominikova](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/dominikova.md): 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 
- [Agata](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/agata.md): 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, sho
- [Gregory the Voyt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/gregory_voyt.md): 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 pl
- [Teresa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/teresa.md): A village woman, often the subject of gossip and romantic interest.
- [Nastka Golab](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/nastka_golab.md): 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, beggin
- [Staho Ploshka](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/staho_ploshka.md): A taciturn peasant, father of Veronka.
- [Veronka Ploshka](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/veronka_ploshka.md): Daughter of Staho Ploshka, a young woman in the village.
- [Yankel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/yankel.md): 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 whos
- [Kozlova](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/kozlova.md): A village woman, known for her sharp tongue.
- [Franek Bylitsa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/franek_bylitsa.md): An old peasant, father of a large family.
- [Magda](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/magda.md): A servant girl, often working for the wealthier farmers.
- [Yacek](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/yacek.md): A young man from a neighboring village, a suitor.
- [Andrew Paches](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/andrew_paches.md): A peasant, father of Martianna.
- [Yasyek Topsy-turvy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/yasyek_topsy.md): A simple-minded village boy, often mocked.
- [Eva](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/eva.md): A young woman, briefly courted by Antek.
- [Klembova](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/klembova.md): Wife of old Klemba, a village matron.
- [Gregory Rakoski](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters/gregory_rakoski.md): A peasant from a different village, mentioned briefly.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_peasants_se/characters