The action takes place in the provincial town, in the house Prozorov.
Irina, the youngest of three Prozorov sisters, turns twenty years old. “It’s sunny and fun outside,” and a table is being set in the hall to await guests - officers of the artillery battery stationed in the city and its new commander, Lieutenant Colonel Vershinin. Everyone is full of joyful expectations and hopes. Irina: “I don’t know why my soul is so light!... It’s like I’m on sails, there’s a wide air above me blue sky and great white birds fly about.” The Prozorovs are scheduled to move to Moscow in the fall. The sisters have no doubt that their brother Andrei will go to university and eventually become a professor. Kulygin, a gymnasium teacher, the husband of one of the sisters, Masha, is grateful. Chebutykin, a military doctor who once madly loved the Prozorovs’ late mother, succumbs to the general joyful mood. “My white bird,” he kisses Irina touchingly. Lieutenant Baron Tuzenbach speaks with enthusiasm about the future: “The time has come […] a healthy, strong storm is being prepared, which […] will blow away laziness, indifference, prejudice towards work, rotten boredom from our society.” Vershinin is equally optimistic. With his appearance, Masha’s “merechlyundia” goes away. The atmosphere of relaxed cheerfulness is not disturbed by the appearance of Natasha, although she herself is terribly embarrassed by large society. Andrei proposes to her: “Oh youth, wonderful, wonderful youth! […] I feel so good, my soul is full of love, delight... My dear, good, pure, be my wife!”
But already in the second act, major notes are replaced by minor ones. Andrey can't find a place for himself because of boredom. He, who dreamed of a professorship in Moscow, is not at all attracted by the position of secretary of the zemstvo government, and in the city he feels “alien and lonely.” Masha is finally disappointed in her husband, who once seemed to her “terribly learned, smart and important,” and among his fellow teachers she simply suffers. Irina is not satisfied with her work at the telegraph office: “What I wanted so much, what I dreamed about, is not in it. Work without poetry, without thoughts...” Olga returns from the gymnasium, tired and with a headache. Not in the spirit of Vershinin. He still continues to assure that “everything on earth must change little by little,” but he immediately adds: “And how I would like to prove to you that there is no happiness, there should not be and will not be for us... We must only work and work..." In Chebutykin's puns, with which he amuses those around him, hidden pain breaks through: "No matter how you philosophize, loneliness is a terrible thing..."
Natasha, who is gradually taking control of the whole house, sends out the guests who were waiting for the mummers. "Philistine!" - Masha says to Irina in her hearts.
Three years have passed. If the first act took place at noon, and it was “sunny and cheerful” outside, then the stage directions for the third act “warn” about completely different - gloomy, sad - events: “Behind the stage they sound the alarm bell on the occasion of a fire that started a long time ago. IN open door you can see the window, red from the glow.” The Prozorovs' house is full of people fleeing the fire.
Irina sobs: “Where? Where did it all go? […] and life is leaving and will never return, we will never, never go to Moscow... I’m in despair, I’m in despair!” Masha thinks in alarm: “Somehow we will live our lives, what will become of us?” Andrei cries: “When I got married, I thought that we would be happy... everyone is happy... But my God...” Tuzenbach, perhaps even more disappointed: “What did I imagine then (three years ago. - V.B.) happy life! Where is she? While on a drinking binge, Chebutykin: “My head is empty, my soul is cold. Maybe I’m not a person, but I’m only pretending that I have arms and legs... and a head; Maybe I don’t exist at all, but it only seems to me that I walk, eat, sleep. (Crying.)" And the more persistently Kulygin repeats: “I am satisfied, I am satisfied, I am satisfied,” the more obvious it becomes how broken and unhappy everyone is.
And finally, the last action. Autumn is approaching. Masha, walking along the alley, looks up: “And migratory birds are already flying…” The artillery brigade leaves the city: it is transferred to another place, either to Poland, or to Chita. The officers come to say goodbye to the Prozorovs. Fedotik, taking a photograph as a souvenir, notes: “...there will be peace and quiet in the city.” Tuzenbach adds: “And the boredom is terrible.” Andrey speaks out even more categorically: “The city will be empty. It’s as if they’ll cover him with a cap.”
Masha breaks up with Vershinin, whom she fell in love with so passionately: “Unsuccessful life... I don’t need anything now...” Olga, having become the head of the gymnasium, understands: “That means she won’t be in Moscow.” Irina decided - “if I’m not destined to be in Moscow, then so be it” - to accept the proposal of Tuzenbach, who retired: “The baron and I are getting married tomorrow, tomorrow we’re leaving for the brick factory, and the day after tomorrow I’m already at school, it begins new life. […] And suddenly, as if wings grew on my soul, I became cheerful, it became a lot easier and again I wanted to work, work...” Chebutykin in emotion: “Fly, my dears, fly with God!”
