act iii
ACT III

The drawing-room of SEREBRAKOFF'S house. There are three doors: one to
the right, one to the left, and one in the centre of the room. VOITSKI
and SONIA are sitting down. HELENA is walking up and down, absorbed in
thought.

VOITSKI. We were asked by the professor to be here at one o'clock.
[Looks at his watch] It is now a quarter to one. It seems he has some
communication to make to the world.

HELENA. Probably a matter of business.

VOITSKI. He never had any business. He writes twaddle, grumbles, and
eats his heart out with jealousy; that's all he does.

SONIA. [Reproachfully] Uncle!

VOITSKI. All right. I beg your pardon. [He points to HELENA] Look at
her. Wandering up and down from sheer idleness. A sweet picture, really.

HELENA. I wonder you are not bored, droning on in the same key from
morning till night. [Despairingly] I am dying of this tedium. What shall
I do?

SONIA. [Shrugging her shoulders] There is plenty to do if you would.

HELENA. For instance?

SONIA. You could help run this place, teach the children, care for the
sick--isn't that enough? Before you and papa came, Uncle Vanya and I
used to go to market ourselves to deal in flour.

HELENA. I don't know anything about such things, and besides, they don't
interest me. It is only in novels that women go out and teach and heal
the peasants; how can I suddenly begin to do it?

SONIA. How can you live here and not do it? Wait awhile, you will get
used to it all. [Embraces her] Don't be sad, dearest. [Laughing] You
feel miserable and restless, and can't seem to fit into this life, and
your restlessness is catching. Look at Uncle Vanya, he does nothing now
but haunt you like a shadow, and I have left my work to-day to come here
and talk with you. I am getting lazy, and don't want to go on with it.
Dr. Astroff hardly ever used to come here; it was all we could do to
persuade him to visit us once a month, and now he has abandoned his
forestry and his practice, and comes every day. You must be a witch.

VOITSKI. Why should you languish here? Come, my dearest, my beauty, be
sensible! The blood of a Nixey runs in your veins. Oh, won't you let
yourself be one? Give your nature the reins for once in your life; fall
head over ears in love with some other water sprite and plunge down head
first into a deep pool, so that the Herr Professor and all of us may
have our hands free again.

HELENA. [Angrily] Leave me alone! How cruel you are! [She tries to go
out.]

VOITSKI. [Preventing her] There, there, my beauty, I apologise. [He
kisses her hand] Forgive me.

HELENA. Confess that you would try the patience of an angel.

VOITSKI. As a peace offering I am going to fetch some flowers which I
picked for you this morning: some autumn roses, beautiful, sorrowful
roses. [He goes out.]

SONIA. Autumn roses, beautiful, sorrowful roses!

[She and HELENA stand looking out of the window.]

HELENA. September already! How shall we live through the long winter
here? [A pause] Where is the doctor?

SONIA. He is writing in Uncle Vanya's room. I am glad Uncle Vanya has
gone out, I want to talk to you about something.

HELENA. About what?

SONIA. About what?

[She lays her head on HELENA'S breast.]

HELENA. [Stroking her hair] There, there, that will do. Don't, Sonia.

SONIA. I am ugly!

HELENA. You have lovely hair.

SONIA. Don't say that! [She turns to look at herself in the glass] No,
when a woman is ugly they always say she has beautiful hair or eyes. I
have loved him now for six years, I have loved him more than one loves
one's mother. I seem to hear him beside me every moment of the day. I
feel the pressure of his hand on mine. If I look up, I seem to see him
coming, and as you see, I run to you to talk of him. He is here every
day now, but he never looks at me, he does not notice my presence. It
is agony. I have absolutely no hope, no, no hope. Oh, my God! Give me
strength to endure. I prayed all last night. I often go up to him and
speak to him and look into his eyes. My pride is gone. I am not mistress
of myself. Yesterday I told Uncle Vanya I couldn't control myself, and
all the servants know it. Every one knows that I love him.

HELENA. Does he?

SONIA. No, he never notices me.

HELENA. [Thoughtfully] He is a strange man. Listen, Sonia, will you
allow me to speak to him? I shall be careful, only hint. [A pause]
Really, to be in uncertainty all these years! Let me do it!

