The Three sisters: The world stands on three values
The Three sisters: The world stands on three values
A comparative study
The Three sisters is a strange play.
Even in comparison with Anton Chekhov’s other plays, The Three sisters has very little plot.
Every act it is full of dialogue that does not promote an idea without then refuting it.
This may be the strangest aspect of all – it is a self-contradictory play: it does not (only) revolve around three sisters.
The three sisters – Olga, Masha and Irina – are in fact a part of a large family: they have a brother named Andrey1, a brother-in-law named Kulygin, a future sister-in-law named Natalya (Natasha), an old nurse named Anfisa and additional characters of male lovers and suitors who constantly surround the sisters.
The first act opens at noon; the weather is sunny. Irina’s, who celebrates her birthday, is in an uplifted mood, corresponding to Olga, who is also so excited that she cannot sit down to examine her pupil’s papers2. This blissful sensation is not a natural sentiment for Olga, who is not a happy person. Even her first words – the opening sentence of the entire play – are about the memory of her deceased father, who had passed away precisely one year ago. The circle of death woven into the fact of her birthday is not accidental: this thought, lacking emotion (“But now a year has passed and we can think of it calmly”3) implies the overall disposition of the play: all is passed and forgotten, the general atmosphere is of indifference4.
The contrast between the gloomy weather of the funeral5 and the beauty of the birthday – the present time of the play – represents the three sister’s sentiment with regards to their long awaited love interest – “Moscow”: Olga considers Moscow to be her homeland and feels banished in this rainy, isolated cold district town6. Irina does not remember Moscow, certainly not in the way Olga does (how could she?). Her longings are thus referring to the hope that the concept “Moscow” embodies. Furthermore, when Olga raises the memory of their deceased father, Irina scolds her – “Why recall it!”7, eagerly shifting the perspective towards a future liberated from painful memories. Yet, these memories arouse the sisters’ deepest desire: to return to blossom, warmth and sun, to the paradise from which they were uprooted, eleven years previously. Such heartbreak!
Masha does not share Olga’s and Irina’s feelings8: she reads a book while holding her hat on her knees – ready to stand up and leave at any minute. Olga rebukes her for whistling9 that breaks the cheerfulness of the day, but Masha carries on as before – gloomy, somber, silent and detached from the joyous mood around her10. Kulygin, her husband, is a kind and generous man, but also a rather dreary character, who lacks deep understanding of reality11. He treats his sisters-in-law with respect and loves his wife deeply. Yet Masha does not love Kulygin nor the mediocre life he imposes on her12.
Kulygin is a high-school teacher, like Olga. However, Kulygin takes pride and joy in his work13, whilst Olga, who works the same hours, feels old, ugly and worn out. Her head continually aches. Her nerves rage like a storm waiting to burst. She bears a resemblance to Marya Vassilyevna, the protagonist of Anton Chekhov’s story – A Journey By Cart, as if it were the same woman: Marya Vassilyevna also used to live in Moscow and both her parents had passed away. She also had headaches all day, everyday, and was constantly busy with school and student matters.
Olga has been a teacher for four years. Marya Vassilyevna had taught for thirteen. This is not a minor difference of professional seniority: after four years Olga is exhausted, frustrated and aggravated but she is still hopeful and determined14. Marya Vassilyevna, who senses the injustices and wrongdoing everywhere, does not find meaning in anything, any more15.
A Journey By Cart also takes place in the spring, which arrives after a “long, dark, cruel winter”16. Yet, its enduring warmth does not bear any promise for Marya Vassilyevna. Her fate is doomed: the monotonous routine, desperate and despairing, makes her oblivious to the beauty that surrounds her17.
Unlike Marya Vassilyevna or her sister Olga, Irina believes in the possibility of happiness, which is embodied in hard work: “When I woke up this morning, got up and washed, it suddenly seemed to me as though everything in the world was clear to me and that I knew how one ought to live {…}. I know all about it. A man ought to work, to toil in the sweat of his brow, whoever he may be, and all the purpose and meaning of his life, his happiness, his ecstasies lie in that alone. How delightful to be a workman who gets up before dawn and breaks stones on the road, or a shepherd, or a schoolmaster teaching children, or an engine-driver. […] Oh, dear! to say nothing of human beings, it would be better to be an ox, better to be a humble horse as long as you can work, than a young woman who wakes at twelve o’clock, then has coffee in bed, then spends two hours dressing. […] Oh, how awful that is!”18
Irina’s perception of boredom is hell. Chekhov expresses this notion in several of his works, e.g., My Life and At Home.
