Dr Timofey Pnin
Pnin is a Russian emigre who has extraordinary trouble assimilating into his new American society. He speaks very little English which means that he has trouble expressing himself, joining in with social groups, and also in demonstrating his intelligence. He has a general inability to understand Western culture. He is the archetypal square peg in a round hole, only he gives the impression that every hole would be round because he just does not fit anywhere. It's entirely possible that he is somewhere on the autism spectrum as he gets obsessed with certain random objects of substances; for example he is obsessed with anything that is made of plastic, endlessly fascinated by his broken alarm clock and a plastic zipper. If Pnin was aware that he had horrible luck in life, we would feel desperately sorry for him, but he seems so blissfully unaware of this that feeling sorry for him seems oddly inappropriate. Although he is very different to the usual sexually deviant protagonist of Nabokov's novels, he is said to be similar to Nabokov in terms of personality and the way in which he researches, focuses and delivers his knowledge. Although the majority of the books three hundred plus characters do not seem to like him as readers we find that we actually do.
Dr Liza Wind
We do not know why Pnin is excited to hear from this woman. His ex-wife, Dr Wind is not the kind of person anyone would want to be married to. Pnin seems still to adore her and hang on her every word. She married him on the rebound to punish a man who had rejected her. She then cheated and became pregnant, trying to claim that the son she then gave birth to was Pnin's, and going for full child support from that time onwards. She has remarried but Pnin clings to the notion that she is interested in rekindling the relationship that they had before.
Victor Wind
Victor is the son Pnin believed to be his own, and the two seem to have much in common, both outsiders, in Victor's case, because of his scary-high IQ. He is a genius, but this does not stop him being the typical generic teen as well. He is tall and shapeless, feels that nobody understands him and hates his parents. However, the reason for his disconnection from his parents is not the usual teen behavior, quite the opposite; Victor's parents think he is a problem because he doesn't misbehave, in fact, he has never really acted like a child and this flies in the face of what they feel they have known about the psychology of child rearing. He is not problematical enough for them which is an unusual reason for a parent to feel disconnected from a child.
Dr Hagen
Dr Hagen is a pivotal character in that he is the only faculty member of the university who actually likes or respects Pnin. He is also the only factor that keeps Pnin in employment. As soon as he retires, Pnin is fired.
The Narrator
Most third person narrators are detached from the plot of a novel. They are merely the conduit through which a story is shared with the reader. That is not the case in this novel. The narrator starts out in this vein, but there is a gradual change as the book progresses, and soon the narrator is actually contradicting Pnin's version of events and replacing them with his own. He is also loosely referred to by Pnin in a conversation with Dr Hagen; however, he is never properly introduced as a complete character.
