I tend to read the introduction to the classics, especially if I know little about the author's time and place. Since all I know about pre-Revolution Russia is that there were tsars and probably a defined class system (and that one should never fight a land war there), I learned that Chekhov supported his family through his pseudonymous writing while he attended medical school. He continued both writing and practicing medicine until he died of consumption in his forties. He wrote his most famous plays towards the end of his life.
The Chekhov volume I checked out is called Three Plays: The Sea-Gull, Three Sisters & The Cherry Orchard, translated by Constance Garnett, with an introduction by Kenneth Rexroth. According to Rexroth, Chekhov maintained that The Sea-Gull was a comedy, though I would have labeled it a tragedy. The cast is small (only 11 named characters, of which only 10 are major), but I found it rather confusing since each had three to four names and additional nicknames. Thankfully, there was a short list describing their relationships at the beginning, so I was able to refer back and keep things straight.
Melodrama abounds in The Sea-Gull. Each scene takes place entirely on the estate of Sorin, a retired civil servant. Conversations mirror real life more closely than in many other fictions: the characters often talk past one other, barely registering what the other has said, trying to bring back old threads. There's more of a love polyhedron than a love triangle:
Dreams vs. Reality
The central theme of The Sea-Gull is the collision between dreams and reality. When I finished reading The Sea-Gull, Langston Hughes's "Harlem" ("What happens to a dream deferred?") popped into my head. Nearly every major character suffers disappointments in love and life, though their reactions differ:- Sorin: A retired, ailing civil servant who states that his two regrets are that he never married and never became a writer. He claims to want to "live" but continues to subsist in his boring country manor. Sorin embodies Harry Chapin's song "Dreams Go By," and his dreams seem to have dried up in the sun.
- Medvedenko: An impoverished schoolteacher and the sole support of his mother and siblings. He thinks that those who are healthy and have enough money would never be unhappy. He bemoans his poverty because he thinks it is the reason Masha will not return his love. Even after the two marry, Medvedenko is still disappointed by his wife's neglect of him and their child, and his dream continues to fester.
- Masha: The daughter of Sorin's steward Shamraev, she dresses in black because she is "in mourning for [her] life." The source of her anguish is her unrequited love for Treplev. Eventually, Masha decides to marry Medvedenko, convinced that her love for Treplev will disappear. By the end of the play, this has not succeeded, but she is hopeful that running farther away (by an upcoming move to a distant province) will banish Treplev from her heart for good.
- Nina: A young lady whose family disapproves of her association with the residents and guests of Sorin's manor, worried that it will draw her into the theater. At the beginning, she is in a mutual love relationship with Treplev, starring in his play. After the play's disastrous end, she is drawn to the famous, worldly writer Trigorin. She dreams of the fame associated with theater and the arts, and flees from home to pursue her dream, encouraged by Trigorin. The two have a child but never marry. Nina manages to secure leading roles in various plays, but her acting is not well received; even though she appears to have talent, it only shines through in rare moments. After their child dies and Nina's career continues to tank, Trigorin leaves her. Treplev has tried many times to see her, worried about how she is handling the rotting of her dreams. Nina reappears in Act IV, claiming to have discovered that her dream has sugared over: the pleasure for her is in learning to act well, even if she doesn't yet have fame or fortune. However, while asserting her happiness, she keeps interrupting herself with claims that she is the sea-gull (see below), belying her emotional imbalance.
- Treplev: The son of Sorin's sister, the famous actress Irina, Treplev desires to be recognized by the writers and actors in his mother's world, even as he rejects their work as formulaic and conventional. At 25, he is rudderless and penniless, in love with Nina but haunted by dreams of a world-soul and emptiness. After Treplev ends his play early (after his audience mocked it), he becomes unhinged as Nina's attention shifts towards Trigorin. In Act II, Treplev brings his gun (DUN-DUN-DUN!) and a dead sea-gull, offering the latter to Nina and threatening to kill himself in the same manner. By Act III, he's apparently attempted it, though somehow escaped with only minor injuries. (Note: Chekhov's gun has now been fired twice, but both times behind the scenes; I fully expect for a shot to happen onstage by the end of Act IV.) By Act IV, Treplev has found some success as a writer, though he is still unhappy with his work, finding that he is starting to create his own forms even while avoiding all the old forms, and realizing that forms do make writing easier. He morosely wanders from room to room, avoiding company, tearing up his manuscripts, and playing the piano, his head bent under the heavy load of his dreams.
- Polina and Shamraev: Shamraev's wife, Polina, is having an affair with the doctor Dorn. While Polina wishes to stop hiding the affair, Dorn rebuffs her. It is unclear whether Shamraev is aware of his wife's infidelity, though she is rather open in her affection towards Dorn in front of others.
- Trigorin: A somewhat successful author who is the friend (lover? beneficiary?) of Irina; however, he realizes that he will never have the fame -- nor the talent -- of the likes of Tolstoy or Zola. While he enjoys writing, it consumes his life, and no matter what else he is doing (even his beloved fishing), Trigorin feels obligated to take notes and get back to his writing.