Mariya Viktorovna, the protagonist of My Life, believed with all her heart in good, honest work19 until it was painfully proven it was all false20.
Vera Ivanovna Kardin, the protagonist in At Home, had great thoughts about grand deeds and longed for a meaningful occupation, yet she was unable to devote herself to one. Vera ended up marring a man she did not love and was destined to live a life with no real value21.
Irina nearly marries a man she does not love, Baron Nikolay Lvovitch Tuzenbakh, in order to end her boredom. When Tuzenbakh is killed in a duel, Irina decides to dedicate herself to her new teaching position, to the school, and to her pupils, out of pure missionary zeal22. This uplifted feeling will surely lead her to become the mirror image of her older sister Olga, and her literary twin, Marya Vassilyevna23.
Indeed, work makes Irina lose weight, become ugly and tormented, as it did Olga. Irina, who compared her craving to the yearning of a thirsty man in a specially warm day, feels now that her actions have no purpose, no satisfaction and no fulfillment24. Even when a woman, grief stricken due to her son’s death, comes to see her, Irina reacts with notable lack of sensitivity and tolerance, which she later deeply regrets.
These fact necessarily raises the question – does Irina truly wish to work, or is it yet a another passing romantic idea, similar to the yearning about “Moscow”?25.
Her initial bliss at the beginning in the first act (spring, day) is born out of hope for a wider existence. The second act turns into winter and the third into night. The change in weather and in the hours of day reflect the deterioration of the soul: when the heart is cooled, temperatures also drops and darkness cover all – not only in Irina’s soul, but in her sisters as well. They all believe in “Moscow” – the opportunity that is always everywhere, but here, in this faraway town, there is nothing to do. Even “Moscow” cannot bring joy to the sisters. No one can find happiness in the unrealistic manifestation of his vague dreams26.
Andrey, their brother, experiences life differently: he feels oppressed by his father’s demands for education27 and therefore gains weight as an outward expression of his release from his heavy burden. Andrey does not ascribe his happiness to any city, but to himself, his mental capability. However he starts the play as a promising candidate to become a professor, but slowly rejects the aspiration inflicted on him28 and becomes a secretary of the District Council, wallowing in his mundane position but complains of his boredom, in the same way that Irina does. Both are free from responsibility and are, in fact, replacing one suppression with another harsher one29.
In a sense, Andrey is required to fulfill the gap caused by the passing of the family’s father. Yet, Andrey is but a poor substitute to a military man with stiff discipline. Andrey is completely controlled by his fears and his total submission to the women in his life, including his Natasha.
The conduct of the Prozorov family in the play is lacking action, change, progress or even disillusionment. It presents their conversations about the will – and its calamity, about hope that never was, and about the disappointment from mis-dreamt dreams.
The shattering of fantasy occurs only with Irina, the young sister who wears white – the color of innocence and purity, in contrast to Masha’s black dress. The lofty idea that Irina had, had collapsed before her eyes as she started implementing it. Masha, with the black dress. is a pendulum, constantly moving in the axis of despair – frustration – joy – sadness. She was embittered in her marriage to a man who was not as smart as she once thought. She laments the loss of her youth, agonizes over her love for Vershinin, the impressive and wise married military man who leaves her for good.
Olga also begins the play with an emotional deficiency that only worsens: she tries to hide it, to conceal the depression, but it rises, becoming more and more evident as her professional success climbs higher and higher. How did she become a teacher? What did she really want to do? Why is not she happy while Kulygin is positively radiating?
Olga wears blue – the color of the social workers: realistic darkness but not yet as dark as Masha’s garment. She believes that love is not a necessary commodity for a marriage. However she is not married – before, during or even the end of the play.
When was the moment they chose to give up?
Or was it a succession of moments and misses?
Olga, Masha and Irina feel the lack of meaningfulness, but do no know exactly what it was that they are missing30. Like Andrey, they are haunted by their mistakes31 but do not chase after their goals. It seems as though the family is not interested in the materialization of their dreams.
The one exception in this dreary scene is Natasha.