He blesses Andrei in his own way for the “flight”: “You know, put on your hat, pick up a stick and go away... leave and go, go without looking back. And the further you go, the better.”
But even the most modest hopes of the characters in the play are not destined to come true. Solyony, in love with Irina, provokes a quarrel with the baron and kills him in a duel. Broken Andrey does not have enough strength to follow Chebutykin’s advice and pick up the “staff”: “Why do we, having barely begun to live, become boring, gray, uninteresting, lazy, indifferent, useless, unhappy?...”
The battery leaves the city. A military march sounds. Olga: “The music plays so cheerfully, cheerfully, and you want to live! […] and, it seems, a little more, and we will find out why we live, why we suffer... If only we knew! (The music plays quieter and quieter.) If only I had known, if only I had known!” (Curtain.)
The heroes of the play are not free migratory birds, they are imprisoned in a strong social “cage”, and the personal destinies of everyone caught in it are subject to the laws by which the entire country, which is experiencing general trouble, lives. Not “who?”, but “what?” dominates a person. This main culprit of misfortunes and failures in the play has several names - “vulgarity”, “baseness”, “sinful life”... The face of this “vulgarity” looks especially visible and unsightly in Andrei’s thoughts: “Our city has existed for two hundred years, there are a hundred thousands of inhabitants, and not a single one who would not be like the others... […] They only eat, drink, sleep, then die... others will be born, and they also eat, drink, sleep and, in order not to become dull from boredom, diversify their lives with disgusting gossip, vodka, cards, litigation..."
The drama "Three Sisters" is a significant event in Chekhov's life. After the failure of The Seagull, Anton Pavlovich vowed not to write plays; he considered himself a failed playwright. And now, five years later, he writes a play in which not only “five pounds of love” became the basis of the plot, but also expressed all the main themes and motives of the Russian classics: the collapse of noble nests, the failure of “smart uselessness,” the tragedy of the “unfortunate family,” the grief of the lost hope, the meaninglessness of the duel. In a letter to V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, Chekhov admitted: no matter how a person disposes of his desires, “... life itself is the same as it was, does not change and remains the same, following its own laws.” In the same way, in the play “Three Sisters,” no matter how much the heroines want to go to Moscow, no matter how Vershinin loves Masha, no matter how the heroes dream of happiness, everything remains the same.
Anton Pavlovich subjected many important problems of human life to an ironic understanding, giving the reader and viewer the opportunity to look at them not tragically, but with that healthy smile that does not offend a person with hopelessness, but, on the contrary, convinces him of the need to live.
Chekhov wrote about “Three Sisters” that it was “a play as complex as a novel.” This play most clearly expresses the traditions of Russian epic prose. The lyrical sound of Chekhov's theater here reaches a passionate, dramatic ideological tension. The heroes of “Three Sisters” live as if “dramatically”, as if hoping that there will still be an opportunity to live in full force. Their everyday life is colored by a painfully beautiful dream of Moscow and a better future. The time of their lives moves in one direction, and their dreams move in another. You should not look for the nature of the comedy genre in the characters of the characters. It is not the heroes and their vices that Chekhov ridicules, but life itself.
Plot development in "Three Sisters"
Three love stories: Masha - Kulygin - Vershinin; Irina - Tuzenbach - Solyony; Andrei - Natasha - Protopopov, it would seem, should give the play dynamics and intriguing drama. However, this does not happen. The characters do not strive to change anything in their lives, they do not act, they only suffer and constantly wait, and the characters’ lives pass as if in the subjunctive mood. The plot of the play is non-eventful, although in fact there are more than enough events: betrayal, name day, fire, duel. In the play "Three Sisters" the heroes are inactive, but life actively intervenes in the world of their devastated souls.
The intrusion of everyday life is emphasized by microplots: stories, incidents that the characters talk about. This expands the space of the play, introducing the motif of the unpredictability of existence into the conflict of the work. There are no main characters in Chekhov's plays; the flow of life itself is the main object of the author's attention. One of the most important features of Chekhov's poetics is the ability to find beauty in everyday life. A special bright sadness illuminates his plays.
