# The Power of Darkness — Character guide

> Key figures in The Power of Darkness by Leo Tolstoy.

- [Peter Ignátitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_power_of_darkness_se/characters/peter_ignatitch.md): Peter owns the roomy hut where the play begins, and his illness has left him barking orders from the bench while Anísya and Akoulína do the spinning. He suspects his labourer Nikíta of laziness and threatens to sack him,
- [Anísya](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_power_of_darkness_se/characters/anisya.md): Anísya runs Peter's household under a barrage of chores and her husband's scolding, and she has given herself to Nikíta with a passion that has already crossed moral lines. When word comes that Nikíta's parents want him 
- [Nikíta](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_power_of_darkness_se/characters/nikita.md): Nikíta works in Peter's yard, juggling Anísya's passion with his parents' plans to marry him off to Marína. When the wedding blessing is demanded, he hides in the barn with a rope, unable to face the icon or the girl he 
- [Akím](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_power_of_darkness_se/characters/akim.md): Akím arrives at Peter's hut to reclaim his son and see him properly married, speaking in the blunt, repetitive idiom of a man who takes God and village custom seriously. He is baffled by Matryóna's maneuvering and by Nik
- [Matryóna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_power_of_darkness_se/characters/matryona.md): Matryóna moves through the village swapping gossip and quiet arrangements, pressing Anísya toward a fatal solution to Peter's grip on the household money. She offers tea, powders, and reassurance in the same breath, then
- [Akoulína](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_power_of_darkness_se/characters/akoulina.md): Akoulína spins and sings in her father's hut, trading insults with Anísya and running errands without much enthusiasm. She is young, sharp-tongued, and largely unaware of the currents moving around her, though her proxim
- [Nan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_power_of_darkness_se/characters/nan.md): Nan moves through the feast as a small, insistent messenger, sent to fetch her father when the guests grow impatient and the blessings are overdue. She is too young to read the terror in his silence, and her innocent per
- [Marína](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_power_of_darkness_se/characters/marina.md): Marína once loved Nikíta during their nights at the railway, and now she is a settled wife who has confessed her past and been forgiven by a kind, quiet husband. When Nikíta pours out his misery, she answers with hard-wo
- [Martha](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_power_of_darkness_se/characters/martha.md): An aunt or older woman in the community.
- [Sister](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_power_of_darkness_se/characters/sister.md): A generic sister character, possibly a nun or relative.
- [The Master](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_power_of_darkness_se/characters/the_master.md): A landowner or authority figure mentioned in the play.

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