- Irina: A stereotypically self-absorbed, shallow actress, her secret fear seems to be aging, and while everyone compliments her on still looking young (sometimes in response to her asking), one wonders at what point this 40+ actress will stop being cast in the young, lead roles, and how this will affect her.
- Dorn: Perhaps autobiographical, the physician is constantly humming and seems to be the most satisfied with his lot in life, much to the aggravation of the others, especially Sorin. Dorn accepts equally both his good fortunes (appeal to women, success as a doctor) as well as the things that haven't gone so well (his lack of retirement savings); he is equally accepting of realities such as the inevitability of death and the adulation given to artists and actors. He is the only character who likes Treplev's writing, though he feels it is still lacking in message.
- Secret character: Chekhov does not disappoint, firing his "Chekhov's Gun" gun towards the end of Act IV. However, I will not spoil whose dream exploded, nor the target of the explosion.
Action vs. Speech
In his introduction, Rexroth notes "How much every line is saturated with action!" I was therefore surprised by the lack of action in The Sea-Gull. Besides a few kissing scenes, characters entering and leaving, a game of cards, and Treplev's aborted play, most of the action happens behind the scenes: the killing of the sea-gull, Treplev's attempted suicide, Nina's running away, the death of her child... even the final gunshot happens offstage. Despite these apparent major violations of the famous "show-don't-tell" rule, The Sea-Gull is riveting. Even though events are told, characters are not (which is really what the "show-don't-tell" rule is supposed to be about). In fact, in their telling of stories, characters' emotions, desires, and personality traits are revealed, though never explicitly stated. Chekhov relies heavily on subtext. The Sea-Gull is a very short play; this review may even be longer than the play itself. I suspect that multiple readings (and/or viewings) would reveal further layers to the characters and their words.Animals in The Sea-Gull
Three types of animals recur in The Sea-Gull, serving different purposes:- Fish: Trigorin, the writer, loves fishing, more so than he loves any woman, and perhaps even more than he loves writing. He discusses fishing in all four acts. In Act I, he claims it is the most pleasant activity. In Act II, he admits that he hopes it will distract him from his obsession with writing, and spends his days doing it (to Nina's surprise, given that he's a famous writer doing something so ordinary). In Act III, Yakov asks if Trigorin wishes for his fishing things to be packed, and Trigorin assures him that he will want them even once he has returned to the city. In Act IV, Trigorin admits that if he lived by a lake, he would find a way to give up his passion for writing so that he could spend his days fishing. For Trigorin, who lives in the city, fishing represents a simple life, where one's obsessions will not draw one away from pleasure. For Nina, who grew up in the country, it represents the mundane, and she cannot understand why one would want to choose it over the noble act of creating.
- Horses: As the steward of the estate, Shamraev controls Sorin's horses. In Act II, he refuses to allow Irina and Polina to use any of the horses to go into town, since they are being used in the field. Even when Irina points out that carriage horses are different than field horses, Shamraev stands his ground. Irina threatens to leave due to the insult, but is cajoled into staying. In Act IV, when Medvedenko wishes to leave to return to his and Masha's child (and Shamraev's grandchild), Shamraev refuses to lend him a horse, despite the bad weather, since the horses have just returned from town. Medvedenko dallies, until Masha demands a horse on his behalf. When Shamraev again refuses (ignoring Masha's claims that there are other horses that could be employed), Medvedenko resigns himself to walking home. Because the horse scenes are some of the very few that Shamraev appears in, his orneriness regarding the horses paints the broad strokes of his personality.
- Sea-gull: The titular animal is imbued with the most symbolism. Nina mentions it first, in Act I, claiming that despite her parents' fears that the Bohemian atmosphere will draw her to the stage, she is drawn to the lake like a sea-gull because her heart is full of Treplev. In Act II, Treplev lays a sea-gull he has shot at Nina's feet, claiming that he will kill himself in the same manner soon. Nina claims that he has changed, but he retorts that she was the one who withdrew her attention first, because of his failed play. Trigorin notices the bird and asks Nina about it, but she simply says that Treplev shot it. Trigorin says it's beautiful, then records a story idea about a young girl who has lived by and loved a lake all her life just as a sea-gull does, free and happy, until a man comes along and, having nothing better to do, destroys her like the dead sea-gull. In Act III, Trigorin promises to always remember Nina as she was the day they talked next to the sea-gull, the mention of which seems to unsettle Nina.
In Act IV, Treplev reveals that Nina signs her letters to him (in which she claims to be happy, despite the tragedies that have unfolded in her personal and professional life) as the Sea-Gull. Meanwhile, Shamraev reminds Trigorin that he had requested to have a dead sea-gull stuffed, but Trigorin cannot remember why. In their final discussion, Nina reminds Treplev of the sea-gull he killed and Trigorin's story idea, and keeps referring to herself as a sea-gull, then correcting herself, reminding herself that she is an actress and happy. If the Sea-Gull is the character who is truly free and happy, it was never Nina -- she always had ambitions to leave and pursue the arts. The character most resembling the sea-gull, happily accepting his lot in life as good enough, is the doctor, Dorn. The characters represented by the Sea-Gull from Trigorin's story, crushed by another, are Nina and Treplev, who are both emotionally damaged by the end of the play.
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