The meaning of the title of the play "Three Sisters"
In Russian classical literature, the titles of works are, as a rule, symbolic and very often express the author’s attitude towards what is depicted. In Chekhov's plays everything is more complicated. He has repeatedly argued that one should not look for special meaning, irony or deep symbolism in the titles of his works. Indeed, it seems strange that the play is called “Three Sisters,” while in this drama the story of the Prozorov family is presented and, no less important, is Andrei, the brother of the sisters. If we take into account female images, then Natasha, Andrei’s wife, is much more active than Irina, Masha and Olga; she achieves everything she dreamed of.
The dramatic theme of "Three Sisters" is a persistent variation on the motif of wasted beauty. The images of the three sisters are the personification of spiritual beauty and sincerity. The author often uses the comparison of the female soul with a migratory bird, and this becomes one of the leitmotifs of the play.
The color symbolism noted by the author in the stage directions to the first act sets the reader and viewer up to perceive the sisters as a single image. They become the personification of the past, present and future of national life. And this position is illustrated by color symbols. White dress Irina symbolizes youth and hope, Olga's blue uniform dress emphasizes her dependence on the life of a case. Black dress Masha is read as a symbol of ruined happiness. The whole drama of the situation presented by the author lies in the fact that the future is connected not with Irina, but with Masha. Her strange remark - “Both day and night, the learned cat always walks around the chain...” is a symbolic commentary on the heroines’ dependence on their own powerlessness.
Theme of unfulfilled hopes
Images of birds play a special role in the development of the metaphorical subtext of the work. The motif of migratory birds is repeated several times in the play. Tuzenbach talks about them, discussing the meaning of life; Masha sadly reflects on birds when she says goodbye to the officers leaving the city.
The theme of wasted energy and unfulfilled hopes is emphasized by another motif that generally dominates all of Chekhov’s work - the destruction of the house, estate, and family happiness. It was the struggle for the house that was the external outline of the action of the play. Although there is no struggle as such - the sisters do not resist, they resign themselves to what is happening, because they do not live in the present, they have a past - a family, a house in Moscow and, as it seems to them, a future - work and happiness in Moscow. The clash of hope, the scope of dreams with the weakness of dreamers - this is the main conflict of the play, which manifests itself not in the action, but in the subtext of the work. This decision expressed the author’s sad irony over “clums,” over circumstances that cannot be overcome.
B. Zingerman in the book “Chekhov’s Theater” completed the analysis of A. P. Chekhov’s plays by comparing all the plots of the great playwright with the events of the life of the creator of the plays: “... the lyricism of the Chekhov theater is not just confessional monologues of the characters, not only bashful subtext and pauses full of sad mood: Chekhov plays out the plots of his life in his plays... Maybe that’s why he began to write not novels, but plays, because it was in a dialogical form that it was easier for Chekhov, with his closed temperament, to express his personal theme “The more he makes fun of the characters, the more we sympathize with them.” All his life Chekhov dreamed of a big family and his own home, but he found neither one nor the other, although he was married and had two estates (in Yalta and Melikhovo). Already seriously ill, Chekhov still did not fall into despair; he sought to convey hope and joy to his loved ones even when life persistently refuted the most modest reasons for optimism. Chekhov's play is not a desperate gesture of a man unable to correct reality - it is a dream of happiness. Therefore, Chekhov’s works should not be perceived as “sad songs about passing harmony.”
“Three Sisters” is a play by Russian writer and playwright A.P. Chekhov was written in 1900. The first premiere in the theater took place a year after its publication in the Russian Thought magazine. And for more than a hundred years now it has not left the stages of world theaters.
The play consists of four acts. In the first, events develop in the Prozorovs’ house. Irina, Masha and Olga appear before the reader - sisters, as well as their brother Andrei. The family lives in a small provincial town. Many years ago, their father, General Prozorov, took them from Moscow to this place. But last year he died, and that was the end of his carefree life. Olga works as a teacher, but it does not bring her pleasure. She feels that she is doing something other than her own business, and it tires her extremely. Olga understands that her youth is leaving and nothing in this life brings her peace and satisfaction. Masha, who was married off at a very young age, is unhappy in her marriage. In the first years of her marriage, she considered her husband Kulygin to be an active and intelligent person, but after a while she became more and more disappointed in him. And only Irina feels an incredible elation. Today she turns twenty years old, her whole life is ahead of her, and Irina dreams of how she will work for the benefit of people. Everyone thinks about their future life and dreams of returning to Moscow. Great hopes are placed on Andrey, who must go to university and definitely become a professor. As in all of Chekhov’s works, the heroines of “Three Sisters” passionately desire to change their fate for the better, to find a bright and cloudless existence. Therefore, Moscow, where the family lived their happiest years, becomes a dream city for them. Repeatedly throughout the work, the characters repeat - “to Moscow!”
