Character Analysis
R-13 is a poet, who shares a "sexual triangle" with D-503 and O-90. He's described as a "poet with the lips of a Negro" (5.1), a pretty clear allusion to Russia's number one poet, Aleksandr Pushkin. He's also a bit of an iconoclast, quietly goading D-503 towards acts of rebellion while ostensibly using his poetry to extol the virtues of the State. D-503 speaks glowingly of his work, as he "began to tell him how wonderfully he succeeded in versifying the death sentence of that insane man, that his poem, more than anything else, had smothered and annihilated the transgressor of the law." (11.6)
But also doesn't quite trust him. "I frowned," he says. "I do not like, I do not understand jokes, and R-13 has the bad habit of joking" (8.10). R- is part of the overall effort to bring D-503 over to the side of the rebels, both by challenging his world view, and in more direct methods like making him jealous of O-90. As with I-330, it's unclear how much of this is deliberate manipulation and how much is genuine feeling. But like her and a lot of others, R-13 ends up being killed for his beliefs.