# R-13 — We character guide

> R-13 in We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0003-record-two

## Snapshot

A bubbling, fountain-mouthed poet who versifies the State's death sentences, then confesses he is sick of hearing about them.

## Who they are

R-13 is D-503's friend and a celebrated poet of the One State, a man whose lips splash words like a fountain and whose verses give mathematical beauty to the Machine of the Well-Doer. Yet when D-503 praises his death-sentence poem, R-13's eyes go opaque and he snaps that he is sick of it, before recovering into a cheerful retelling of paradise as the State's own invention. His easy cynicism and sudden cracks make him a mirror for D-503: a loyal artist who may already suspect the price of his own happiness.

## In the story

### [Record Five](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/we_se/chapters/record-five)

Mentioned as a poet with negro-like lips, an old comrade of D-503.

### [Record Eight](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/we_se/chapters/record-eight)

A poet and friend of D-503, who jokes about D-503's mathematical rigidity and discusses the Death Sentence.

### [Record Nine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/we_se/chapters/record-nine)

A State poet who recites verses at the Cube, appearing pale and bashful afterward.

### [Record Eleven](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/we_se/chapters/record-eleven)

Recites a poem about paradise and happiness without freedom; becomes irritated when D-503 praises his death-sentence verses.

### [Record Twelve](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/we_se/chapters/record-twelve)

Poet; author of the poem 'Happiness' celebrating the multiplication table; D-503 reads his book on the train.

### [Record Fourteen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/we_se/chapters/record-fourteen)

Mentioned in D-503's thoughts as someone he feels was taken from him by I-330.

### [Record Twenty-Five](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/we_se/chapters/record-twenty-five)

Carries I-330 during the chaos, is attacked by D-503, and disappears into the crowd.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/we_se/characters/r-13
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/we_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/we_se/characters