In the meantime, guests begin to gather in the Prozorovs’ house. Preparations are underway to celebrate the birthday of Irina, the youngest of three sisters. Among the guests are Irina’s admirers: officers Tuzenbakh and Soleny, as well as Lieutenant Colonel Vershinin. Sympathy arises between the lieutenant colonel and Masha. Vershinin is an unhappy person in his personal life. He is married to a woman who constantly attempts suicide and has two young daughters. Masha’s husband, the gymnasium teacher Kulygin, is also present here. Military doctor Chebutykin, who was once madly in love with the Prozorovs’ late mother, also came to congratulate Irina. A little later, Andrei’s fiancee Natalya arrives. She is dressed tastelessly, and Olga reprimands her. They laugh at Natalya, she cannot stay in this society, she is very embarrassed and leaves. Andrey follows her. In the first act, Natalya showed herself to be a not very educated and tasteless girl. But in the future it is this heroine who will play a fatal role in the lives of the main characters. Unfortunately for him, the talented, versatile Andrei falls in love with her and thereby destroys his dreams and hopes.
The second act takes the reader several years into the future. Andrey married Natasha and they had a son, his family calls him Bobik. Andrei's hopes of becoming a professor were destroyed, he became the secretary of the zemstvo government. This position was not promising and Andrei begins to play cards out of boredom. From time to time he loses quite large sums. Natalya settled into the Prozorovs' house and gradually moved Irina out of her room, explaining this by the need for a separate room for the child. The second action takes place during the winter months. The Christmas holidays have just ended. The sisters invite mummers to the house, but Natalya orders them not to be accepted, citing her son’s illness. She herself goes on a troika with bells for a walk with the local official Protopopov. Olga continues to work as a teacher and complains of frequent headaches. Irina, who so dreamed in the first act of working for the benefit of people, of bringing benefit to humanity, gets a job at the telegraph office. This is a very boring and monotonous job that does not bring the girl any satisfaction. Officer Solyony is in love with Irina. He confesses his feelings to the girl, but his rude manners cannot attract Irina. She feels only hostility towards him and rejects the staff captain. In his hearts, Solyony declares that he will never tolerate a rival and will kill him if one appears in her life.
The third act begins with a big fire. The whole block is on fire. Fortunately, the Prozorovs' house was not damaged. Olga tries in every possible way to help people affected by the fire. She gives them dresses, skirts and sweaters. Natalya is dissatisfied with such generosity; she does not like that the sisters allow fire victims to enter the house. During these sad events, she starts a conversation with Olga about the old nanny Anfisa, whom, in her opinion, it is high time to send to the village. Olga cannot understand whether Natalya is serious about this.
Vershinin, along with other soldiers, helped put out the fire. His house and family were not damaged; his daughters managed to run out into the street. After the shock he experienced, Vershinin begins to talk about how people will live in a few hundred years. He is sure that a happy time will come and no one will suffer. Maria listens to his every word, she is truly in love.
Tusenbach now holds a position at the plant. He decides to propose to Irina and invites her to leave with him. Irina does not love him, but after listening to the advice of her sister Olga, she agrees. This unbalances the vengeful staff captain Soleny.
Andrey completely lost at cards. He is under full influence his wife Natalya. Having owed a large sum of money, he mortgages the house, which belongs not only to him, but also to his sisters. Natalya takes the proceeds from the bail. She no longer hesitates to cheat on Andrei with Protopopov. The whole city is talking about this and only Andrei pretends that nothing is happening. He himself tries to explain himself to the sisters, proves that Natasha good man, and his current job is much better than his professorship. But already in the middle of the conversation, he suddenly begins to cry and asks the sisters not to believe him. Meanwhile, in the provincial town there is a rumor that all the officers of the artillery brigade will be transferred to some distant garrisons. For Masha, this meant the end of relations with Vershinin, and for the other sisters, it meant deprivation of the opportunity to see many acquaintances.
In the fourth act, the artillery brigade does move, their destination is Poland. Three sisters say a touching goodbye to their friends. The day before the wedding of Irina and Baron Tuzenbach, an unpleasant event occurs. On the boulevard near the theater, Solyony finally brought the verbal skirmishes between him and the baron to a duel. Irina is not told the details, but she has a presentiment that some unpleasant events are about to happen. She has already passed the exam to become a teacher at the gymnasium and, after moving with her husband to the brick factory, she is going to work at the school. She is full of hope, sincerely believing that the new place will open up for her the long-awaited meaning of life.
