Several critics and researchers have pointed out that, in "Craii...", Caragiale used characters and dialogues to illustrate his own worldview and historical points of reference. Among the rich cultural references present in the novel, Șerban Cioculescu identified various direct or hidden portrayals of Caragiale's contemporaries, several of which point to his own family. Thus, Cioculescu argued, the character Zinca Mamonoaia is the writer's step aunt Catinca Momuloaia, while an entire passage sheds a negative light on Ion Luca (the unnamed "leading writer of the nation" who prostitutes his trade). Commenting on the brief mention of one of Pirgu's associates, "the theosophist Papura Jilava", the critic concluded that it most likely referred to novelist and traveler Bucura Dumbravă.