Pifagor is a minor aristocrat and former cavalry officer who resigned his commission following an unspecified unpleasant story. He is obsessed with maintaining his social status and mingles aggressively with high-ranking military men. Despite no longer serving in the military, he dresses in an archaic military style to project prestige and mask his lack of interpersonal depth.

She is the physically beautiful, youthful wife of Pifagor. Accustomed to a life of luxury and domestic innocence, she brought a significant dowry of capital and serfs to her marriage. She spends her days avoiding labor and conflict, preferring to focus entirely on her own appearance and comfort.

The brigadier general is a corpulent military commander known for his deep bass voice. He enjoys expensive food and the company of others in his station. Despite his high rank and emphasis on decorum, he often relies on subalterns to explain confusing situations to him when reality fails to match his expectations.

The unnamed narrator recounts the events in the village with an intimate conversational tone that implies familiarity with the setting. They fluctuate between describing events with extreme detail and admitting to sudden memory lapses. This storytelling approach utilizes subtle humor and frequent irony to expose the superficiality of the characters.

The mayor of the village is a provincial leader whose attempts to improve the town's appearance often expose its dilapidation instead. In his youth, he erected a fashionable board fence as a model for the town, but he later fell into lazy habits of sleeping after midday meals and drinking gooseberry decoctions.