The District Doctor

Characters

• Trifon Ivanitch — the district doctor: A poor country doctor who fell in love with his dying patient and later married a merchant's daughter.
• Alexandra Andreevna — the patient, a landowner's daughter: An educated girl of an impoverished family, dying of fever, who confesses her love to the doctor.
• the old mother — a widowed landowner: The poor widow who sent for the doctor and learns of the avowal just before her daughter dies.
• the narrator — an inn guest and listener: A traveller taken ill at an inn, to whom the doctor tells his story over tea.
• the sisters — the patient's sisters: Two girls who tend their sister in fear throughout her illness.
• Akulina — the doctor's wife: A merchant's daughter with a dowry of seven thousand, ill-tempered but asleep all day.