B.A. Part–III Literatures in English Semester V Three Sisters (Notes)

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Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov- Notes

Background

Three Sisters is a play in four acts written by Anton Chekhov in 1900. It was first published in the journal “Russian idea” (№ 2 for the year 1901); it was published by a separate edition with changes and amendments in the same year in Marx's publishing house.

Written by order of the Moscow Art Theatre and first presented to the public on January 31, 1901, Chekhov's play does not leave the scene for more than a hundred years - both in Russia and abroad.

It immediately won the love of the audience. The most famous actors of the time played roles in it, their game was just gorgeous. But not only had the actors intrigued viewers. In the play Chekhov raises the important human problems, the main of which was the problem of human orientation in life. This topic is clearly apparent throughout the work, repeats in reflections, debates, actions of heroes.

The source of the conflict in the play is a motif of loneliness of modern man in his family, among the people he loves and who love him. But it is not the physical loneliness, when no one is around in the truest sense. It is a lack of a soulmate who would understand all the emotional moods, who would be similar in hopes and dreams.

In Chekhov's play all the characters - the sisters Prozorov, their brother Andrew, friends of their house – are separated and alone, despite the fact that they love each other. These heroes are helpless: they can understand neither themselves nor others.

Throughout the twentieth century the eminent directors refer to Three Sisters each time revealing the new thoughts in the Chekhov’s drama, in keeping with the new era. Interest to the play doesn’t weaken in the XXI century as well.

Character List

Irina

Irina is the youngest lady in this play. She is a kind and benevolent person and considers that if one wants to satisfy the requirements of a good life, one should work day and night. She is a pure-minded person and her white clothes prove it. Irina never despairs, even when she leaves Moscow in her childhood, and she tries not to give up and dreams about a happy life.

Masha

Masha is the middle sister. It seems that she is a cheerful woman, but there are some things which destroy her life. First thing is her education and job, and also she is bored with her marriage. And these slight problems make her life tedious and dull. To compare her with Irina, Masha loses her strength of mind and she wears black clothes.

Fyodor Kuligin

Fyodor Kuligin is a school teacher, Masha’s husband. Though he devotedly loves his wife she is unhappy in the marriage.

Olga

Olga is the eldest sister in this family. Employed as a school teacher, she is the most responsible person here and also takes care of her sisters and the house. Olga is not married, but she falls in love with Vershinin. Masha also loves Vershinin and when Olga gets to know about it, she decides to forget about him, and this action proves that she is a sober-minded woman.

Andrey

Andrey is the only son in the family. He is a lively and active character as Irina and he is a head of the family. Andrey gets married with Natasha and his life changes quickly. Natasha starts to rule the house and Andrey becomes the henpecked husband. This period of his life makes him the ill-fated person.

Natasha

Natasha is Andrey’s wife. When she first came into their house she left a rather unpleasant impression by her outlook and manners, but within some time she managed to marry Andrey and gave a birth of a son.

Anfisa

Anfisa is the girls’ nurse. Being of 80 years old she is going to be sent out by Natasha, but Olga won’t let it happen. They all are really attached to the old woman

Vershinin

Vershinin is an officer of the army. He is philosophical person and likes to discuss life, he is married to Masha, but it is not a barrier for him. He affirms that he loves Masha, but this love doesn’t give them a chance to be happy.

Plot

A year after the death of their father, an army officer, the Moscow-bred sisters Prosorov--Olga, Masha and Irina--are finding life drab and increasingly hopeless in a Russian provincial town. Only the proximity of a nearby artillery post and the company of its officers make their existence bearable.

Olga, the eldest, twenty-eight, is a teacher at the high school; she finds her work hateful, and herself already aging and tired, her dream of a happy marriage fading; she is sustained solely by the hope of selling the house and returning to Moscow. Masha, little more than twenty, is married to Kuligan, a teacher of far more years who has not lived up to the stature her school-girl mind had given him. For her there is no hope of Moscow; she only whistles softly to herself as her sisters make their plans. Irina, at twenty, dreams of finding happiness and love in Moscow. A brother, Andrey, a scholar, is in love with Natasha, twenty-eight, an overdressed villager who affects shyness and humility; his sisters find it hard to believe that he will marry her.

