She regards him as a mere child, and spoils him accordingly.

He is, in fact, childish in every way, deserving his sobriquet, and is followed about everywhere by his old nurse, Eremyeevna.

Mr.Simpleton has very little to say, and that little, chiefly, in support of his overbearing wife's assertions, and at her explicit demand.

She habitually addresses every one, except her son, as "beast," and by other similar epithets.

She has taken into her house, about six months before the play opens, Sophia, a fairly wealthy orphan, and a connection of hers by marriage, whom she ill-treats to a degree.