Olga is appointed head of the gymnasium and she moves to live in an apartment. Olga takes with her the old nanny, whom Natalya was going to kick out. Protopopov openly comes to the house to see Natalya’s little daughter. Most likely, he is Sonechka’s father. However, Andrei continues to endure everything and convinces himself of the decency of his own wife.
Meanwhile, Tuzenbach goes to a duel. He says a crumpled farewell to Irina, suggesting that this may be the last time he sees her. Chebutykin was called to the duel as a doctor. Vershinin also comes to say goodbye to the Prozorovs’ house. He kisses Masha and hurries to leave quickly. At this time, a shot is heard in the grove, which becomes fatal for Tuzenbach. He is killed. Chebutykin comes to the house with this news, but speaks of misfortune to Olga. She hugs her sister and tells her about this. Three sisters hugging each other and calming each other down. Irina decides to go to the factory anyway to drown out her suffering, Masha talks about the need to continue living, and Olga, listening to the sounds of the orchestra playing nearby, tries to find the answer to the question: “Why do we live, why do we suffer?”
In the play “Three Sisters” by A.P. Chekhov raises important human questions, the main one of which is determining a person’s place in life. Throughout the entire work, this theme is heard in the characters’ remarks, in their disputes and actions.
The loneliness of Chekhov's contemporaries is the main source of conflict in the play. This is not just physical loneliness - when no one is around. This is the absence of spiritually close people. All the characters in the play, despite being together, are very lonely. “How to live?” - this is the main question that arises among different characters throughout the four acts. Each of the characters commits some important actions in life, hoping that this will bring them happiness in the future. But all their dreams are destroyed, and they again find themselves at a crossroads, deciding what to do next.
The main characters of the play are deeply unhappy. But Chekhov's task was to show the reader the cause of these misfortunes. According to the author, all the characters, although not openly, are interconnected. Each of them has their own idea of happiness. All the characters’ arguments about their own future, about the need to suffer for the sake of the future of their children, about the meaning of life are at odds with the real state of affairs in their own lives. Only towards the end of the play does it become clear that all these dreams and disputes are just a necessary part of their life. They need to talk about a happy future, without this they will not be able to live on. They create their own imaginary happiness. And in the end, by the end of the play, it becomes clear that all insoluble conflicts come down to only one thing - just living.
A play in four acts, written by A.P. Chekhov in 1900.
Characters:
Prozorov Andrey Sergeevich
Olga, Masha, Irina, his sisters
Natalya Ivanovna, first his fiancee, then his wife
Tuzenbakh Nikolai Lvovich, baron, lieutenant
Kulygin Fedor Ilyich, Masha’s husband, gymnasium teacher
Chebutykin Ivan Romanovich, military doctor
Soleny Vasily Vasilievich, staff captain
Alexey Petrovich Fedotik, second lieutenant
Vladimir Karlovich Rode, second lieutenant
Act one.
The action takes place in the Prozorovs’ house, on a clear sunny day, a table is being set in the hall, guests are awaiting guests.
Irina, the youngest of the sisters, is turning twenty years old, everyone is full of hope and expectation of change for the better. In the fall, the family plans to move to Moscow, the sisters predict a great future for Andrey, they are sure that he will go to university and become a scientist. Olga dreams of moving from the provincial town to Moscow, because she is tired of working at the gymnasium and dreams of marriage. Masha is not happy with her family life, but she also wants to move and change her environment. Irina dreams of realizing herself at work; she does not want to live in idleness. When Vershinin, the commander of an artillery battery stationed in the city, comes to visit in the evening, the sisters show a keen interest in him, especially when they learn that he is from Moscow. Andrei is in love with a local young lady, Natasha, who has absolutely no taste and dresses vulgarly. The guests make fun of them, Natasha runs away from the table, Andrei follows her, says words of love and proposes.
Act two.
Andrey and Natasha are married, they already have a son, Bobik. Natasha is completely immersed in household concerns, which consist of gradually displacing all the inhabitants of the house, in the name of the interests of her child. Andrei was appointed secretary of the zemstvo government, and now he only dreams of a career as a scientist. Masha is completely disappointed in her husband, who previously seemed to her “terribly learned, smart and important,” and now she is annoyed by the company of her husband and his colleagues. She complains about her life to Vershinin, and he tells her about his wife’s bad character. Irina works at the telegraph office, gets very tired and begins to get irritated over trifles. Both Tuzenbach and Solyony are trying to court her, but Irina refuses both; she still dreams of moving to Moscow, which is scheduled for early summer. Olga still works at the gymnasium, hates her job and dreams of leaving.