On Irina's birthday, the callers include Chebutikin, sixty, an army doctor who once loved the sisters' mother; Baron Tuzenbach, thirty, a lieutenant in love with Irina; brooding Captain Soleni, and a newcomer, Vershinin, forty-two, commander of the post. Vershinin has two daughters and a second wife who frequently threatens suicide to annoy him. A birthday cake is sent by Protopopov, head of the District Council. The sisters hope Protopopov will marry Natasha, but Andrey proposes to her and she accepts him.

With the marriage of Natasha and Andrey and the birth of a child, Bobby, the lot of the sisters becomes even more unhappy. Natasha, dropping her humility, dominates the sisters, her husband and the servants. She takes the room of Irina, who now works at the telegraph office, for the child; Irina must share Olga's room.

Vershinin, whose wife is endlessly quarrelsome, and the unhappy Masha, bored by her husband and his colleagues, are drawn together. One day Vershinin tells her of his love for her. She at first protests, then in resignation answers: "Go on, it's all the same to me." They are interrupted by Tuzenbach and Irina. The Baron has resigned his post to seek some satisfying work in civil life, and Irina, finding the telegraph office dull, is still obsessed with her hope of discovering happiness in Moscow. She is worried, too, because Andrey, frustrated in his plans for distinguished scholarship and now disappointed in Natasha, is gambling and losing heavily.

A gay evening with guests and entertainers has been planned, but Natasha compels Andrey to cancel the invitations on the pretext that liggle Bobby is ill. Soleni returns to confess his love to Irina. Rebuffed, he swears that he will kill any rival. Natasha receives a message from Protopopov inviting her to take a drive with him in his troika, and she laughingly accepts. "How funny these men are," she says.

At two o'clock in the morning, the household is awakened by a fire in the village. Refugees come to the Prosorov home for shelter. Natasha, abusing old Anfisa, the nurse, declares that she is now mistress of the household: Anfisa must go, and Olga and Irina must move downstairs. Old Chebutikin is drunk; by his fault a woman patient has died. Soleni enters, resentful at Irina's friendship with the Baron, and Vershinin brings a rumor that the battery is to be moved from the village.

Masha, quarreling with Kuligan, discloses that Andrey has mortgaged the house--in which the sisters share ownership--to pay his gambling debts, and that Natasha has the remainder of the money he has borrowed. Irina weeps--in disappointment at the failure of the brother from whom so much had been expected, and at her own frustration. She is now working in the town council offices, but she is no happier; she realizes at last that she will never return to Moscow. She cries: "I've grown thinner, plainer, older ... and time goes and it seems all the while as if I am going away from the real, the beautiful life, further and further away down some precipice." Olga urges that she compromise and accept the plain Baron.

Masha confesses that she is in love with Vershinin: "It is all awful.... How are we going to live through our lives, what is to become of us?... My dear ones, my sisters ... I've confessed, now I shall keep silence ... Like the lunatics in Gogol's story, I'm going to be silent ... silent ..."

Andrey, finding his sisters together, sulkily confesses to the mortgage of the house. He berates them for their disapproval of his wife, "a beautiful and honest creature, straight and honorable." He insists that they respect her, even in spite of her affair with Protopopov, and declares he is proud in his place as a mere member of the District Council. Then he weeps: "My dear, dear sisters, don't believe me, don't believe me..."

The night ends with Irina's decision revealed to Olga: "I esteem, I highly value the Baron, he's a splendid man! I'll marry him ... only let's go to Moscow! I implore you, let's go! There's nothing better than Moscow on earth! Let's go, Olga, let's go!"

Soon the rumor that the battery is to be removed is confirmed--it has been ordered to Poland. Farewells are being said at the Prosorov home. Irina is to be married tomorrow to the Baron; he has work and she is happy in having been accepted for a teacher's position. She tells Kuligin: "If I can't live in Moscow, then it must come to this.... It's all the will of God." Olga is now head-mistress of her school and is living there with old Anfisa. Vershinin kisses the sobbing Masha farewell, leaving her to the dull Kuligin.

Old Chebutikin comes to tell Irina that the Baron has been killed in the duel with Soleni, and the three sisters huddle together in grief. Says Masha: "They are leaving us ... we remain alone, to begin our life over again. We must live ... we must live ..."

