War and Peace · Character
Nastásya Ivánovna
Also known as Nastásya Ivánovna, the buffoon, Nastásya
- Minor
- First seen · Book 1 · Ch. 135
The tall cap and woman’s jacket make him an unmistakable, almost theatrical figure, but it is the sadness in his face that lingers. Beneath the oddity of his dress is a stillness that feels more tender than comic.
- Gender
- male
- First appears
- Book 1 · Ch. 135
- Books
- 1
Known as the buffoon and by a woman’s name, Nastásya Ivánovna is presented as a gray-bearded old man in a woman’s cloak and tall peaked cap. Later, he sits sadly by a window in a woman’s jacket, his melancholy set against the incongruity of his costume. The text offers no fuller account of his past or fate, leaving him as a brief, poignant presence.
Description
Nastásya Ivánovna is an old man with a gray beard and a sad, expressive face. He wears women’s clothing—a cloak in one appearance, a jacket in another—and a tall peaked cap that gives him a distinctive silhouette. His build, eye color, and finer facial details are not specified; his subdued, melancholy presence is clearest in the way he sits quietly by a window.
Story so far
BOOK 1War and Peace
Appearances
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