The Landlady

The near-blind landlady whose property the Cossacks infest approaches the narrator to tell him she wants to die. Weak and depressed, she sees the frail narrator as potentially sympathetic to her ugly predicament—hosting an unruly force of men. The narrator, however, shows no pity for her at all. He shoves her in the chest and steps on the head of her goose, which splatters. The landlady shuffles off to cook the goose, saying pathetically, "I want to go and hang myself." Her pitifulness is loathsome to the narrator, who, though equally depressed, must display no affiliation with her at all. She is the narrator's female foil, representing weakness in the face of war.

The Quartermaster

The unnamed quartermaster, who has been assigned to take the narrator to his squadron, is sympathetic to the narrator's tough task ahead with the Cossacks. He knows the Cossack life...