Three Sisters Character Analysis

Three Sisters is a play authored by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. Set in a small town used for garrisoning troops, the Prozorov family struggles to live their fullest lives in the backwater town. Accompanied by several military men, the three sisters, Olga, Masha, and Irina, and their brother Andrei attempt to navigate a somber and seemingly predestined life. Anton Chekhov uses the lives of the Prozorov and the people they interact with to insinuate beliefs about the Russian nobility and educated society. Throughout Three Sisters, Chekhov suggests that noble people live somber dissatisfying lives, are disconnected from the struggles of the average Russian, and suffer from various moral pitfalls. Several times throughout Three Sisters,

Andrei was once on the fast track to becoming a professor, but is now working for the county council. He feels like a failure and exclaims, “Oh where is it, where did my past go, when I was young, happy and intelligent, when my dreams and thoughts had some grace, and the present and future were lit up with hope?” (Chekhov 87). Andrei becomes dissatisfied with life not only because of his occupational strife, but also the marital problems he is enduring. At one point, he reveals how he questions his marriage with Natasha, “I don’t understand what I love her for, or why – I love her so – or – at least, loved-“(Chekhov 83). Succumbing to professional and personal dilemmas, it is clear why Andrei would be dissatisfied with life. Andrei’s plight is used to show how educated nobility suffered from serious pressure and struggles, which could lead to a somber

She begins the book as a school teacher, “Every day I teach, every night I tutor. My head aches, always, and my thoughts are an old lady’s. Four years serving that school and I feel my youth and strength draining out of me.” (Chekhov 14). The exact conditions of her school are never noted; however, it is hard to imagine its near an equal to the perils of factory work. Regardless, Olga was still born into a family that granted her a great education and a manor to reside in. Later, it is revealed that attained the position of head mistress at her school despite numerous proclamations that she had no interest in the position. When discussing her situation, she seems to lament her placement in life, “Nothing turns out the way we plan, I didn’t want to be a headmistress and here I am, a headmistress. Moscow—it’s not to be.” (Chekhov 89-90). Her disdain for her situation reflects the dissatisfaction of noble life, and a lack of perspective of how much has been stacked in her favor. Anton Chekhov uses Olga, and her attitude, to portray the disconnect between nobility and the average