SONIA nods an affirmative.

HELENA. Splendid! It will be easy to find out whether he loves you or
not. Don't be ashamed, sweetheart, don't worry. I shall be careful; he
will not notice a thing. We only want to find out whether it is yes or
no, don't we? [A pause] And if it is no, then he must keep away from
here, is that so?

SONIA nods.

HELENA. It will be easier not to see him any more. We won't put off the
examination an instant. He said he had a sketch to show me. Go and tell
him at once that I want to see him.

SONIA. [In great excitement] Will you tell me the whole truth?

HELENA. Of course I will. I am sure that no matter what it is, it will
be easier for you to bear than this uncertainty. Trust to me, dearest.

SONIA. Yes, yes. I shall say that you want to see his sketch. [She
starts out, but stops near the door and looks back] No, it is better not
to know--and yet--there may be hope.

HELENA. What do you say?

SONIA. Nothing. [She goes out.]

HELENA. [Alone] There is no greater sorrow than to know another's secret
when you cannot help them. [In deep thought] He is obviously not in love
with her, but why shouldn't he marry her? She is not pretty, but she
is so clever and pure and good, she would make a splendid wife for a
country doctor of his years. [A pause] I can understand how the poor
child feels. She lives here in this desperate loneliness with no one
around her except these colourless shadows that go mooning about talking
nonsense and knowing nothing except that they eat, drink, and sleep.
Among them appears from time to time this Dr. Astroff, so different, so
handsome, so interesting, so charming. It is like seeing the moon
rise on a dark night. Oh, to surrender oneself to his embrace! To lose
oneself in his arms! I am a little in love with him myself! Yes, I am
lonely without him, and when I think of him I smile. That Uncle Vanya
says I have the blood of a Nixey in my veins: "Give rein to your nature
for once in your life!" Perhaps it is right that I should. Oh, to be
free as a bird, to fly away from all your sleepy faces and your talk and
forget that you have existed at all! But I am a coward, I am afraid; my
conscience torments me. He comes here every day now. I can guess why,
and feel guilty already; I should like to fall on my knees at Sonia's
feet and beg her forgiveness, and weep.

ASTROFF comes in carrying a portfolio.

ASTROFF. How do you do? [Shakes hands with her] Do you want to see my
sketch?

HELENA. Yes, you promised to show me what you had been doing. Have you
time now?

ASTROFF. Of course I have!

He lays the portfolio on the table, takes out the sketch and fastens it
to the table with thumb-tacks.

ASTROFF. Where were you born?

HELENA. [Helping him] In St. Petersburg.

ASTROFF. And educated?

HELENA. At the Conservatory there.

ASTROFF. You don't find this life very interesting, I dare say?

HELENA. Oh, why not? It is true I don't know the country very well, but
I have read a great deal about it.

ASTROFF. I have my own desk there in Ivan's room. When I am absolutely
too exhausted to go on I drop everything and rush over here to forget
myself in this work for an hour or two. Ivan and Miss Sonia sit rattling
at their counting-boards, the cricket chirps, and I sit beside them and
paint, feeling warm and peaceful. But I don't permit myself this luxury
very often, only once a month. [Pointing to the picture] Look there!
That is a map of our country as it was fifty years ago. The green tints,
both dark and light, represent forests. Half the map, as you see, is
covered with it. Where the green is striped with red the forests were
inhabited by elk and wild goats. Here on this lake, lived great flocks
of swans and geese and ducks; as the old men say, there was a power of
birds of every kind. Now they have vanished like a cloud. Beside the
hamlets and villages, you see, I have dotted down here and there the
various settlements, farms, hermit's caves, and water-mills. This
country carried a great many cattle and horses, as you can see by the
quantity of blue paint. For instance, see how thickly it lies in this
part; there were great herds of them here, an average of three horses to
every house. [A pause] Now, look lower down. This is the country as it
was twenty-five years ago. Only a third of the map is green now with
forests. There are no goats left and no elk. The blue paint is lighter,
and so on, and so on. Now we come to the third part; our country as it
appears to-day. We still see spots of green, but not much. The elk, the
swans, the black-cock have disappeared. It is, on the whole, the picture
of a regular and slow decline which it will evidently only take about
ten or fifteen more years to complete. You may perhaps object that it
is the march of progress, that the old order must give place to the new,
and you might be right if roads had been run through these ruined woods,
or if factories and schools had taken their place. The people then would
have become better educated and healthier and richer, but as it is, we
have nothing of the sort. We have the same swamps and mosquitoes;
the same disease and want; the typhoid, the diphtheria, the burning
villages. We are confronted by the degradation of our country, brought
on by the fierce struggle for existence of the human race. It is the
consequence of the ignorance and unconsciousness of starving, shivering,
sick humanity that, to save its children, instinctively snatches
at everything that can warm it and still its hunger. So it destroys
everything it can lay its hands on, without a thought for the morrow.
And almost everything has gone, and nothing has been created to take its
place. [Coldly] But I see by your face that I am not interesting you.