Irina, her head on Olga's bosom, cries: "There will come a time when everybody will know why, for what purpose, there is all this suffering. But now we must live ... we must work, just work! Tomorrow, I'll go away alone, and I'll teach and give my whole life to those who, perhaps, need it."

Olga reflects, as the military bands are heard playing in farewell: "The bands are playing so gaily, so bravely, and one does so want to live!... Time will pass on, and we shall depart forever ... but our sufferings will turn into joy for those who shall life after us ... Oh, dear sister, our life is not yet at an end. Let us live ... It seems that in a little while we shall know why we are living, why we are suffering ..."

The music fades, the smiling Kuligin brings out Masha's coat, and Andrey wheels out Bobby in a perambulator. Old Chebutikin sings softly: "Tara ... ra-boom-deay." Reading his paper, he reflects: "It's all the same! It's all the same!"

Summary

The action takes place in the house of the Prozorov, it is a sunny day in the hall the table is laid waiting for the guests. Irina, the youngest of the sisters is celebrating twenty years, they all are full of hopes and expectations of change for the better. In the autumn family plans to move to Moscow, Andrei's sisters predict him a great future, they are confident that he will go to university and become a scientist. Olga dreams of moving from a provincial city to Moscow, because she is tired of the work at school and dreams of marriage.

Masha is not pleased with her family life, but she also wants to move and change the situation. Irina wants to realize herself in work, she does not want to live in idleness. When in the evening Vershinin comes to visit, a commander who is located in an artillery battery, the sisters are showing keen interest to him, especially after learning that he came from Moscow. Andrei is in love with a local lady Natasha, who has absolutely no taste and dresses vulgarly. Guests make fun of them, Natasha flees from the table, Andrew goes after her, speaks words of love and proposes.

Andrei and Natasha are married, they already have a son, Bobby. Natasha is completely immersed in the economic concerns that gradually ousting all the inhabitants of the house, in the interests of her child. Andrew is appointed as a secretary of the local district council, now of a career scientist, he can only dream. Masha completely got disappointed in her husband. She complains about her life Vershinin, and he tells her about the bad character of his wife. Irina works in the Telegraph, is very tired and began to get irritated over trifles, she still dreams of moving to Moscow, scheduled for the beginning of summer. Olga still works at the school, she hates her job and wants to leave.

The action starts at night, in the first quarter there was a fire, many fire victims huddle in the Prozorov house. Olga manages to give some of their items to fire victims. There is a conflict between Natasha and Olga. Natasha wants to send an eighty-year-old nurse Anfisa away to the country, and the last begs not to expel her at such an old age. Olga takes the protection of the nurse, and Natasha tells her not to interfere and to command in her school. At the same time, Natasha covers the interests of children because they already two (daughter Sofochka was born) and curries favor with Olga. Masha has an affair with Vershinin, and her husband Kuligin seems to be the only one who does not notice it. Mary says to her sisters about how their brother has changed. Andrei loses a lot of money and mortgaged the house, which rightfully belongs to four of them. The money he gave to Natasha, whom he trusts and considers her a decent person. Natasha began an affair with the head of her husband Andrey Protopopov and the entire town laughs about him. Irina and Olga worry that spend their lives in vain, both are not satisfied with the work, they do not believe that will leave, but still dream about moving to Moscow. Learning that military brigade is transferred from the town, the sisters get even more upset.

The military part is transferred from the city, and officers Fedotikand Rode come to say goodbye to the family of the Prozorov. Vershinin came to say goodbye as well, Maria was crying, he kisses her, and says farewell. Kuligin enters who he is the only one who is happy that the officers leave. Kuligin loves Masha and forgives her infidelity, hoping that now they will live differently. Irina agreed to marry Tuzenbach, and the wedding day is already appointed. They plan to go together to Moscow. Irina passed the exam as a teacher, and her husband is promoted to the factory. Between Solonyi and Tuzenbach there happened a quarrel, resulting in a duel appointed, of which nobody knows. Olga became the head of the school, received a service apartment and lives there with an old nanny. Andrew suffers, knowing how deep he had fallen, he disgusted his wife, who lives only with petty-bourgeois interests and constantly commands him. He grieved that lives as everyone else does not dream of anything more. From a distance came the sound of a gunshot. Tuzenbach is killed. Irina takes a serious decision to leave alone. The sisters support each other and believe that one day the time will come and everyone will be happy, but probably it will not be with them.

