# Anton Skrebensky — The Rainbow character guide

> Anton Skrebensky in The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Skrebensky, Tony, Dear Anton

**First appearance:** 0014-xi-first-love

## Snapshot

Skrebensky arrives in Ursula's world as the son of the Baron she admired as a child, a lieutenant with an easy manner and a settled sense of how a man and woman ought to live.

## Who they are

Skrebensky arrives in Ursula's world as the son of the Baron she admired as a child, a lieutenant with an easy manner and a settled sense of how a man and woman ought to live. His affair with Ursula is tender and physical, but he shrinks from the dark, impersonal passion she discovers in herself and from any future that would not look respectable. He matters because he is the shape of the life Ursula might accept, and the measure of what she cannot.

## Relationships

### [Ursula Brangwen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rainbow_se/characters/ursula_brangwen)

_romantic_

Ursula's intense and ultimately disillusioning romantic relationship with Anton, marked by passion and conflict.

### [Ursula Brangwen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rainbow_se/characters/ursula_brangwen)

_romantic_

Ursula's intense and ultimately disillusioning romantic relationship with Anton, marked by passion and conflict.

### [Ursula Brangwen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rainbow_se/characters/ursula_brangwen)

_romantic_

Ursula's intense and ultimately disillusioning romantic relationship with Anton, marked by passion and conflict.

## In the story

### [First Love](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rainbow_se/chapters/xi-first-love)

Skrebensky is Ursula's first love, a soldierly young man who departs by train, leaving her with a sense of emptiness and frozen grief.

### [XIV: The Widening Circle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rainbow_se/chapters/xiv-the-widening-circle)

Not directly present in this chapter, but referenced indirectly through Ursula's memories of past attachments.

### [XV: The Bitterness of Ecstasy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rainbow_se/chapters/xv-the-bitterness-of-ecstasy)

Skrebensky is Ursula's lover, whose kisses and presence draw her into a dark, ecstatic union, though he is seen as an 'undifferentiated man' rather than a social being.

### [XVI: The Rainbow](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rainbow_se/chapters/xvi-the-rainbow)

Skrebensky is the former fiancé to whom Ursula writes a letter of remorse; he ultimately sends a cablegram stating he is married, confirming his place in the past.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rainbow_se/characters/anton_skrebensky
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rainbow_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rainbow_se/characters