The scapegoat
Yakov is a scapegoat, symbolically, because he is innocent yet the community tries him for a murder. One could argue that they merely need someone to blame so that they can go back to believing they are safe within their community. It makes them feel better to pretend that only a Jewish immigrant could commit murder. Surely no one in their Christian community could have done it. Of course, this is contrary to the truth of human nature, but Yakov is forced to witness the injustice of prejudice as a scapegoat nonetheless.
The helpless helper
By trade, Yakov is a handyman. He fixes problems. Yet, in his imprisonment, he is treated with such malice, prejudice, and contempt that anyone who helps him to fix his problems is promptly punished and often persecuted by the government. This makes him into a symbolic character. He is a helper by nature, but he is unable to receive help from anyone. He might be most deserving of help of all, but he receives least. This is a symbol for the imbalance that comes from systemic injustice.
The anti-wife
Yakov is finally allowed a visitor. She is his ex-wife who left him in contempt years before. The state officials have reached out to her and have paid her to attempt to persuade Yakov into signing a statement of guilt. Although wives are supposed to be partners and mutual supporters in life, Yakov's wife is more like Judas Iscariot, selling him out for money and power. She harasses him and bullies him, and she brings bad news with a sense of dismissal and condescension. She tells him his son isn't really his; she cheated on him.
The long incarceration
The injustice that Yakov suffers is defined in some ways by his incarceration. Although the murder charges are obvious and should lead to a timely trial, the state keeps him without pressing charges for two full years. He is kept in contempt, in pain and persecution, often physically harmed by guards or psychically harmed by his evil wife, without charges for two years, and then finally there is a court hearing for the crime.
The imaginary dialogue
There comes a scene where instead of Yakov going to trial, he pretends to hold Tsar Nicholas II on trial. He complains that the Tsar has headed one of the worst states in Russian history, defiling everything that made Russia dear to him. The lawyer has just elucidated him as to the true nature of his imprisonment. It is common under the Tsar's government for poor Jews to be arrested in lieu of actual investigation. Yakov cannot stand such injustice and his monologue against the Tsar is the symbolic overflow of his agony.
