# Volodya Chaplinsky — Yama character guide

> Volodya Chaplinsky in Yama by Aleksandr Kuprin.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Chaplinsky, Volodya

**First appearance:** 0005-yama

## Snapshot

A quietly obedient young man hopelessly in love with the artiste Rovinskaya, he performs small humiliations on command and answers her theatrics with tender reproach.

## Who they are

Chaplinsky moves through the brothel's drawing room as a minor satellite of Rovinskaya's circle, a young man whose devotion is so obvious that she can tease him into mimicking a street musician's head-tossing and call him 'Volodya' with easy familiarity. His calm, faintly ironic interjections—like dubbing Ryazanov's defense of the evening 'the speech for the defense'—mark him as more observer than actor. He matters because his unrequited, self-effacing attachment quietly exposes how the men around the Yamkas convert feeling into performance.

## Relationships

### [Rovinskaya](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/yama_se/characters/rovinskaya)

_romantic_

Rovinskaya and Volodya Chaplinsky are involved in a romantic or flirtatious relationship, likely with dramatic undertones.

### [Rovinskaya](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/yama_se/characters/rovinskaya)

_romantic_

Rovinskaya and Volodya Chaplinsky are involved in a romantic or flirtatious relationship, likely with dramatic undertones.

### [Rovinskaya](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/yama_se/characters/rovinskaya)

_romantic_

Rovinskaya and Volodya Chaplinsky are involved in a romantic or flirtatious relationship, likely with dramatic undertones.

## In the story

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/yama_se/chapters/part-ii-vi)

A rich young composer-dilettante secretly in love with Rovinskaya, he obediently follows her whims and is questioned about his visits to brothels.

### [Chapter VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/yama_se/chapters/part-ii-vii)

Accompanies Rovinskaya and Ryazanov, paying for the visit and trying to persuade Rovinskaya to abandon her experiment.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/yama_se/characters/volodya_chaplinsky
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/yama_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/yama_se/characters