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Uncle Vanya | Introduction

Uncle Vanya, Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece of frustrated longing and wasted lives, was originally a much more conventional drama in its earlier incarnation. Previously known as The Wood Demon, the play was rejected by two theaters before premiering in Moscow in December of 1889 to a very poor reception (it closed after three performances). Sometime between that date and 1896, Chekhov revised the play, altering it radically. Although the work that emerged is more static than the original—in terms of narrative events, far less happens—it is considered one of the most poignant evocations of thwarted desire ever written. Vanya is literally haunted by the man he might have been: ‘‘Day and night like a fiend at my throat is the thought that my life is hopelessly lost.’’

Uncle Vanya was scheduled to premiere at the Maly Theater in Moscow, but the Theatrical and Literary Committee overseeing it and other imperial theaters asked Chekhov to make substantial revisions to the play. Instead of making the suggested changes, he withdrew the play and submitted it to the Moscow Art Theater, where Uncle Vanya was first performed on October 26, 1899, under the direction Konstantin Stanislavsky. It was well received.

With Uncle Vanya and Chekhov’s three other dramatic masterpieces—The Sea Gull, The Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard—Chekhov demonstrated that a production could be riveting with out conforming to traditional notions of drama. In Critical Essays on Anton Chekhov, Russian author Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita) noted that Chekhov’s plays are not overtly political or freighted with a social message: ‘‘What mattered was that this typical Chekhovian hero was the unfortunate bearer of a vague but beautiful human truth, a burden which he could neither get rid of nor carry.’’ Today, Chekhov stakes a double claim in the world of literature: he is equally acclaimed as a master of the short story and of the dramatic form. Uncle Vanya is widely considered to be his greatest achievement in the latter genre and a masterpiece of modern drama.

Uncle Vanya Summary

Act I
The play opens on a cloudy afternoon in a garden behind the family estate of Serebryakov. Marina, the old nurse, is knitting a stocking, while Astrov, the doctor who has been called to tend to one of Professor Serebryakov’s ailments, is pacing nearby. Astrov laments that he’s aged tending the sick and that life ‘‘itself is boring, stupid, dirty.’’ Having no one to love, he complains that his emotions have grown numb. When he worries that people won’t remember him, Marina answers: ‘‘People won’t remember but God will remember.’’

When Vanya enters, yawning from a nap, the three complain about how all order has been disrupted since the professor and his wife, Yelena, arrived. As they’re talking, Serebryakov, Yelena, Sonya, and Telegin return from a walk. Vanya calls the professor ‘‘a learned old dried mackerel,’’ criticizing him for his pomposity and the smallness of his achievements. Vanya’s mother, Maria Vasilyevna, objects to her son’s derogatory comments. Vanya also praises the professor’s wife, Yelena, for her beauty, arguing that faithfulness to an old man like Serebryakov means silencing youth and emotions—an immoral waste of vitality. Act I closes with Yelena becoming exasperated as Vanya declares his love for her.

Act II
It is evening and this act is set in Serebryakov’s dining room. Before going to bed, Serebryakov complains of being in pain and of old age. After he is asleep, Yelena and Vanya talk. She speaks of the discord in the house, and Vanya speaks of dashed hopes. He feels he’s misspent his youth, and he associates his unrequited love for Yelena with the devastation of his life. Not only is Vanya distraught about his own life, but he tells Yelena her life is dying, too. ‘‘What are you waiting for?’’ he asks her. ‘‘What curst philosophy stands in your way?’’

Alone, Vanya speaks of how he loved Yelena ten years before, when it would have been possible for the two to have married and had a happy life together. At that time, Vanya believed in Serebryakov’s greatness and loved him; now those beliefs are gone and his life feels empty. As Vanya agonizes over his past, Astrov returns and the two talk together, drunk. Sonya chides Vanya for his drinking, and he answers: ‘‘When one has no real life, one lives in illusions. After all, that’s better than nothing.’’ Sonya responds pragmatically: ‘‘All our hay is mowed, it... » Complete Uncle Vanya Summary