PART I
Plot
The Seagull takes place at the house of retired judge Peter Sorin. His sister, Irina Arkadina, a
glamorous, selfish actress, is visiting with her lover, the successful writer Boris Trigorin.
Irina's twenty-five-year-old son, Konstantin Treplev, also a writer, lives in the house with his
uncle. Present as well are Eugene Dorn, a middle-aged doctor, and Ilia Shamrayov, Sorin's
estate manager, along with his wife, Paulina, and his melancholy daughter, Masha. Simon
Medviedenko, a teacher, is in love with Masha, who in turn is in love with Konstantin, who
loves Nina Zarietchnaya, an aspiring young actress. Konstantin has written a play and
stages it for his mother's benefit during her visit; Nina is featured in a major role. During the
performance, Irina refuses to take her son's play seriously and keeps interrupting. Nina is
impressed by Trigorin's reputation and falls in love with him. Konstantin, depressed by his
inability to inspire love in either his mother or Nina, shoots a seagull and brings it to Nina,
claiming that he will soon take his own life as well. Overhearing this exchange, Trigorin sees
in it material for a story; he tells Nina that the incident illustrates how human beings can be
casually destructive, and that he sees her as a seagull endangered by callous men. Nina and
Trigorin begin an affair, and she will eventually join him in Moscow. Konstantin shoots
himself but is only superficially wounded, and he and his mother soon resume their
bickering.
The play's final act takes place several years later. Sorin is now very ill, and Trigorin and Irina
have come to visit him at the estate. Despairing of ever winning Konstantin's love, Masha
has married Medviedenko and borne a child; she is still in love with Konstantin, however,
and neglects her family. Konstantin has had some of his work published but is still
unfulfilled. Nina had become pregnant but lost the baby after being abandoned by Trigorin;
she is now pursuing her acting career in various provincial towns. During this time
Konstantin has relentlessly followed Nina, hoping that she will eventually return to him.
Through occasional letters to him she has revealed her emotional distress; she has suffered
numerous disappointments in her career and in her one-sided relationship with Trigorin.
Nina returns to the estate and speaks with Konstantin, who still loves her. Despite her
continuing feelings for Trigorin, she leaves the estate to accept a position with a mediocre
theatrical company in a small town. Konstantin now feels utterly desolate and lonely, and,
while the others are playing cards, shoots himself in the head.
Setting
Sorin's farm, Russia, late 19th Century
The writer doesn’t tell where Sorin’s farm is exactly located in Russia but we know that it
was fifty miles south of Moscow in open country with rivers, ponds, and lots of trees.
The first act takes place on the back lawn that overlooks the lake. It's summer, just a little
after sunset—a moment for the premiere of Konstantin's play and the potentialities of love.
Act 2 also places the conflicts against a backdrop of leisure. It takes place at a hot noon, on a
side lawn set up for croquet. The magical lake is still visible, casting a spell over Trigorin and
Nina at the end of the act.
Act 3 is in Sorin's dining room—a more claustrophobic setting for the uncomfortable
departure of Trigorin and Arkadina. Their luggage is piled up waiting to go.
Two years later we're in Act 4, in a parlor that Konstantin has converted into a study. Family
and friends invade the workspace to chat and play cards, pushing Konstantin to kill himself.
I would rather be a part of the play and live in the same place where the play takes place.
The geographical features and the location of the place – outside the town- is exactly
preferably. The farm life near-by the lake might be quite sickly for many people but I’m in
need of a silent, flat life that nothing unexpectable can happen, where I can be a part of the
nature’s soul and have a simple life.
Major Characters
Konstantin Treplev - (Sometimes called "Kostya"). Arkadina's son begins the play with
aspirations to be a writer. But as the only son of Arkadina, he lives in her shadow and seems
terrorized by the pressure of living up both to her and his own expectations.
Konstantin is in love with Nina, who is in love with Trigorin. At the heart of his personality
seems a desperate need for his mother's attention and approval. His relationship with Nina,
then, comes to mirror this desperate seek for his mother's love, ending in the tragedy of
another suicide attempt.
