# Zoe — Yama character guide

> Zoe in Yama by Aleksandr Kuprin.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0005-yama

## Snapshot

A newcomer who presents herself at Anna Markovna's door to join the house of her own will, she submits to a horse-fair inspection with unnerving calm.

## Who they are

Zoe arrives one winter evening in a caracul sacque, a woman of about twenty-six with no makeup and no obvious need, and asks the proprietress to take her on. Emma Edwardovna strips and feels her over like a drover appraising cattle, and Zoe undresses without a flicker of shame, answering questions about relatives and children with a flat 'I'm all alone.' Her unexplained willingness to enter the Yamkas, and the housekeeper's wariness of women 'who have known freedom,' make her the novel's most enigmatic arrival—a quiet disturbance in the brothel's routine.

## In the story

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/yama_se/chapters/part-i-iii)

A card player who deals with a steady visitor, an old man with perverted habits; she yawns and curses him.

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

Makes an indifferent remark about men's promises to 'set up' the women.

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

Shares her own story of losing her innocence to a teacher.

## Links

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