Act three.
The action begins at night, there is a fire in the block, many fire victims crowd around the Prozorovs’ house. Olga orders that some of her belongings be given to the fire victims. There is a conflict between Natasha and Olga. Natasha wants to send her eighty-year-old nanny Anfisa to the village, but she begs not to kick her out in her old age. Olga comes to the nanny’s defense, and Natasha tells her not to interfere and to take charge in her gymnasium. At the same time, Natasha hides behind the interests of her children, because she already has two of them (her daughter Sofochka was born) and curries favor with Olga. Masha is having an affair with Vershinin, and her husband Kulygin seems to be the only one who does not notice this. Masha talks to her sisters about how their brother has changed. Andrey loses a lot of money and has mortgaged the house, which rightfully belongs to the four of them. He gave the money to Natasha, whom he completely trusts and considers her a decent person. Natasha began an affair with her husband’s boss, Protopopov, and the whole city is laughing at Andrey. Irina and Olga are worried that they are wasting their lives, they are both unhappy with their jobs, they no longer believe that they will leave, but they still dream of moving to Moscow. Having learned that a military brigade is being transferred from the city, the sisters are even more upset. Irina begs her sister to move and is even ready to marry Tuzenbach for this.
Act four.
The military unit is being transferred from the city, officers Fedotik and Rode came to say goodbye to the Prozorov family. Vershinin also came to say goodbye, Masha was crying, he kissed her and said goodbye. Kulygin enters, he is the only one who in his soul rejoices at the departure of the military. Kulygin loves Masha and forgives her betrayal, hoping that now they will live differently. Irina agreed to marry Tuzenbach, and the wedding day has already been set. They plan to leave together for Moscow. Irina passed the exam to become a teacher, and her future husband got a position at the factory. A skirmish occurred between Solyony and Tuzenbach; as a result, a duel was scheduled, which no one knows about. Olga became the head of the gymnasium, received a service apartment and lives there with an old nanny. Andrei suffers, realizing how degraded he has become; he is disgusted with his wife, who lives only by bourgeois interests and constantly commands him. He is upset that he lives like everyone else and no longer dreams of anything and does not strive for anything. The sound of a gunshot can be heard from afar. Tuzenbach was killed in a duel. Irina makes a serious decision to leave alone. The sisters support each other and believe that someday the time will come when everyone will be happy, but, probably, this will no longer be with them.
The play is very relevant for our time, when many people, like the heroes of the work, live in a “social cage”, without thinking about the meaning of their lives and acting as everyone else does, and not as they would like.
Characters
Prozorov Andrey Sergeevich.
Natalya Ivanovna, his fiancee, then his wife.
Olga, Masha, Irina, his sisters.
Kulygin Fedor Ilyich, gymnasium teacher, Masha’s husband.
Tuzenbakh Nikolai Lvovich, baron, lieutenant.
Soleny Vasily Vasilievich, staff captain.
Chebutykin Ivan Romanovich, military doctor.
Fedotik Alexey Petrovich, second lieutenant.
Rode Vladimir Karlovich, second lieutenant.
Act one
Three Prozorov sisters remember how their father died a year ago. Olga is tired of the abundance of work in the gymnasium, she feels that her youth is leaving and dreams of only one thing: to go to Moscow, where they were all born. It occurs to Olga that it would be better for her not to work, but to get married and love her husband. Tuzenbach notifies the sisters that in the evening, at Irina’s name day celebration, battery commander Vershinin is expected, who everywhere says that he has a wife and two girls, and his wife constantly attempts suicide to attract Vershinin’s attention. Irina says that she needs to work, she cannot live in idleness. Tuzeibakh himself has never worked in his life, but he also succumbs to Irina’s enthusiasm. Masha is in a sad mood; she is going to go home so as not to spoil her sisters’ mood. Chebutykin gives Irina a silver samovar; the sisters reproach him for his wastefulness, but the old doctor assures them that he has no one closer or dearer than them. Vershinin appears. He is from Moscow, which immediately attracts his three sisters. All three claim that they will move to Moscow by the fall. You can hear Andrei playing the violin behind the wall. The sisters consider him a scientist and predict a career for him as a professor. Andrei is in love with Natasha, a local young lady who has no taste and dresses vulgarly. Andrei does not like guests, gets lost in public, and, having barely said hello to Vershinin, leaves unnoticed. He manages, however, to inform Vershinin how their late father “... oppressed us with our upbringing. This is funny and stupid, but I still have to admit it, after his death I began to gain weight and now I have gained weight in one year; just like my body freed from oppression. Thanks to my father, my sisters and I speak French, German and English languages, and Irina also speaks Italian. But what was it worth! " Kulygn, in a uniform tailcoat, congratulates Irina on her name day, presents her with the history of their gymnasium for fifty years, written by him (the exact same one he already gave to Irina for Easter). Kulygin sincerely loves Masha, does not want to notice that his wife is completely indifferent to him. Tuzenbach (he is under 30 years old) tells Irina about his love for her, that they could live many happy years together, but Irina replies that she cannot love him, that her heart is closed. She wants to realize herself in her work. Natasha comes in in a pink dress with a green belt and congratulates Irina. She tries to point out to Natasha that she is dressed in bad taste, but she doesn’t understand why everyone at the table is making fun of Andrey and Natasha; Andrei jumps up and runs out from the table, following her, comforting her, talking about love, and proposing.
