Uncle Vanya: Analysis of Setting
"Uncle Vanya: Analysis of Setting" delves into the thematic and symbolic significance of the various locations in Anton Chekhov's play "Uncle Vanya." The setting primarily features a farm in Ukraine, which serves as a backdrop for the complex relationships and emotional turmoil among the characters. The farm is not only a source of wealth for Professor Serebriakóv but also represents the exploitation of provincial Ukraine by Russia, mirroring the power dynamics within the household.
As the narrative unfolds, the intimate portrayal of the Serebriakóv family highlights the erosion of relationships and the mounting tensions that arise from personal grievances, particularly between Vanya and the professor. The garden adjacent to the farmhouse symbolizes the contrast between the beauty of nature and the chaotic emotional lives of the characters, illustrating the imbalance within the family. Chekhov uses the garden to suggest that the tranquility of the natural world stands in stark relief to human conflicts, emphasizing themes of envy and emotional strife that ultimately threaten their connections. This layered setting becomes a microcosm of broader societal issues, reflecting how personal emotions can have destructive consequences.
Uncle Vanya: Analysis of Setting
First published:Dyadya Vanya, 1897 (English translation, 1914)
First produced: 1899
Type of work: Drama
Type of plot: Impressionistic realism
Time of work: Nineteenth century
Asterisk denotes entries on real places.
Places Discussed
*Ukraine
*Ukraine. Russian province (now an independent country) that borders the north coast of the Black Sea. The relationship between Vanya and Professor Serebriakóv mirrors the relationship between provincial Ukraine and Russia. During Chekhov’s lifetime and well into the twentieth century, Russia exploited Ukraine’s rich agricultural and natural resources to feed and fuel other regions and provinces. Similarly, Professor Serebriakóv exploits the labor of Vanya and Sónya in order to maintain his life and career in Moscow.
Serebriakóv farm
Serebriakóv farm. Farm in Ukraine from which Serebriakóv derives the wealth on which he has built his social position in Moscow. Chekhov provides an increasingly intimate portrait of the Serebriakóv family and the forces that begin to erode the relationships between family members as each act penetrates deeper into the family’s history and deeper into the interior of the farm. A crisis between Vanya and the professor divides the household. In the play’s second act, Yelena says that there is “something terribly wrong going on in this house.” As tensions grow stronger among the characters, the farm becomes a microcosm of society in general. “You know perfectly well it’s not crime and criminals that are destroying the world,” Yelena explains to Vanya in the second act. “It’s petty little emotions like envy . . . that end up with good people hating one another.”
Garden
Garden. Garden adjacent to the farmhouse and just off the veranda. Gardens, and natural settings in general, are common elements in Chekhov’s drama as symbols of the order and beauty of the natural world, providing contrasts to the chaotic lives of his characters. The garden in the play’s first act sets the changing lives of the Serebriakóv family against the passive uniformity of nature and suggests an imbalance among family members. Sonya’s defense of Ástrov’s passion for reforestation emphasizes this imbalance when she explains that people who live in lush natural settings “spend less energy trying to combat nature, so the people themselves are kinder and gentler.”
Bibliography
Bentley, Eric. “Craftsmanship in Uncle Vanya.” In Anton Chekhov’s Plays, translated and edited by Eugene K. Bristow. New York: Norton, 1977. Bentley shows that Chekhov’s naturalism in Uncle Vanya is grounded in his mature psychological vision that life has no real endings.
Bordinat, Philip. “Dramatic Structure in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya.” In Chekhov’s Great Plays: A Critical Anthology, edited with an introduction by Jean-Pierre Barricelli. New York: New York University Press, 1981. Bordinat argues that Uncle Vanya follows classical dramatic construction if the protagonist is seen as “the individual” embodied in the four major characters. The conflict then becomes the individual’s desire for happiness in the face of the provincial Russian “wasteland.”
Melchinger, Siegfried. “The Wood Demon and Uncle Vanya.” In Anton Chekhov, translated by Edith Tarcov. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1972. Melchinger analyzes how Chekhov reworked his unsuccessful 1889 play, The Wood Demon (Leshy) into the groundbreaking 1897 Uncle Vanya. He focuses particularly on the parallel situations of Astrov and Vanya in the later play.
Peace, Richard. “Uncle Vanya.” In Chekhov: A Study of the Four Major Plays. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1983. Peace focuses on the symbolism of Uncle Vanya and discusses the significance in the play of tea drinking, the forest, the storm, birds and animals, and work.
Yermilov, V. “Uncle Vanya: The Play’s Movement.” In Chekhov: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Robert Louis Jackson. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1967. Discusses the use of musical and weather imagery in the play. Yermilov points out the cyclical movement of the play: The external situation at the end replicates the situation at the beginning, but internally everyone has changed.