HELENA. I know so little about such things!

ASTROFF. There is nothing to know. It simply isn't interesting, that's
all.

HELENA. Frankly, my thoughts were elsewhere. Forgive me! I want to
submit you to a little examination, but I am embarrassed and don't know
how to begin.

ASTROFF. An examination?

HELENA. Yes, but quite an innocent one. Sit down. [They sit down] It is
about a certain young girl I know. Let us discuss it like honest people,
like friends, and then forget what has passed between us, shall we?

ASTROFF. Very well.

HELENA. It is about my step-daughter, Sonia. Do you like her?

ASTROFF. Yes, I respect her.

HELENA. Do you like her--as a woman?

ASTROFF. [Slowly] No.

HELENA. One more word, and that will be the last. You have not noticed
anything?

ASTROFF. No, nothing.

HELENA. [Taking his hand] You do not love her. I see that in your eyes.
She is suffering. You must realise that, and not come here any more.

ASTROFF. My sun has set, yes, and then I haven't the time. [Shrugging
his shoulders] Where shall I find time for such things? [He is
embarrassed.]

HELENA. Bah! What an unpleasant conversation! I am as out of breath as
if I had been running three miles uphill. Thank heaven, that is over!
Now let us forget everything as if nothing had been said. You are
sensible. You understand. [A pause] I am actually blushing.

ASTROFF. If you had spoken a month ago I might perhaps have
considered it, but now--[He shrugs his shoulders] Of course, if she is
suffering--but I cannot understand why you had to put me through this
examination. [He searches her face with his eyes, and shakes his finger
at her] Oho, you are wily!

HELENA. What does this mean?

ASTROFF. [Laughing] You are a wily one! I admit that Sonia is suffering,
but what does this examination of yours mean? [He prevents her from
retorting, and goes on quickly] Please don't put on such a look of
surprise; you know perfectly well why I come here every day. Yes, you
know perfectly why and for whose sake I come! Oh, my sweet tigress!
don't look at me in that way; I am an old bird!

HELENA. [Perplexed] A tigress? I don't understand you.

ASTROFF. Beautiful, sleek tigress, you must have your victims! For a
whole month I have done nothing but seek you eagerly. I have thrown over
everything for you, and you love to see it. Now then, I am sure you knew
all this without putting me through your examination. [Crossing his arms
and bowing his head] I surrender. Here you have me--now, eat me.

HELENA. You have gone mad!

ASTROFF. You are afraid!

HELENA. I am a better and stronger woman than you think me. Good-bye.
[She tries to leave the room.]

ASTROFF. Why good-bye? Don't say good-bye, don't waste words. Oh, how
lovely you are--what hands! [He kisses her hands.]

HELENA. Enough of this! [She frees her hands] Leave the room! You have
forgotten yourself.

ASTROFF. Tell me, tell me, where can we meet to-morrow? [He puts his arm
around her] Don't you see that we must meet, that it is inevitable?

He kisses her. VOITSKI comes in carrying a bunch of roses, and stops in
the doorway.

HELENA. [Without seeing VOITSKI] Have pity! Leave me, [lays her head on
ASTROFF'S shoulder] Don't! [She tries to break away from him.]