Act two
Andrey and Natasha are already married, they have a son, Bobik. Natasha is completely immersed in household worries, which for her boil down to the fact that she is slowly crowding everyone in the house in the name of the interests of the small child. Mummers are expected at Maslenitsa, but Natasha orders that they not be accepted, because they can bring infection into the house. Andrey has changed. His previous aspirations (a university career) are funny to him; he was elected secretary of the zemstvo government. Sometimes, however, he still dreams that he is a professor at Moscow University, “a scientist of whom the Russian land is proud.” Moscow attracts him as a huge city in which he can get lost. Masha complains to Vershinin that she does not love her husband, that it is difficult for her to move among teachers and their spouses (“people are rude, unkind, ill-mannered”). She assures that true wisdom, understanding and decency can only be found among the military. Vershinin complains to Masha about his wife, a “nonentity,” with whom he quarrels from morning to evening. He feels sorry for his daughters; he doesn’t even have anyone but Masha to tell about his family drama. Tuzenbach escorts Irina home from work every evening; she joined the telegraph office. Irina gets very tired, notices that she is starting to be rude to visitors, and does not like work. She constantly dreams of how they will leave for Moscow, and the sisters decided to move in June. Society sits down to play cards and discusses the issue of happiness. Vershinin expresses a thought that boils down to the fact that a happy life on earth will come in two or three centuries; that none of them will see this, but, nevertheless, everyone must work for the sake of this future happiness of others. Tuzenbach doesn’t understand how one can not even dream of happiness, he is happy. Masha seeks happiness in faith in God. A man comes from the Vershinins' house with the news that Vershinin's wife again tried to poison herself. Vershinin disappears unnoticed. Masha gets upset and angry. Natasha always talks only about the child and only in superlatives. From time to time Natasha reprimands Masha “for her rude manners.” Solyony is rude to Natasha, repeating that he would fry her child in a frying pan. Natasha leaves. Tuzenbach says that, despite the fact that nothing supposedly happened between him and Solyony, he has the feeling that they had a quarrel. Tuzenbach invites Solyony to make peace and not be angry with him. Solyony drinks with Tuzenbach and warns him that he has Lermontov’s character. Tuzenbach notifies everyone that he is retiring and starting to work. Natasha asks the guests to leave because they are disturbing the little one. Andrei talks with Chebutykny and declares that there is no need to get married at all. Solyony declares his love to Irina, but she rejects him too. Natasha persistently asks Irina to vacate her room for Bobik, and to live with Olga for a while. The chairman of the council, Protopopov (Andrei’s boss), drives up to the house and invites Natasha to ride in a troika, she agrees. Olga returns from the gymnasium; she is incredibly tired and goes to bed. Left alone, Irina repeats with longing: “To Moscow! To Moscow! To Moscow!”
