The Three Sisters
From Wikisource
| The Three Sisters (1901) by , translated by Julius West |
Act I→ |
Three Sisters (Russian: Три сёстры - Tri sjostry), written in 1900 and first produced in 1901, 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 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 symbolic element: the sisters are always dreaming of it and constantly express their desire to return. They identify Moscow with their happiness, and thus to them it represents the perfect life. However as the play develops Moscow never materializes and they all see their dreams recede further and further. Meaning never presents itself and they are forced to seek it out for themselves.
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A Drama In Four Acts
CHARACTERS
- ANDREY SERGEYEVITCH PROSOROV
- NATALIA IVANOVA (NATASHA), his fiancee, later his wife (28)
- His sisters:
- OLGA
- MASHA
- IRINA
- FEODOR ILITCH KULIGIN, high school teacher, married to MASHA (20)
- ALEXANDER IGNATEYEVITCH VERSHININ, lieutenant-colonel in charge of a battery (42)
- NICOLAI LVOVITCH TUZENBACH, baron, lieutenant in the army (30)
- VASSILI VASSILEVITCH SOLENI, captain
- IVAN ROMANOVITCH CHEBUTIKIN, army doctor (60)
- ALEXEY PETROVITCH FEDOTIK, sub-lieutenant
- VLADIMIR CARLOVITCH RODE, sub-lieutenant
- FERAPONT, door-keeper at local council offices, an old man
- ANFISA, nurse (80)
The action takes place in a provincial town.
[Ages are stated in brackets.]
| This is a translation and has a separate copyright status from the original text. The license for the translation applies to this edition only. | ||||
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