Varvara Ardalionovna Ptitsin
Varvara Ardalionovna Ptitsin, née Ivolgin, is the pragmatic and determined sister of Gavrila Ardalionovitch Ivolgin, who marries the moneylender Ivan Petrovitch Ptitsin to secure her family's precarious finances and then works tirelessly—through a network of social visits and strategic silences—to advance her brother's prospects with Aglaya Epanchin, even as she watches his ambitions collapse under the weight of his own vanity and the family's accumulating disgrace. She is a woman of twenty-three, of middle height and thin, whose face, though not beautiful, possesses the rare quality of charm and can fascinate even to the point of passionate regard. Her grey eyes are merry and gentle when not too full of thought and anxiety, and she shares her mother Nina Alexandrovna's firmness and decision, though her strength is more vigorous and she is subject to outbursts of temper that even her brother fears a little. She dresses as modestly and darkly as her mother, which proves she has no taste for smart clothes, and she is clearly attracted to Ptitsin, though she has not shown him any decided encouragement as yet, a fact that does not quell his ardour in the least.
Marriage and Family Strategy
Varvara marries Ivan Petrovitch Ptitsin, a moneylender of modest and polished manners who has risen from poverty, not out of passion but with a clear-eyed calculation that this union will provide a refuge for her entire family. She does not marry until she feels convinced that her future husband is unassuming, agreeable, almost cultured, and that nothing on earth would tempt him to a really dishonourable deed; as to small meannesses, such trifles do not trouble her, for she knows that her marriage will provide a refuge for all her family. Seeing her brother Gania unhappy after his failed schemes, she is anxious to help him in spite of their former disputes and misunderstandings, and Ptitsin, in a friendly way, presses his brother-in-law to enter the army, joking that though Gania despises generals, "they" will all end by being generals in their turn. To serve her brother's interests, Varvara is constantly at the Epanchins' house, helped by the fact that in childhood she and Gania played with General Ivan Fedorovitch's daughters; her project is not chimerical at all, for she builds on a firm basis—on her knowledge of the character of the Epanchin family, especially Aglaya, whom she studies closely.
Role in Gania's Pursuit of Aglaya
All Varvara's efforts are directed towards bringing Aglaya and Gania together, and she manoeuvres skilfully, sometimes going for weeks without mentioning Gania, maintaining a modest but dignified attitude, and always being extremely truthful and sincere. Examining the depths of her conscience, she finds nothing to reproach herself with, and this still further strengthens her in her designs. Yet she sometimes remarks that she feels spiteful, that there is a good deal of vanity in her, perhaps even of wounded vanity, especially after her visits to the Epanchins. When she returns from the Epanchin house one day with a heavy feeling of dejection, she finds Gania pacing up and down at frantic speed, pale with rage, and she informs him that the prince is formally engaged to Aglaya, that it is settled, and that the elder sisters told her about it. She tells him that Aglaya has agreed, that they don't attempt to conceal it any longer, and that Adelaida's wedding is put off so that both can be married on one day. When Gania takes the news philosophically, she is glad, but she also probes his thoughts by adding that the elder girls seemed to be laughing at her in their sleeves, she doesn't know why.
Witness to Family Collapse
Varvara is present during the terrible scene when her father, General Ardalion Alexandrovitch Ivolgin, rages through the house, cursing the household and accusing Hippolyte of being a "screw" who drills holes in his soul. She tries to calm the situation, telling Gania to make allowances, and when the general storms out, she rushes after him, crying, "Come back, father; the neighbours will hear!" She is also the one who discovers Aglaya's note to Gania, arranging a meeting at the green bench in the park, and she immediately understands its significance, telling Gania that this is a serious business and that he must not swagger again and lose the game. Later, when Aglaya flees from Nastasia Philipovna's house in a terrible state of mind and refuses to come home, it is Varia who receives her and sends word to the Epanchins, and it is through her that the prince is refused a sight of Aglaya. Throughout the family's disintegration—her father's stroke and death, her brother's humiliations, her mother's grief—Varvara remains the practical anchor, the one who sees clearly and acts decisively, even as she is herself caught in the web of the Ivolgins' tragic fate.
