The Seagull: Culture Gulls Into A Sea Of Despair

Zackary Corbett

Dean 1

AP Lit

8 January 2015

The Seagull: Culture Gulls into a Sea of Despair

In every person, a desire to succeed is either fostered or not fostered to certain extents, depending upon the relative influence of culture and proponents thereof. While the want of success is far more complex than mere culture, culture nonetheless plays a very large role in the development of a yearning for affluence and stardom, and the accompanying psychological traits that this desire necessitates. In Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, one such character, Konstantin Treplev, is influenced by his own personal culture such that he is pushed to have a great desire for success and to please ingrained within him.

To understand the culture around a person

Between acts two and three, Treplev attempted to commit suicide; afterwards, Sorin and Arkadina have a conversation about Treplev’s actions. Talking to Sorin, Arkadina says “I am going away, and so shall never find out why Constantine shot himself, but I think the chief reason was jealousy, and the sooner I take Trigorin away, the better;” Arkadina finishes her assessment of her son by concluding, “He is a misery to me!” (3). Sorin attempts to explain, to no avail whatsoever, that there is more than jealousy behind Treplev’s actions, but Arkadina is too self-absorbed to understand. It is easy to see the psychological motivations that lead Treplev to his actions from an outside point of view; coming from a household — a culture — that did not approve of him and yet one he had to endure nonetheless surely drove Treplev to brash acts, as it would drive anyone, in an attempt to have the endured suffering noticed and, hopefully, remedied in some sense or another. Simply, any child from a household where a mother is unashamed to assert that her child is a personal misery to her is likely not a psychology healthy child, and will be troubled and therefore act in troubled ways. In this light, the motivation for many of the actions of Treplev become self-evident: Treplev is fighting to prove himself and be loved for who he is,

His culture is what drove him to act as he did, irrationally switching between being sad, complaining, and acting brashly. His culture is what prevented him from ever effectively finishing a work, as he never felt anything he did was good enough. Treplev’s culture can be seen as the largest source of his misery. This dichotomy between Treplev wanting to succeed and him never fully succeeding speaks to the nature of The Seagull as a whole, adding yet another layer to the complex meanings it contains. Treplev’s saga critically plays into the theme of self-evaluation which is present throughout the entirety of The Seagull. Without Treplev, many of the characters in the play would lose their contrast. Despite being on of the saddest and most pitiful characters in the play, Treplev is also one of the most important. Treplev’s unique psychology, fostered by his culture, is what brings to light and centers the themes within The Seagull. With his role, The Seagull is elevated to a commentary on human nature and the effects of culture on personal psychology.Works