Characters Three Sisters (Antoine Chejov)

[edit]The ProzorovsAndrei (Andrey) Sergeyevitch Prozorov - The brother of the three sisters, his character perhaps spans the most tragic arc in the play. In Act I, he is a young man on the fast track to being a Professor in Moscow. In Act II, Andrei still longs for his old days as a bachelor dreaming of life in Moscow but is now stuck in town with a baby and a job as secretary to the County Council. In Act III, Andrei's debts have gone to 35,000 Roubles and he has been forced to mortgage the house though he doesn't tell his sisters or give them any share. Act IV finds Andrei a pathetic shell of his former self, now the father of two, he acknowledges that he is a failure and that he is laughed at in town because he is only a member of the Country Council of which Protopopov, his wife's lover, is President.Olga - The eldest of the three sisters, she is the matriarchal figure of the Prozorov family though at the beginning of the play she is only 28 years old. Olga is a teacher at the high school, where she frequently fills in for the oft-absent headmistress. Olga is a spinster and at one point tells Irina that she would have married "any man, even an old man if he had asked" her. Olga is very motherly even to the elderly servants, keeping on Anfisa past her point of usefulness and even taking her to the high school when she begrudgingly takes the role of headmistress permanently.Masha - The middle sister, she is 21 at the beginning of the play. She married her husband, Kulygin, when she was 18 and just out of school. She falls in love with Vershinin and they begin an affair. When he is transferred away, she is crushed, but returns to life with her husband, who accepts her back despite knowing what she has done.Irina - The youngest sister, she is only a year younger than Masha (20, at the beginning of the play). It is her "name day" at the beginning of the play and though she insists she is grown-up she is still enchanted by things such as a top brought to her by Fedotik. Her only desire is to go back to Moscow, which they left eleven years before the play begins. She believes she will find her true love in Moscow, but when it becomes clear that they are not going to Moscow, she agrees to marry the Baron, whom she does not love. She gets her teaching degree and plans to leave with the Baron, but he is shot by Solyony in a pointless duel. She decides to leave anyway and dedicate her life to whoever needs it.Natalia Ivanovna (Natasha) - Andrei's love interest, she is later his wife. She begins the play as a quiet awkward young lady who dresses poorly and is made fun of by the sisters. Act II finds a very different Natasha. She is now bossy and uses her child with Andrei as a way to manipulate the sisters into doing what she wants. In Act III, she has become even more controlling confronting Olga head on about keeping on Anfisa and even throwing temper tantrums when she doesn't get her way. Act IV finds her more passive aggressive because she has won the house and the sisters are all leaving. 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 compassion-less to all except her children, is an active character throughout the play, who does achieve what she wants - control over the family.

[edit]The SoldiersAleksandr Ignatyevich Vershinin - Lieutenant Colonel in charge of the battery, Vershinin is a true philosopher. He knew the girls' father in Moscow and they talk about how when they were little they called him the "Lovesick Major." In the course of the play, despite of being married, he enters into an affair with Masha but must end it when the battery is transferred.Baron Nikolai Lvovitch Tuzenbach - A lieutenant in the army, Tuzenbach often philosophizes to be part of the group and impress Irina. He has been in love with Irina for five years and quits the Army to go to work in an attempt to impress her. He is killed in the duel, perhaps allowing himself to be because he knows he will never win her heart.Vassily Vasilyevitch Solyony - A captain in the army, Solyony is a social misfit. He is in love with Irina and tries to put down the Baron to make himself look better, but Irina finds him crude and unappealing. He is said to have a remarkable resemblance to the poet Lermontov in both face and personality, often quoting him.Ivan Romanovitch Chebutykin - Sixty years old and a doctor in the army, Chebutykin, like Kulygin, starts off as a fun, humorous old man that lavishes the sisters with expensive gifts. Though he loved the mother of the sisters (whose name is never mentioned), she was married. It is possible that he is the father of Irina, which would account for their close relationship.Alexei Petrovich Fedotik - A sub-lieutenant, Fedotik hangs around the house and tries to express his love to Irina by buying her many gifts.Vladimir Karlovitch Rode - Another sub-lieutenant, Rode teaches at the high school (presumably with Kulygin).

[edit]The OthersFeodor Ilyich Kulygin - Masha's husband and a teacher at the high school, Kulygin appears a doddering old man, but deep down he knows what his wife is up to.Ferapont - Door-keeper at local council offices, Ferapont is an old man with a partial hearing loss.Anfisa - A nurse in the family, Anfisa is 82 years old and has worked forever with the Prozorovs.

[edit]ThemeThree 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.

[edit]PlotAct one begins with 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 Feodor 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, the youngest sister, 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[citation needed], Andrei and Natasha are married and have a child, however Natasha is having an affair with Protopopov, Andrei's superior, a character who isn't seen but is mentioned. Masha begins to have an affair with Aleksandr Ignatovich 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 about a year later 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 have a 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 mortgaging 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, along with Natasha the only two content characters at the end of the play.