The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov

First produced:Tri sestry, 1901; first published, 1901 (English translation, 1920)

Type of work: Drama

Type of plot: Impressionistic realism

Time of plot: Nineteenth century

Locale: Russia

Principal Characters

• Andrey Prozorov, a student
• Natasha, his fiancé, later his wife
• Olga, ,
• Masha, and
• Irina, his three sisters
• Fyodor Kuligin, Masha’s husband
• Alexandr Vershinin, a battery commander
• Baron Tusenbach, a lieutenant
• Vassily Solyony, a captain
• Ivan Tchebutykin, an army doctor

The Story

On Irina’s name-day, her friends and family call to wish her happiness. It is exactly one year since the death of her father, who was sent from Moscow eleven years before to this provincial town at the head of a brigade. Irina and her sister Olga long to go back to Moscow, and Masha would like to go, too, except that she married Kuligin, whom she once thought the cleverest of men. They all pin their hopes on their brother Andrey now, who is studying to become a professor.

An old army doctor, Tchebutykin, brings Irina a samovar because he loved her mother. Masha’s husband gives her a copy of the history of the high school in which he teaches; he says he wrote it when he had nothing better to do. When Irina tells him that he already gave her a copy for Easter, he merrily hands it over to one of the army men who is calling. Tusenbach and Solyony quarrel half-heartedly because Tusenbach and Irina decided that what they need for happiness is work. Tusenbach never did anything but go to cadet school, and Irina’s father prepared his children only in languages. Both have a desire to labor hard at something.

When Vershinin, the new battery commander, comes to call, he reminds the girls that he lived on the same street with them in Moscow. He praises their town, but they say they would rather go to Moscow. They believe that they are oppressed with an education that is useless in a dull provincial town. Vershinin thinks that for every intelligent person then living, there will be many more later on, and that the whole earth will be unimaginably beautiful two or three hundred years hence. He thinks it might be interesting to relive one’s life to see if one can improve on the first version.

Natasha comes in while they are still sitting at the dinner table. Olga criticizes her dress, and the men begin to tease her about an engagement. Andrey, who cannot stand having her teased, follows her out of the room and begs her to marry him. She accepts.

After their marriage, Andrey loses any ambition he ever had to become a professor; he spends much of his time gambling, trying to forget how ill-bred, rude, and selfish Natasha is. Irina, meanwhile, takes a job in the telegraph office, and Olga teaches in the high school. Tired when they come home at night, they let Natasha run the house as she pleases, even to moving Irina out of her own bedroom so that Natasha and Andrey’s baby can have it.

Vershinin falls in love with Masha, though he feels bound to his neurotic wife because of his two daughters. Kuligin realizes what is going on but cheerfully hopes Masha still loves him. Tusenbach, afraid that life will always be difficult, decides to give up his commission and seek happiness in a workingman’s life. Vershinin is convinced that, by living, working, and struggling, people can create a better life. Because his wife periodically tries to commit suicide, he looks for happiness not for himself but for his descendants.

Andrey asks Tchebutykin to prescribe for his shortness of breath, but the old doctor swears he forgot all the medical knowledge he ever knew. Solyony falls in love with Irina, who will have nothing to do with him. He declares that he will have no happy rivals.

One night, all gather to have a party with mummers who are to come in. Natasha decides that the baby is not well and calls off the party at the last minute. Then Protopopov, the chairman of the rural board, comes by with his carriage to take Natasha riding while Andrey sits reading in his room.

A short time later, fire destroys part of the town. Olga gives most of her clothes to those whose homes were burned and, after the fire, invites the army people to sleep at the house. Natasha berates Olga for letting her old servant sit in her presence and finally suggests that Olga herself move out of the house. The old doctor becomes drunk because he prescribed incorrectly for a woman who died. After the fire, people want him to help them, but he cannot. In disgust, he picks up a clock and smashes it.

Masha, more bored than before, gives up playing the piano. She is disgusted, too, because Andrey mortgages the house in order to give money to Natasha. Everyone but he knows that Natasha is having an affair with Protopopov, to whose rural board Andrey was recently elected.

Irina, at twenty-four, cannot find work to suit her, and she believes she is forgetting everything she ever knew. Olga persuades her to consider marrying Tusenbach, even if he is ugly; with him Irina might get to Moscow. Masha confesses that she is in love with Vershinin and that he loves her, though he is unable to leave his children.

Andrey berates his sisters for treating his wife so badly and then confesses that he mortgaged the house that belongs to all four of them. He so hoped they could all be happy together. Irina hears a report that the brigade will move out of town. If that happens, they will have to go to Moscow because no one worth speaking to will be left.

On the day the first battery is to leave, the officers come to say their farewells to the sisters. Kuligin tells Masha that Tusenbach and Solyony had words because both of them were in love with her and she promised to marry Tusenbach. Kuligin eagerly anticipates the departure of the brigade because he hopes Masha will then turn back to him. Masha is bored and spiteful. She feels that she is losing, bit by bit, whatever small happiness she has.

Andrey wonders how he can love Natasha when he knows she is so vulgar. The old doctor claims that he is tired of their troubles, and he advises Andrey to walk off and to never look back. Nevertheless, the doctor himself, who is to be retired from the army in a year, plans to come back to live with them because he really loves them all.

Irina hopes to go off with Tusenbach. Olga intends to live at the school of which she is now headmistress. Natasha, expecting to be left in sole charge of the house, plans all sorts of changes to wipe away the memory of the sisters’ being there. Andrey wonders how his children can possibly overcome the influence of their mother’s vulgarity.

Tusenbach fights a duel with Solyony, and Tchebutykin returns to tell them that Tusenbach was killed. The sisters are left alone with their misery, each thinking that she must go on with her life merely to find out why people suffer so much in a world that has the potential to be beautiful.

Bibliography

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