Irina Arkadina - A famous actress, extremely self-obsessed. Arkadina is one of the major
protagonists of the play. She is having a love affair with Trigorin, the famous writer. Once
upon a time, Arkadina may have been famous and beautiful, but she now seems more
selfish than anything else. Still, she is successful and a member of the highest class.
Peter Sorin - Arkadina's brother and an old, ill man. He is retired after serving twenty-eight
years in the Department of Justice, Sorin is unable to go out as much as he would like to.
Sorin, like so many of the characters in the play, is also a man of failed ambitions. He says at
a few points in the play that he wanted to be a great man, that he had ideas for stories, and
that he wanted to marry. He has never achieved any of these goals.
Nina Zarietchnaya - The young daughter of a wealthy landowner, who lives with Nina's
stepmother by the lake. Nina's father and stepmother keep her under strict lock and key,
and until she runs away from her home to be with Trigorin. Nina is fascinated by fame and
the famous, particularly by Trigorin and when they completely fall in love, she devotes her
life to Trigorin.
Boris Trigorin - A famous novelist, who, at the start of the play, is having an affair with
Arkadina at the beginning of the play, Trigorin later becomes captivated by Nina. Nina
explicitly follows Trigorin, and, partly because he is so obsessed with his own writing, and
his own affairs, it actually takes him a while to realize what is going on.
Ilia Shamrayev - A retired lieutenant, and Sorin's steward, Shamrayev is responsible for
keeping his house, and looking after his horses and land. He's married to Polina and father
of Masha. Shamrayev is extremely quick to anger, with a quick temper. He constantly falls
out with people about his horses and whether they can be used to travel into town.
Polina - Married to Shamrayev and the mother of Masha. She is madly in love with Dorn.
Masha - The daughter of Shamrayev and Polina. Masha always wears black, and is, as the
play opens, "in mourning for her life". She is in love with Konstantin, but eventually marries
Medvedenko. Their marriage seems destined for unhappiness.
Dorn - Dorn is the local doctor. He has never married - though, when younger, was an
extremely handsome man.
Medvedenko - A schoolteacher who is in love with Masha and not cared by her.
Yakov – A workman.
Most and Least in Common With Me
Masha has the most common with me in that she is depressed by her unconditional love to
Treplev and when this love tears her down slowly, she does nothing trickery to earn his love,
just peter out quietly.
Masha: (With contained emotion) You should see him whenever he recites something he wrote: his
eyes burn, his face gets very pale and intense. He has such a beautiful, sad voice! You can tell he's a
real poet. (2.19)
The lines above, lays emphasis on the way she loves, the way she dreams and the way she
cannot forget. She adores Treplev innocently and she keeps loving him even after he
refuses to be with her.
“I feel as if I had been in the world a thousand years, and I trail my life behind me like an
endless scarf. Often I have no desire tol ive at all.” Masha-Act 2
The way we love and the way we suffer resemble each other. Most of the people are
deceptive in their feelings, fort he people around, it is tough to analyse their mood. Masha
doesn’t act like somebody she is not. When she is unhappy she doesn’t hide it and this is the
major feature that made me develop empathy towards her.
The character who has the least common with me is Irina Arkadina. She is madly obsessed
with Trigorin who is an impressive, intellectual writer. Irina is a powerful slightly old woman
who encages her son with her expectations and also the weakest character in the book in
that she begs Trigorin for his love, even after Trigorin is captivated by Nina and refuses to
be with Irina Arkadina. The insulting situation that Irina is in for her love, is not something
that I would rather be a part of. Love does not demand to beg. It is given if it is supposed to
be given.
Names For The Characters
Treplev – Nemo
Means "nobody" in Latin. This was the name used by author Jules Verne for the captain of
the Nautilus in his novel 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea' (1870). It was later used
for the title character (a fish) in the 2003 animated movie 'Finding Nemo'.
