Who is Herr Lajos von Kekesfalva from Beware of Pity and what is their importance?

Herr Lajos von Kekesfalva was originally a young Jewish boy named Kanitz who tried to work his way up in the world. He is a small man with spectacles, bony hands, and a bony head with a receding hairline. Eventually he met a woman whom he talked into selling him her estate for a third of its value, thereby making him a wealthy land owner. Feeling bad about the deal, he married the young woman. Their only child, Edith, was a light in both their eyes. When his wife died of cancer, Kekesfalva transferred his love to his daughter and became nearly obsessed with her. When an illness took her ability to walk, he became obsessed with finding a cure. Kekesfalva uses his own pitiful obsession with his daughter often as a manipulation tool. In the novel, he often uses this against Hofmiller to coerce him into both continuing to come see his daughter and in marrying his daughter. In the end, however, Kekesfalva learns that Hofmiller is a selfish individual who cares little for others except for his pity for them. When his daughter commits suicide as a result of believing she has lost Hofmiller, Kekesfalva dies.