A Slav Soul

Characters

• Yasha — a servant in the narrator's household: A proud, austere, and utterly devoted man whose inner vulnerability is understood too late.
• the narrator's father — a poor doctor in a Jewish shtetl: The one man Yasha reveres; after each binge he dismisses him and forgives him by evening.
• the narrator — an adult recalling childhood: He revisits Yasha and the family past with belated sympathy.
• Matsko — an old cavalry gelding: Yasha's faithful companion, comic yet dignified in old age.
• Bouton — the yard-dog: A patient dog devoted to the forbidding Yasha; he goes off to howl on his grave.
• Yevka — the housemaid: She beats Yasha in a contest over cleaning and later finds him hanged.