The Night of Christmas Eve

Characters

• Vakoola — blacksmith, icon painter, and Oxana’s suitor: A strong, devout craftsman who subdues the devil, obtains the empress’s boots, and proves his devotion to Oxana.
• Oxana — Choop’s daughter and Vakoola’s beloved: The village beauty jokingly demands the empress’s boots, then admits she loves Vakoola without the gift.
• the devil — evil spirit and Vakoola’s adversary: He steals the moon to thwart the blacksmith, but Vakoola rides and compels him to carry him to St Petersburg.
• Solokha — witch and Vakoola’s mother: A shrewd forty-year-old flirt who hides several admirers in sacks and sets off a chain of village misunderstandings.
• Choop — wealthy Cossack and Oxana’s father: A complacent widower who loses his way, lands in Solokha’s sack, and finally lets Oxana marry Vakoola.
• Patzuck — Zaporoghian healer and reputed sorcerer: A lazy, mysterious conjurer whom Vakoola consults and whose dumplings fly into his mouth by themselves.
• Catherine II — empress of Russia: She graciously receives the Zaporoghians and gives Vakoola her own boots for his bride.
• the village elder — the village elder, one of Solokha's callers: The self-important village elder, who hides in a sack and is carried across Dikanka on the smith's back.
• the parish clerk — clerk of the Dikanka church: The church clerk, who courts Solokha in florid language and also ends up in a sack.
• the kinsman — Choop's crony: Choop's lanky kinsman, who wanders the blizzard with him and gets stuck in the tavern.
• the weaver's wife — a Dikanka gossip: The fat gossip who first proclaims that the smith has drowned himself.