Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
Chekhov is not the author to read if you are looking for a story to cheer you up. His works tend to revolve around the question "what is life for?" and The Three Sisters is not different. Olga, Masha, and Irina (and their brother Andrei) all want more than what life is currently giving them: Olga and Irina want to move to Moscow where they imagine their lives would finally become interesting and have meaning while Masha wishes she had not married her husband who no longer impresses her and Andrei wishes to marry Natasha whom he imagines would help fulfill his life. the play is both about hope and despair. The girls never get to Moscow, Masha falls in love with another man but never leaves her husband and Andrei gets married and, like Masha, finds out that it is not as wonderful as he expected. Chekhov's play is real and reflective of everyday life even though it was written over a century ago. As he says in the play: "Happiness is something we never have, but only long for."
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Very boring. I noticed some philosophical ideas being mentioned but they were never developed which is disappointed. Definitely tainted my perception of Chekov, I loved his short story The Bet but now I feel ambiguous about him because of how much I disliked this play
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
The two stars are more for the recording than the story content. I had trouble following the story because it's a play, meant to be seen not only heard, so it was difficult keeping track of the characters (especially the men) and grasping when the scene changed. Also, the quality of the recording is poor: some voices come through loudly, others are so quiet. It's as if there was a mic in the middle of the stage so voices directly under it are picked up, but not those on the periphery. And I'm quite sure that on the 3rd CD the director or sound editor's voice is included, telling one of the sisters that her scream is too sharp, and she says "Okay" and repeats the last couple of lines. How sloppy!
I should read or see the play instead.
I should read or see the play instead.
Originally published on my blog here in January 1999.
Chekhov's mature plays are famous for the way that nothing happens. This generalisation is not, of course, totally accurate, but it is certainly the case that what plot there is (here such incidents as an unsuitable marriage, a fire, a duel, the removal of the town's army contingent) take place off stage, and are there principally to point something out in the personalities of Chekhov's characters. To use the word "plot" to describe the incidents in The Three Sisters is really a bit of an overstatement; while it is clear that each event is carefully planned by Chekhov, they have a random, disconnected air - just like incidents in real life.
The three Prozorov sisters live in a small town with their brother, Andrei. After the death of their father, one of them has married a schoolteacher, the youngest two are still unmarried. They are bored with provincial life, and look forward to the day when they will move to Moscow (which is the place where all their unattainable dreams take place). But Andrei marries a local girl, and she gradually takes over the Prozorov house and the sisters' illusory hopes fade away.
The three sisters, Irina, Olga and Masha, are very different women (respectively, archetypically innocent, home-making and sensual), and it has been suggested that they represent the different sides to the nature of any real woman. Because of the way they grow up together, though, siblings are often very different - complementary, even - in temperament, so it is not necessary to put such a symbolic interpretation on what is surely intended to be a strongly realist play.
Chekhov's great plays all deal with a family's decline in fortune; the Prozorovs are not so high in the social scale as the aristocratic families of [b:Uncle Vanya|231560|Uncle Vanya (Dodo Press)|Anton Chekhov|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172935446s/231560.jpg|622687] or [b:The Cherry Orchard|87346|The Cherry Orchard|Anton Chekhov|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328845360s/87346.jpg|1616484], but they are clearly gradually losing social status.
It is Chekhov's examination of character that makes this a great play; he took the ideas of the late nineteenth century Russian novel and applied them to the stage. That medium, with its association with melodrama and its exaggerated plots and one dimensional characters must have seemed the last place where an emphasis on character rather than action would work; yet, in the hands of Chekhov and [a:Henrik Ibsen|2730977|Henrik Ibsen|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1286731403p2/2730977.jpg], it does.
Chekhov's mature plays are famous for the way that nothing happens. This generalisation is not, of course, totally accurate, but it is certainly the case that what plot there is (here such incidents as an unsuitable marriage, a fire, a duel, the removal of the town's army contingent) take place off stage, and are there principally to point something out in the personalities of Chekhov's characters. To use the word "plot" to describe the incidents in The Three Sisters is really a bit of an overstatement; while it is clear that each event is carefully planned by Chekhov, they have a random, disconnected air - just like incidents in real life.
The three Prozorov sisters live in a small town with their brother, Andrei. After the death of their father, one of them has married a schoolteacher, the youngest two are still unmarried. They are bored with provincial life, and look forward to the day when they will move to Moscow (which is the place where all their unattainable dreams take place). But Andrei marries a local girl, and she gradually takes over the Prozorov house and the sisters' illusory hopes fade away.
The three sisters, Irina, Olga and Masha, are very different women (respectively, archetypically innocent, home-making and sensual), and it has been suggested that they represent the different sides to the nature of any real woman. Because of the way they grow up together, though, siblings are often very different - complementary, even - in temperament, so it is not necessary to put such a symbolic interpretation on what is surely intended to be a strongly realist play.
Chekhov's great plays all deal with a family's decline in fortune; the Prozorovs are not so high in the social scale as the aristocratic families of [b:Uncle Vanya|231560|Uncle Vanya (Dodo Press)|Anton Chekhov|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172935446s/231560.jpg|622687] or [b:The Cherry Orchard|87346|The Cherry Orchard|Anton Chekhov|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328845360s/87346.jpg|1616484], but they are clearly gradually losing social status.
It is Chekhov's examination of character that makes this a great play; he took the ideas of the late nineteenth century Russian novel and applied them to the stage. That medium, with its association with melodrama and its exaggerated plots and one dimensional characters must have seemed the last place where an emphasis on character rather than action would work; yet, in the hands of Chekhov and [a:Henrik Ibsen|2730977|Henrik Ibsen|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1286731403p2/2730977.jpg], it does.
slow-paced