Analysis

One of the most famous plays of Chekhov "Three Sisters" immediately won the love of the audience. In the play Chekhov raises important human problems, the main among which was the problem of human orientation in life. This topic is clearly apparent throughout the work, repeated in reflections, debates, actions of heroes.

The source of the conflict in the play is a modern motif of loneliness in her family, among the people a person loves and who love him. But it is not the physical solitude, when no one is around in the truest sense. This is a lack of a soul mate who would understand all the emotional mood, who would have similar hopes and dreams.

In Chekhov's play all the characters - the sisters Prozorov, their brother Andrew, friends of their house - are separated and alone, despite the fact that they love each other. These heroes are powerless: they cannot understand either themselves or others.

Of course, problems of family and love occupy an important role in the play, it is all around them the heroes are acting. Still, the main question for everyone remains: "How to live?" In the first act joyful words of Irene sound: "Today when I woke up, got up and washed my face, I suddenly began to feel that everything is clear in this world for me, and I know how to live. " But the naiveté of these words becomes clear in the following: "But it turned out to be nonsence!”

Masha is disappointed as well, but only in love. It always seemed that she found exactly what she needed - a right person. About her husband she said: "He seemed to me then scientist, clever and important. And not I see it is not so, unfortunately" About Vershinin Masha responds: "He struck me as strange at first, then I felt sorry for him ... and then fell in love." And at the end of the play she says: "The unfortunate life .. I don’t need anything now...".

Similar to these are Andrew’s words and thoughts: "When I got married, I thought, we will be happy, everyone is happy, but my God (crying)." Olga has her dreams, and these also turn out to be unfulfilled.

Confusion, frustration, deceived awareness brings together all the main characters of the play. Sisters striving "To Moscow! To Moscow!” and its unfeasibility becomes a symbol of disappointments in the play.

The main characters of "The Three Sisters" are unhappy, but the meaning of the play is not limited to the image of unhappy people leading an unhappy life. Author allows to see deeply into the causes of the misfortunes of his characters. The peculiarity of this conflict is that by confronting different characters or groups of characters, the author insists that they are all connected, albeit covertly.

Here many of the characters at the same time are unhappy themselves, and are the cause of misfortune of others. Each of them has their own idea of happiness. And each of them is trying to convey his "truth" to others. But to others this "truth" seems funny, or silly, or strange. Everyone is absorbed in his own view of things, and is not able to understand the others’ point of view.

 Here the author speaks of human’s imaginary sacred forms: family, children, the intellectual belief in the work, suffering for the sake of future generations. Discussions of characters about the future, about the meaning of life, about the necessity of faith in a happy future are in contrast with the absurdity of their real situation, with their everyday behavior.

This is where the author shows a manifestation of the irony of life. But by the end of the play it becomes clear that all the controversy, dreams, hopes - is a necessary part of the lives of these people. And while heroes’ desire to live and to believe remains, they try to look into the future.

Symbols, Allegory and Motifs

Moscow city (Symbol)

The symbol of Moscow in the play is the most difficult. It connects all main characters - Prozorov sisters and Vershinin. The youngest sister Irina always says “Moscow! Going back to Moscow! Selling this house and everything and going back to Moscow…” Sisters desire to go back to this city, because there are many possibilities to realize their dreams. Moscow is the city of hopes to become more successful and independent.

Trees (Symbol)

The symbol of the tree appears in the conversation between Irina and Tuzenbach. They enjoy the nature and discuss its beauty and benefits. Natasha, Andrii’s wife, wants to cut down the fir alley and maples. Trees are a symbol of life, which Irina and Tuzenbach perceive as animate beings. It is a symbol of the rich inner world for them. And for Natasha it means hard-heartedness and unreceptiveness of fine.

Love, work and dreams (Motif)

These three motifs are basic and it identifies the main theme of the play. Three sisters have the hateful work. It doesn’t give pleasure. They often spend time together, fall into reverie about better work and life. They dream about the securing a better future for their progeny. And of course they hope to have unforgettable love. Everybody dreams about it. This aim brings many disappointments, suffering and pain. Hopes and fates are ruining, but sisters support each other.