Three Sisters (play)

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Image:Anton Tschechow.jpg

Chekhov in a 1905 illustration.

Three Sisters is a play, written in 1900 and first produced in 1901, by Russian author Anton Chekhov, who wrote three other major plays.

1 Characters
2 Plot
3 See also
4 External links
5 Recent productions

Characters

ANDRE & NATASHA

Andrei Sergeiyevitch Prozorov - The brother of the three sisters, his character perhaps spans the most tragic arc in the play. He begins as a young man longing to be a professor but turns out to let his wife control his doings and cheat on him. By the end he is reduced to a pathetic shell of his former self, pushing around a baby carriage.
Natalia Ivanovna (Natasha) - Andre's fiance, later his wife, 28 years old. Natasha offsets the three sisters in that while they long to go to Moscow and move on with their lives, they are inactive as characters. Natasha, although she is completely malicious and compassionless, is an active character throughout the play, who does achieve what she wants--control over the family.

THE SISTERS

Olga - The eldest of the three sisters, Olga has the most internal struggle of all the characters in the play. Perhaps the one true matriarchal figure in the Prozorov family, she must grudgingly accept her duties as head mistress of the school and find a way to restore order once the soldiers leave.
Masha - Masha, the middle sister, is often referred to by the others as the stupidest one in the family. Though this statement isn't true, Masha allows herself to be caught up with Vershinin; whom she has an affair with on account of her dissatisfaction with her husband, Kulygin.
Irina--The youngest and most innocent of the sisters, Irina begins the play as a young girl who knows what she wants--to work. By the end she doesn't know what she wants. She loves the Baron, yet cannot bring herself to give in to him, thus indirectly causing his decision to duel with Solyony.

THE OTHER MEN

Fyodor Ilyitch Kulygin - Masha's husband and a teacher at the high school, Kulygin appears a dottering old man, but deep down he knows what his wife is up to. His nature throughout the play is kind and humorous.
Alexander Ignateyevitch Vershinin - Lieutenant Colonel in charge of the battery, Vershinin is a true philosopher, but also somewhat of a bore and a little conceited. Forty-two years old, he has a wife and two girls, whom he talks about constantly. Being that his wife is not well in the head, he seeks his women elsewhere. By leaving at the end of the play, he causes Masha to break down.
Baron Nikolai Lvovitch Tuzenbach - A lieutenant in the army, Tuzenbach is a philosopher, but unlike Vershinin, he does not think much of himself. He wants to work and marry Irina, escaping his social class. Unfortunately, he cannot fully achieve either one of them. When fighting over the love of Irina, Solyony challenges him to a duel, which he accepts, perhaps because Irina does not confess her true love for him. In the end, Solyony kills him.
Vassily Vassilyevitch Solyony - A captain in the army, Solyony is a crude humored, anti-social misfit. Though he loves Irina, when he finally brings himself to tell her, she doesn't know what to say and he comes across foolish and drunk. By the play's end he resorts to killing his best friend over a lost cause, Irina's love.
Ivan Romanovitch Chebutikin - Sixty years old and a doctor in the army, Chebutikin, like Kulygin, starts off as a fun, humorous old man. Unfortunately, when the fire breaks out in Act Three, he takes to drinking again and as a result cannot help the injured. Though he loved the mother of the sisters (whose name is never mentioned), he never married her.
Alexei Petrovitch Fedotik - A sub-lieutenant, Fedotik hangs around the house and tries to express his love to Irina by buying her many gifts. He loses everything in the fire.
Vladimir Carlovitch Rode - Another sub-lieutenant, Rode goes everywhere with Fedotik and teaches at the high school (presumably with Kulygin).

THE OLD SERVANTS

Ferapont - Door-keeper at local council offices, Ferapont is an old man with a partial hearing loss. Ironically, he is perhaps the one character who Andre can truly open up to, though the only things he can offer him are tidbits about pancake eating contests.
Anfisa - A nurse in the family, Anfisa is 80 years old and has worked forever with the Prozorovs. It is only when Natasha arrives that her situation is jeopardized by Natasha's desire to kick her out and move her son Bobik into her room.

Plot

Three Sisters is a naturalistic play about the decay of the privileged class in Russia and the search for meaning in the modern world. It describes the lives and aspirations of the Prozorov family, the three sisters (Olga, Masha, and Irina) and their brother Andrei. They are a family who are dissatisfied and frustrated with their present existence. The sisters are refined and cultured young women who grew up in urban Moscow, however for the past eleven years they have been living in a small provincial town. Moscow is a major part of the plot: the sisters are always dreaming of it and constantly express that they will go back. Moscow is the place where they were happiest, and to them it represents perfection. However as the play develops they seem to move further away from their dream.

At first Olga (the eldest of the sisters) works as a teacher in a school, but at the end of the play she is made Headmistress, a promotion she had no interest in. Masha is married to Fyodor Ilyich Kulygin, a teacher. At the time of their marriage, Masha was enchanted by his cleverness, but seven years later, she considers him to be rather dull, and not as intelligent as she first thought. Irina is the youngest sister, she dreams of going to Moscow and meeting her true love. Andrei is the only boy in the family. He is in love with Natalia Ivanovna (Natasha). The play begins on the first anniversary of their father's death, also Irina's name-day. It follows with a party. At this Andrei tells his feelings to Natasha.

Act two begins about 21 months later, Andrei and Natasha are married and have a child, however Natasha is having an affair with Protopopov, Andrei's superior, a character who isnt seen but is mentioned. Masha begins to have an affair with Aleksander Ignatyevich Vershinin, a lieutenant commander who is married to a woman who constantly attempts suicide. Tuzenbach and Solyony declare their love for Irina.

Act three takes place in Olga and Irina's room (a clear sign that Natasha is taking over the household as she asked them to share rooms so that her child could havea different room). There has been a fire in the town, which everyone is helping with. Olga, Masha and Irina are mad with their brother, Andrei, for mortaging their house and keeping the money to pay off his gambling debts. Masha tells Olga and Irina about her continuing affair with Vershinin and Kulygin (her husband) becomes more affectionate towards his wife, and she becomes less so. Irina decides she will marry Tuzenbach because Olga (who is a little old-fashioned) suggested she should because it was her duty as a woman. Chebutykin is drunk, and smashes a clock belonging to the sister's and Andrei's mother, whom he loved.

In the fourth and final act the soldiers, who by now are friends of the family, are preparing to leave the area. Just as they are leaving, Solyony kills Tuzenbach in a duel. This does not occur on stage, but a shot is heard and the death is announced shortly before the end of the play, with many of the characters not knowing how to react. Olga becomes the Headmistress of the school and moves out, accompanied by the nurse Anfisa, who is the only content character by the end of the play.

Three Sisters (play)

Contents

Characters

Plot

See also