General Ivolgin and Nina Alexandrovna's relationship

General Ardalion Alexandrovitch Ivolgin and Nina Alexandrovna Ivolgin's marriage is the battered heart of the Ivolgin household, a union sustained almost entirely by Nina's patient, long-suffering love and Ardalion's intermittent, tearful remorse. The general, a retired officer and a compulsive liar, has sunk into alcoholism and disgrace, while his wife, once a woman of some standing, endures poverty and humiliation with a quiet dignity that earns the respect of even the cynical prince. Their relationship is a cycle of crisis, repentance, and relapse, with Nina's forgiveness serving as the only stable force in a home otherwise ruled by her son Gania's ambition and her husband's self-destruction.

A Marriage of Endurance and Shame

Nina Alexandrovna is described as a woman of about fifty, thin-faced and with black lines under her eyes, looking ill and rather sad, but with a pleasant face that from the first word reveals a serious and sincere nature. Despite her sorrowful expression, she possesses considerable firmness and decision. Her dress is modest and simple, evidence that she has seen better days. She married General Ivolgin when he was a young officer, and the general himself later claims, in one of his drunken fabrications, that he won her hand by saving her and a count from a burning house after being falsely accused of stealing five hundred thousand roubles. The story is almost certainly a lie, but when he tells it to Lebedeff he weeps at the mention of Nina Alexandrovna, revealing a genuine, if degraded, affection. Nina Alexandrovna has forgiven him so much in silence and loves him still in spite of his degradation. The general's feeling for her amounts almost to adoration, and his struggles against his own weakness are real, though they never last long.

The General's Degradation and Nina's Vigil

Ardalion's alcoholism and compulsive lying are the constant source of domestic turmoil. He is described as a man who, though of peaceful and kindly disposition, periodically rebels against a quiet life of repentance, flies into rages, and disappears from the house for long periods. He keeps a mistress, the captain's widow, and his son Gania complains that he is rapidly becoming a general nuisance. Nina Alexandrovna, however, never abandons him. When he is imprisoned in a debtor's prison for IOU's given to the widow, she weeps bitter tears over him, to the great surprise of her household, and makes a point of visiting him as often as possible, despite her own feeble health. Her daughter Varvara and son Gania are more pragmatic, with Gania declaring he holds his father in check and would have shown him the way out long ago if not for his mother. The general himself, in a moment of drunken pathos, acknowledges her angelic spirit, crying out, "Nina, Nina, oh, Nina. What have I ever done to deserve your forgiveness and long-suffering?"

The Theft and the Final Crisis

The marriage reaches its breaking point when the general, in a drunken stupor, steals four hundred roubles from Lebedeff's coat pocket. Lebedeff discovers the money but, instead of confronting him, plays a cruel game, hiding the purse in his own coat lining and watching the general's torment. The general, aware of what he has done, is consumed by shame and paranoia. He quarrels with Lebedeff, leaves the prince's house, and eventually returns to his family in a state of violent hypochondria and morbid self-esteem. The crisis culminates in a terrible scene at the Ptitsins' house, where the general, raging and purple-faced, curses the household and storms out into the street. His son Colia follows him, and in the street, the general, trembling and whispering disjointed phrases about "le roi de Rome" and "Maria Petrovna Su—Su—Su," suddenly collapses into Colia's arms. Colia realizes his father has suffered a stroke. The general dies during a second stroke eight days later. The prince attends the funeral, and the service produces a great effect on him. Nina Alexandrovna, who had been at his bedside throughout, is left a widow, her long endurance finally ended by death, not by reconciliation.