ASTROFF. [Holding her by the waist] Be in the forest tomorrow at two
o'clock. Will you? Will you?

HELENA. [Sees VOITSKI] Let me go! [Goes to the window deeply
embarrassed] This is appalling!

VOITSKI. [Throws the flowers on a chair, and speaks in great excitement,
wiping his face with his handkerchief] Nothing--yes, yes, nothing.

ASTROFF. The weather is fine to-day, my dear Ivan; the morning was
overcast and looked like rain, but now the sun is shining again.
Honestly, we have had a very fine autumn, and the wheat is looking
fairly well. [Puts his map back into the portfolio] But the days are
growing short.

HELENA. [Goes quickly up to VOITSKI] You must do your best; you must use
all your power to get my husband and myself away from here to-day! Do
you hear? I say, this very day!

VOITSKI. [Wiping his face] Oh! Ah! Oh! All right! I--Helena, I saw
everything!

HELENA. [In great agitation] Do you hear me? I must leave here this very
day!

SEREBRAKOFF, SONIA, MARINA, and TELEGIN come in.

TELEGIN. I am not very well myself, your Excellency. I have been limping
for two days, and my head--

SEREBRAKOFF. Where are the others? I hate this house. It is a regular
labyrinth. Every one is always scattered through the twenty-six enormous
rooms; one never can find a soul. [Rings] Ask my wife and Madame
Voitskaya to come here!

HELENA. I am here already.

SEREBRAKOFF. Please, all of you, sit down.

SONIA. [Goes up to HELENA and asks anxiously] What did he say?

HELENA. I'll tell you later.

SONIA. You are moved. [looking quickly and inquiringly into her face] I
understand; he said he would not come here any more. [A pause] Tell me,
did he?

HELENA nods.

SEREBRAKOFF. [To TELEGIN] One can, after all, become reconciled to being
an invalid, but not to this country life. The ways of it stick in my
throat and I feel exactly as if I had been whirled off the earth and
landed on a strange planet. Please be seated, ladies and gentlemen.
Sonia! [SONIA does not hear. She is standing with her head bowed sadly
forward on her breast] Sonia! [A pause] She does not hear me. [To
MARINA] Sit down too, nurse. [MARINA sits down and begins to knit her
stocking] I crave your indulgence, ladies and gentlemen; hang your ears,
if I may say so, on the peg of attention. [He laughs.]

VOITSKI. [Agitated] Perhaps you do not need me--may I be excused?

SEREBRAKOFF. No, you are needed now more than any one.

VOITSKI. What is it you want of me?

SEREBRAKOFF. You--but what are you angry about? If it is anything I have
done, I ask you to forgive me.

VOITSKI. Oh, drop that and come to business; what do you want?

MME. VOITSKAYA comes in.

SEREBRAKOFF. Here is mother. Ladies and gentlemen, I shall begin. I
have asked you to assemble here, my friends, in order to discuss a very
important matter. I want to ask you for your assistance and advice, and
knowing your unfailing amiability I think I can count on both. I am a
book-worm and a scholar, and am unfamiliar with practical affairs. I
cannot, I find, dispense with the help of well-informed people such as
you, Ivan, and you, Telegin, and you, mother. The truth is, _manet omnes
una nox,_ that is to say, our lives are in the hands of God, and as I
am old and ill, I realise that the time has come for me to dispose of
my property in regard to the interests of my family. My life is nearly
over, and I am not thinking of myself, but I have a young wife and
daughter. [A pause] I cannot continue to live in the country; we were
not made for country life, and yet we cannot afford to live in town on
the income derived from this estate. We might sell the woods, but that
would be an expedient we could not resort to every year. We must find
some means of guaranteeing to ourselves a certain more or less fixed
yearly income. With this object in view, a plan has occurred to me which
I now have the honour of presenting to you for your consideration. I
shall only give you a rough outline, avoiding all details. Our estate
does not pay on an average more than two per cent on the money invested
in it. I propose to sell it. If we then invest our capital in bonds,
it will earn us four to five per cent, and we should probably have a
surplus over of several thousand roubles, with which we could buy a
summer cottage in Finland--

VOITSKI. Hold on! Repeat what you just said; I don't think I heard you
quite right.

