Inside the story
Meet Alexei Stepanovich Bagrovo
Stepan Mikhailovich and Arina Vassilyevna's only son and heir. He is a handsome, gentle, bashful, and somewhat passive young man who serves in the Army and later works in the civil service at Ufa. He falls deeply in love with Sofya Nikolayevna and marries her with his parents' blessing; he possesses natural intelligence, kindness, honour, and integrity, but little independence or social confidence.
On the page
A man of twenty-six, handsome and youthful, with a complexion of lilies and roses. He wears an official uniform with a three-cornered hat and sword; during illness, the uniform hangs loosely on his thinned frame.
