Nastasia Character Analysis

A visitor to the monastery who seeks the elder Zosima’s, blessing. She is “not at all old yet but very thin and haggard, with a face not tanned but […] blackened.” She has given birth to four children, all of whom have died. Her latest loss is her son, Alexei, for whom she cannot stop grieving. He was nearly three when he died. She is married to a man named Nikitushka who has started to drink to cope with their losses. Nastasia has abandoned her husband and her home. Zosima encourages her to return to her husband, saying it was a sin for her to leave him. She agrees to return home.