SEREBRAKOFF. I said we would invest the money in bonds and buy a cottage
in Finland with the surplus.

VOITSKI. No, not Finland--you said something else.

SEREBRAKOFF. I propose to sell this place.

VOITSKI. Aha! That was it! So you are going to sell the place? Splendid.
The idea is a rich one. And what do you propose to do with my old mother
and me and with Sonia here?

SEREBRAKOFF. That will be decided in due time. We can't do everything at
once.

VOITSKI. Wait! It is clear that until this moment I have never had a
grain of sense in my head. I have always been stupid enough to think
that the estate belonged to Sonia. My father bought it as a wedding
present for my sister, and I foolishly imagined that as our laws were
made for Russians and not Turks, my sister's estate would come down to
her child.

SEREBRAKOFF. Of course it is Sonia's. Has any one denied it? I don't
want to sell it without Sonia's consent; on the contrary, what I am
doing is for Sonia's good.

VOITSKI. This is absolutely incomprehensible. Either I have gone mad
or--or--

MME. VOITSKAYA. Jean, don't contradict Alexander. Trust to him; he knows
better than we do what is right and what is wrong.

VOITSKI. I shan't. Give me some water. [He drinks] Go ahead! Say
anything you please--anything!

SEREBRAKOFF. I can't imagine why you are so upset. I don't pretend
that my scheme is an ideal one, and if you all object to it I shall not
insist. [A pause.]

TELEGIN. [With embarrassment] I not only nourish feelings of respect
toward learning, your Excellency, but I am also drawn to it by family
ties. My brother Gregory's wife's brother, whom you may know; his name
is Constantine Lakedemonoff, and he used to be a magistrate--

VOITSKI. Stop, Waffles. This is business; wait a bit, we will talk of
that later. [To SEREBRAKOFF] There now, ask him what he thinks; this
estate was bought from his uncle.

SEREBRAKOFF. Ah! Why should I ask questions? What good would it do?

VOITSKI. The price was ninety-five thousand roubles. My father paid
seventy and left a debt of twenty-five. Now listen! This place could
never have been bought had I not renounced my inheritance in favour of
my sister, whom I deeply loved--and what is more, I worked for ten years
like an ox, and paid off the debt.

SEREBRAKOFF. I regret ever having started this conversation.

VOITSKI. Thanks entirely to my own personal efforts, the place is
entirely clear of debts, and now, when I have grown old, you want to
throw me out, neck and crop!

SEREBRAKOFF. I can't imagine what you are driving at.

VOITSKI. For twenty-five years I have managed this place, and have sent
you the returns from it like the most honest of servants, and you have
never given me one single word of thanks for my work, not one--neither
in my youth nor now. You allowed me a meagre salary of five hundred
roubles a year, a beggar's pittance, and have never even thought of
adding a rouble to it.

SEREBRAKOFF. What did I know about such things, Ivan? I am not a
practical man and don't understand them. You might have helped yourself
to all you wanted.

VOITSKI. Yes, why did I not steal? Don't you all despise me for not
stealing, when it would have been only justice? And I should not now
have been a beggar!

MME. VOITSKAYA. [Sternly] Jean!

TELEGIN. [Agitated] Vanya, old man, don't talk in that way. Why spoil
such pleasant relations? [He embraces him] Do stop!

VOITSKI. For twenty-five years I have been sitting here with my mother
like a mole in a burrow. Our every thought and hope was yours and yours
only. By day we talked with pride of you and your work, and spoke your
name with veneration; our nights we wasted reading the books and papers
which my soul now loathes.

TELEGIN. Don't, Vanya, don't. I can't stand it.

SEREBRAKOFF. [Wrathfully] What under heaven do you want, anyway?

VOITSKI. We used to think of you as almost superhuman, but now the
scales have fallen from my eyes and I see you as you are! You write on
art without knowing anything about it. Those books of yours which I used
to admire are not worth one copper kopeck. You are a hoax!

SEREBRAKOFF. Can't any one make him stop? I am going!

HELENA. Ivan, I command you to stop this instant! Do you hear me?