Treplev is a lost, depressed character. He becomes “nobody” by shooting himself and
ending his life in the end of the book.
Masha – Perdita
Derived from Latin perditus meaning "lost". Shakespeare created this name for the
daughter of Hermione in his play 'The Winter's Tale' (1610).
Masha is a moruning character, who is desperately in love. This love drives her to a deserted
path and she gets lost. Her life becomes far from being a happy life. She gets plunged into
darkness.
Nina – Desdemona
Derived from Greek meaning "ill-fated". This was the name of the murdered wife
of Othello in Shakespeare's play 'Othello' (1603).
Nina, in the beginning of the play, a locked, prison-like character who constantly escapes
from her house. In the middle of the play, her fate seems to turn by the visit of Trigorin. She
falls in love with him and moves to Moscow but her ill-fate pursues her and she gets
abondoned by her game changer.
Irina – Guiomar
Possibly derived from the Germanic name Wigmar, which is formed of the
elements wig "war, battle" and mari "famous". In modern Portugal and Spain it is a feminine
name.
Irina Arkadina is a well-known, prestigious actress who is in the crossfire of her son’s suicide
attempts and love expectancy from Trigorin. Besides her fame and success, she suffers from
the battle she fights inside.
Trigorin – Undine
Derived from Latin unda meaning "wave". The word undine was created by the medieval
author Paracelsus.
Trigorin’s visit to Sorin’s estate changes the flow of events in a destructive way. First of all,
Irina loses his lover and Treplev loses Nina’s little interest , attempts to suicide. Trigorin is
like a huge wave who blows down everything around him in the play.
PART III
Francisco Goya – The Dog
Francisco Goya’s The Dog was painted
directly onto the wall of the Spanish painters
home in the wanning years of his life as he
was suffering from both mental and physical
despair.
This painting shows a dog’s head with the
snout pointed upwards, ears pinned
backwards, and wide eyes gazing toward the
sky. The painting can be divided into two
sections, one a dark mass that conceals the
dog’s entire body, possibly earth or
quicksand. The second section, a vast sky
which conveys the loneliness of the dog and
is highlighted by a large black mass, most
likely an original painting that was on the
wall before Goya decided it must be painted
over.
The dog being buried represents his feeling of being trapped, old and alone, physically and
mentally weak.
“I feel like that I woke up in the morning and found the lake dried up, like all the water sunk into
the earth.” Treplev-Act 2
As the main character of the story, Treplev is the representer of the trapped characters in
the play and the painting above is parallel to Treplev’s sorrow and loneliness that he is
pushed by his mother and his love. The lines above reveals the exhausted soul of Treplev
after he loses his love of life and how he is damaged by the lack of support and love from his
mother. The lake is like the life source of the farm, the sun for the people living near-by.
The lake is in the center of the setting which gives the setting an extraordinary meaning.
Treplev means that his source of life was dried up, drained away after Nina’s little interest
was turned to Trigorin. He has nothing to hold onto when Nina is gone and he is the
loneliest that he can ever be, after Nina has gone to Moscow. Like The Dog is buried to
earth, he feels like he is trapped and lonely.
Fraught with emotional problems, Konstantin wants to be loved by Nina and his mother,
but instead the female characters turn their affections toward Boris Trigorin.
Tortured by his unrequited love for Nina, and the ill-favored reception of his play,
Konstantin shoots a seagull, a symbol of innocence and freedom. Shortly after, he attempts
suicide. After Nina leaves for Moscow, Konstantin writes furiously and gradually gains
success as an author.
Nevertheless, his approaching fame means little to him. So long as Nina and his mother
choose Trigorin, Konstantin can never be content. And so, at the play’s end, he finally
succeeds in taking his own life. As The Dog looks at the empty, huge sky with an extreme
loneliness and the feeling of being trapped, Treplev suffers from these emotions and sets
himself free to that huge blank and dissappears from a world that he has never appeared.