The Slave: Analysis of Major Characters

Author: Isaac Bashevis Singer

First published: Der Knekht, 1961 (English translation, 1962)

Genre: Novel

Locale: Poland and Palestine

Plot: Historical

Time: The mid-and late seventeenth century

Jacob, a devout, scholarly Jew, twenty-nine years old as the novel opens. A survivor of a massacre, he is sold as a slave to Polish peasant Jan Bzik, who uses him as a cowherd. He is tall, with brown hair and blue eyes, and he is descended from rabbis. He resists the temptation to commit adultery with Wanda, Jan's daughter, in a mountain village in which diseased sexuality is rampant, but he finally succumbs and is tormented by shame and desire. After five years, Jacob is ransomed by fellow Jews. Their account of Cossack atrocities in his village and of the death of his wife and children increases his guilt. He returns to Wanda after seeing her in a dream. It is Jacob's faithful nature that makes him return to Pilitz twenty years after her death, and there he dies, faithful to the last.

Wanda Bzik, the widowed daughter of Jan. She is almost pagan but comparatively civilized, a fair-haired, good-looking, capable, and healthy woman. Managing her father's household, she falls in love with Jacob and helps him by bringing him food and treating a snakebite. She pursues him passionately and is eager to learn his doctrine. When he is ransomed, she falls sick; she is in this condition when he rescues her. She accompanies him to Pilitz, pretending to be a deaf-mute, Dumb Sarah, and trying to behave as a Jewish married woman should. She dies giving birth to a son and reveals, in her agony, the truth about her origins. She appears to Jacob in dreams for the rest of his life.

Adam Pilitzky, the fifty-four-year-old overlord of the village of Pilitz, whose youth was spent in the West. He is ruthless with his peasantry but is a poor manager, with corrupt bailiffs. Against his declared intent, a Jewish community forms in Pilitz. He hangs himself when Pilitz passes to a creditor.

Theresa Pilitzky, Adam's wife. She is small, plump, sprightly, and as loose-living as her husband. For her own amusement, she tries to tempt Jacob. She dies alone after giving her remaining wealth to an impoverished nobleman, her last lover.

Jan Bzik, Wanda's father and Jacob's master. He has a certain innate intelligence that prevents him from ridiculing Jacob. Once a man of importance in the village, he is now old, sick, and morose, so that his wife wishes him dead. He dies, leaving Wanda, his favorite daughter, unprotected.

Gershon, a powerful man in Pilitz who has leased the manor's fields. A cunning dealer and a leader of the Jewish community who collects (and embezzles) their taxes, he dresses like a rabbi, looks like a butcher, and dislikes Jacob and all scholars. He is a stickler for the forms of religion and is loud in condemning Jacob when the truth emerges.

Dziobak, a Catholic priest in the mountain village, where pagan superstitions prevail. He is short, broad, clumsily built, lame, dirty, and often drunk. He is the father of many children.

Miriam, Jacob's sister, who survived the massacre. Formerly handsome and well-to-do, she is now toothless and ragged. She shrilly enumerates the atrocities.

Tirza Temma, a Jewish woman forced into marriage with a Cossack. Hearing that her first husband will be allowed to be divorced from her, she berates the community in Cossack, having forgotten her Yiddish.