VOITSKI. I refuse! [SEREBRAKOFF tries to get out of the room, but
VOITSKI bars the door] Wait! I have not done yet! You have wrecked my
life. I have never lived. My best years have gone for nothing, have been
ruined, thanks to you. You are my most bitter enemy!

TELEGIN. I can't stand it; I can't stand it. I am going. [He goes out in
great excitement.]

SEREBRAKOFF. But what do you want? What earthly right have you to use
such language to me? Ruination! If this estate is yours, then take it,
and let me be ruined!

HELENA. I am going away out of this hell this minute. [Shrieks] This is
too much!

VOITSKI. My life has been a failure. I am clever and brave and strong.
If I had lived a normal life I might have become another Schopenhauer
or Dostoieffski. I am losing my head! I am going crazy! Mother, I am in
despair! Oh, mother!

MME. VOITSKAYA. [Sternly] Listen, Alexander!

SONIA falls on her knees beside the nurse and nestles against her.

SONIA. Oh, nurse, nurse!

VOITSKI. Mother! What shall I do? But no, don't speak! I know what to
do. [To SEREBRAKOFF] And you will understand me!

He goes out through the door in the centre of the room and MME.
VOITSKAYA follows him.

SEREBRAKOFF. Tell me, what on earth is the matter? Take this lunatic out
of my sight! I cannot possibly live under the same roof with him. His
room [He points to the centre door] is almost next door to mine. Let him
take himself off into the village or into the wing of the house, or I
shall leave here at once. I cannot stay in the same house with him.

HELENA. [To her husband] We are leaving to-day; we must get ready at
once for our departure.

SEREBRAKOFF. What a perfectly dreadful man!

SONIA. [On her knees beside the nurse and turning to her father. She
speaks with emotion] You must be kind to us, papa. Uncle Vanya and I
are so unhappy! [Controlling her despair] Have pity on us. Remember how
Uncle Vanya and Granny used to copy and translate your books for you
every night--every, every night. Uncle Vanya has toiled without rest;
he would never spend a penny on us, we sent it all to you. We have not
eaten the bread of idleness. I am not saying this as I should like to,
but you must understand us, papa, you must be merciful to us.

HELENA. [Very excited, to her husband] For heaven's sake, Alexander, go
and have a talk with him--explain!

SEREBRAKOFF. Very well, I shall have a talk with him, but I won't
apologise for a thing. I am not angry with him, but you must confess
that his behaviour has been strange, to say the least. Excuse me, I
shall go to him.

[He goes out through the centre door.]

HELENA. Be gentle with him; try to quiet him. [She follows him out.]

SONIA. [Nestling nearer to MARINA] Nurse, oh, nurse!

MARINA. It's all right, my baby. When the geese have cackled they will
be still again. First they cackle and then they stop.

SONIA. Nurse!

MARINA. You are trembling all over, as if you were freezing. There,
there, little orphan baby, God is merciful. A little linden-tea, and it
will all pass away. Don't cry, my sweetest. [Looking angrily at the door
in the centre of the room] See, the geese have all gone now. The devil
take them!

A shot is heard. HELENA screams behind the scenes. SONIA shudders.

MARINA. Bang! What's that?

SEREBRAKOFF. [Comes in reeling with terror] Hold him! hold him! He has
gone mad!

HELENA and VOITSKI are seen struggling in the doorway.

HELENA. [Trying to wrest the revolver from him] Give it to me; give it
to me, I tell you!

VOITSKI. Let me go, Helena, let me go! [He frees himself and rushes in,
looking everywhere for SEREBRAKOFF] Where is he? Ah, there he is! [He
shoots at him. A pause] I didn't get him? I missed again? [Furiously]
Damnation! Damnation! To hell with him!

He flings the revolver on the floor, and drops helpless into a chair.
SEREBRAKOFF stands as if stupefied. HELENA leans against the wall,
almost fainting.

HELENA. Take me away! Take me away! I can't stay here--I can't!

VOITSKI. [In despair] Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?

SONIA. [Softly] Oh, nurse, nurse!