Act three
It’s night, there’s a fire in the block, many fire victims are crowding around the Prokhorovs’ house. Among them are the Vershinin family; girls are looking for their father. Olga orders that a number of her belongings be given to the fire victims. Eighty-year-old nanny Anfisa, who helps around the house as much as she can, asks Olga not to kick her out in her old age. Olga promises, but Natasha, who has entered, demands that the reins of power in the house pass completely to her, and Olga would command the gymnasium. In particular, Natasha insists that the old nanny be sent to the village, since she can no longer work with full dedication. Natasha arranges all this very elegantly, kisses Olga, compliments her, asks for forgiveness for unwittingly offending her (by treating the nanny rudely). Natasha hides behind the interests of the children; Since then, she has had another daughter (Sofochka). Having forgotten herself, Natasha starts screaming, demands that they stop annoying her, and advises Olga to move to one of the lower rooms. Masha and Vershinin are constantly together, it is noticeable that they are not indifferent to each other, from time to time they begin to hum the same melody. When the fire subsides, the guests begin to leave. Masha asks her husband to leave too and leave her alone with her sisters. Kulygin still sincerely loves his wife, obeys her in everything and, it seems, is the only one who does not notice that Masha is having a serious affair with Vershinin. Masha starts a conversation with her sisters about how their family has changed. Andrey loses a lot of money, he mortgaged the house that belongs to the four of them, Natasha took all the money. Kulygin advises Masha not to pay attention, because he “provides for her enough.” Irina notices that her brother really “crushed” while living with Natasha, that he does not want to see that his wife started an affair with Protopopov and the whole city is already laughing at Andrei , and he only boasts that he has finally become a member of the council. Irina is so upset that she begins to cry, as Olga once felt that she was wasting her life, she was very tired from work, Olga consoles her. advises Irina to accept Baron Tuzenbach’s proposal and get married. They no longer believe that they will leave for Moscow, but they still dream about it. Masha confesses to her sisters that she loves Vershinin, Olga pretends not to hear, since this contradicts her ideas about the duty of a wife. Andrei comes, he insists on an explanation with his sisters. He understands that they do not like his wife, but in front of them he swears that she is a “wonderful, pure person, straightforward and noble.” than teaching at a university. He also apologizes to the Swap sisters for mortgaging the house without their permission due to his debts; after all, unlike his sisters, who received a pension and worked, he did not have a regular income. His explanation ends with sobs, he asks his sisters not to believe him: he perfectly understands how unhappy he is. Irina tells Olga that a military brigade is being transferred from the city, and therefore they are left “all alone.” Irina begs her sister to decide to move to Moscow, for this she agrees to marry Tuzenbach.
Act four
Officers Fedotik and Rode, regulars at the Prozorovs’ house, say goodbye to their sisters: their unit is leaving the city. Olga is gone, she became the head of the gymnasium and lives there, in a government apartment, with her old nanny. Irina accepted Tuzenbach’s proposal and the next day they are going to get married. After the wedding they leave the city; Tuzenbach has secured an appointment at a brick factory, and Irina has passed the exam to become a teacher and intends to teach. Andrey is walking in the garden with a stroller, Natasha guides him from the window. Andrei tells Chebutykin how unpleasant his wife’s vulgarity is to him: “There is something in her that reduces her to a small, blind, sort of rough animal.” Andrey is bitter because he has sunk, become a gray philistine, without dreams, without aspirations; he is tired of this city, in which everyone lives the way he does now. The day before, there was a quarrel near the theater between Solyony and Tuzenbach, which resulted in a challenge to a duel. Irina senses something wrong and asks the groom what’s wrong. He begins to rather abstractly complain that Irina is marrying him without love. She gets angry and says that it is not in her power: she always dreamed of love, but she could never love anyone. Vershinin also comes to say goodbye. He leaves alone; the family will follow him later, and he asks Olga to take care of his wife and girls if they need help. He says goodbye to Masha and kisses her. Masha cries, Kulygpi appears, the only one in the city who is glad that the military is leaving. He still loves Masha, forgives her everything and hopes to start life in a new way. The sound of a gunshot can be heard from afar. It was Tuzenbach who was killed in a duel. Irina decides to leave alone and work. Olga hugs both sisters and says: “The time will come, and we will leave forever, they will forget us, they will forget our faces, voices and how many of us there were, but our suffering will turn into joy for those who will live after us, happiness and peace will come on earth , and they will remember with a kind word and bless those who live now... It seems that a little more, and we will find out why we live, why we suffer... If only we knew, if only we knew!
We can say that Chekhov is one of the most strict masters of the objective school in literature, which studies a person by his behavior. Studying the stories of Antoshi Chekhonte, one is amazed at the artist’s early maturity. At the age of three or four, Chekhov turned into an established, remarkable master. Only a mature, wise artist could have created The Intruder (1885) or Albion's Daughter (1883). Early artistic...
By the time the plot of the story was being written, he had already become famous for his political speeches. Nadya’s connection with the pre-revolutionary atmosphere was felt by one of the very first readers of the story, V.V. Veresaev, to whom Chekhov showed the new work as a proofreader, but then Veresaev, according to his recollections, remarked to Chekhov: “Anton Pavlovich, that’s not how girls go into the revolution.” . To this Chekhov replied...