Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka is an elderly and stubborn widowed landowner living near N... city. When Chichikov sets off towards Nozdryov's, he knocks on her door by chance when his carriage gets stuck in a storm. She is a typical provincial woman, traditional, narrow-minded, and constantly whining about harvest and financial losses. She stores the honey, hemp, and wool she produces in her home, trying to make a profit from everything. When Chichikov makes the offer to purchase dead souls, she is deeply shocked; rather than the moral aspect, she hesitates regarding whether she will lose money by selling the dead or if she could find another buyer and sell them for more, displaying an exasperating stubbornness. Finally, upon Chichikov's wearying ultimatum, she agrees to sell them for 15 rubles.
Nastasya is the widow of a school clerk. She has spent her life as a land manager, meticulously ensuring that her chickens, pigs, grain, peasants, and their produce are not sold to the city cheaply. She has hardly seen anything beyond the village or the market she produces for.
A typical, older provincial woman who wears a nightcap on her head at night and wraps a flannel scarf around her neck; during the day, she wears a gown of mottled calico, a robe over it with a shawl, and her face bears the marks of sleeplessness or fatigue.
Fetinya (Hizmetçi)
A loyal servant to whom he gives orders and whom he has prepare his bed.
Pavel İvanoviç Çiçikof
She first sees him as a respectable guest, then as a buyer of honey/hemp, and finally as a terrifying but lucrative lunatic who wants to buy the dead.