Natasha is not upset. Actually, she is very happy with her life – the only character who has something to live for: children, household, lover, husband. Olga is single, Masha is married for seven years without children but Natasha is thriving. She could have been bitter, miserable and frustrated, but no. She fills her life with contentment and self-satisfaction32.
Unlike the monochromatic dresses of the three sisters, Natasha wears two-pieces of two different colors: a yellow skirt with a red blouse, and a pink dress with a green girdle. Although she is unconventional with her flamboyant outfits, Natasha does not criticize herself. From her first appearance in the play, she always thinks the very best of herself, no matter the circumstance33.
Natasha, the provincial, pales against the sophistication of the city sisters in the first act34, becomes the lady of the house in the second act. She watches over the servants with great attention, educates her husband and comments on his obesity (“I’ve ordered yogurt for supper. The doctor says you must eat nothing but yogurt, or you will never get thinner”35), expels Irina from her room36, prevents guests from visiting the house and simply does not stop talking about her wonderful children. She says that it is the rich person’s responsibility to help the poor, but when a fire starts in the third act, she does not lift a finger to help. Natasha is always centered on Natasha, forever favoring herself at the expense of others37.
Natasha’s true personality emerges with Anfisa’s presence: “Don’t dare to sit down in my presence! Get up! Go out of the room!”38 Olga treats the nurse, an old woman of eighty with care and respect, but Natasha refers to her with the scorn and the haughtiness of a madam. When Olga admonishes Natasha for her behavior, Natasha repents her deeds for a moment but not with regards to Anfisa. Natasha is only sorry for insulting her sister-in-law. A few moments later she calls Anfisa “that old thief, that old hag {…} that old witch {…}”39, gets angry, gets carried away and screams at Olga: “I won’t have people annoy me! I won’t have it!”40 and sends Anfisa to live downstairs, as she did to Irina, in order to prevent their quarrel (as if Olga were to blame).
Natasha is drawn away from anything that reminds her of her less than decent past. Anfisa is the mirror image of what Natasha could have become if she had not married Andrey. Anfisa endangers Natasha’s respectability. Thus Natasha does not cease to blubber in French, a demonstration of her superiority, and does not miss out an opportunity to humiliate Anfisa.
Natasha’s character does not change. Her alteration is merely a artificial makeover41. In contrast with Natasha’s façade, the three sisters remain pretty much constant, entrenched deeper and deeper in their disappointments, despairs and frustrations.
The movie Hanging Up42 examines the close – bickering – amusing – sad relationship of three sisters in light of their father’s declining health. Hannah and Her Sisters43 reviews the intricate – close relationship of three sisters (and their husbands) during two years.
And Anton Chekhov’s The Three sisters?
One could imagine, in the light of the title, that The Three Sisters deals with three sisters and their relationship to each other. This is not so.
Indeed: the sisters are devoted to each other, confess their deepest secrets to each other and remain united in spite of their difficulties, yet their relationships are not the play’s main theme.
Even the behavior between the other characters lacks a substantial narrative, such that challenges, undermines or reorganizes social values and divides what happens before the play and after it.
The Three Sisters does not put Olga, Masha and Irina at the center of attention, but as a background, a setting for the other characters in the play:
Andrey, who struggles to realize his potential, Irina failing to realize her aspirations.
Vershinin, becoming involved in a love affair with Masha, probably out of a desire to escape: Masha – from her frustrated marriage and Vershinin from his marriage to a crazy woman44
Ivan Romanovich Chebutykin, the army doctor, haunted by past memories, constantly sprinkles perfume on himself, repeatedly trying to drown himself in the scent, to wipe away his imagined sins.
The three sisters are therefore a platform for an idea already expressed in other stories by Chekhov: the desperate attempt to fill the gap in their hearts – and in the hearts of all the other characters – but in vain. This play expresses the unwillingness or perhaps the inability to exercise a positive – productive life, due to the psyche of the characters.
“In old days men were absorbed in wars, filling all their existence with marches, raids, victories, but now all that is a thing of the past, leaving behind it a great void which there is so far nothing to fill: humanity is searching for it passionately, and of course will find it. Ah, if only it could be quickly! If, don’t you know, hard work were united with education and education with hard work.”45
This is not so in the case of The Three Sisters.
And in our lives?
“The world stands on three things: Torah46, the service of G-d, and deeds of kindness.”47
Chekhov’s Vershinin aspires to a world in which the first two aspects of the quotation exist.
Will the third part materialize, for him and for us?