The curtain falls.






gradesaver
In the drawing room, Vanya and Sonya sit; Helen, deep in thought, walks up to them. Vanya complains to the ladies that Serebryakov wants to speak to them, no doubt about something pointless. He mocks Helen for her charming laziness, and Helen furrows her brow. She tells him to stop and says that she is excessively bored. Sonya suggests that there are plenty of things for her to do, such as working on the farm, or teaching, or nursing. Helen simply replies that she cannot to do that sort of thing. Sonya tells her that her boredom is infectious, and that she could certainly teach. Vanya sneers that Helen has mermaid's blood and ought to just fall into the river with a river-god. Helen is angry, even when Vanya apologizes and kisses her hand. She wonders how they will ever get through the winter. After Vanya leaves, Sonya confides in Helen that she is sad that she is not beautiful. Helen compliments her hair, but this does not comfort Sonya. She loves Astrov's voice, his hand, and the sound of him arriving at the house, but he doesn't seem to even notice her. Helen thoughtfully says she will talk to him on her behalf; Sonya is pleased but a bit agitated, and makes Helen promise to tell her exactly what he says. Helen does; the plan is for Sonya to tell Astrov that Helen wants to see his maps. After Sonya departs, Helen muses aloud that Astrov certainly does not love Sonya; however, even though she is not beautiful, she would make him a good wife because she is clever and unspoiled. Helen feels like she understands Sonya, and she certainly understands ghastly boredom and how Astrov's occasional appearance enlivens that boredom. He is different from the others and is like a "bright moon rising in the darkness" . Helen sighs that she wishes she could fly away like a bird from all of this, but she is too much of a coward to leave. Astrov enters with his maps, happily asking if she wants to see them. Astrov spreads them out; as he does so, he asks where she is from and where she was educated. He wonders if she could actually be interested in this; Helen responds that she might not know much about country life, but she has read a lot. Astrov begins to speak about the maps, a pleasure he allows himself only once a month. The first map, he begins, is the district fifty years ago. Half the area was wooded. The land featured small isolated hamlets and a great deal of birds and cattle and horses. Twenty-five years ago, though, some of the animals were gone, and only a third of the area was wooded. Old hamlets and farmsteads vanished, and the "general picture is one of a gradual and unmistakable decline" . Things have certainly worsened over the last years. Astrov pauses and says that if people had built roads and railways instead of simply destroying the forests, or had erected factories and schools, then the peasants would be better off and happier. However, this did not happen: the district is still mosquito-laden, poor, and prone to fires and disease. People find the struggle for existence difficult, he says: they are backward, ignorant, and have no idea what they're doing. A man's only instinct is to be warm and fed, and he does not think about the future. Astrov looks at Helen and coldly comments that she is bored. She replies that she understands little, but he denies this: she is just not interested. Helen asks if she can change the subject, so they sit down and asks bluntly about Sonya--does she attract him as a woman? He answers no. Helen sighs and says that Sonya is so unhappy, and that he ought to stop coming here. Astrov, annoyed, stands up. Helen feels that this is a disagreeable conversation and is wearied by it. She tells them that they ought to pretend like nothing was said. Astrov stares at her and asks why she brought it up. He shrugs but then regards her more carefully and comments that she is a little box of tricks. Helen is confused, and he laughs that she has it all figured out. He presses on and says she knows perfectly well why he comes here, that she's a little vampire, and that he is not new to this. Helen is still confused, and Astrov smiles that she is a beautiful little weasel. He bows his head and mockingly says that he surrenders. Helen is surprised, calls him crazy, and moves to leave, but he bars her way and takes her hand. He moves closer and passionately begs her to let him kiss her. He kisses her hand as she tries to pull away. He leans in, imploring her to tell him when they can meet, and he kisses her as Vanya walks in. Helen does not see Vanya, but she tells Astrov to leave her alone. He insists that she meet him at the forest reservation, but she still tries to extricate herself, especially once she notices Vanya. Vanya is carrying roses and puts them down. Astrov bitterly talks about the weather as he rolls up the maps. Helen runs up to Vanya and says he must do all he can to get her husband and her away from this house. Vanya is distracted but says "of course." Serebryakov, Sonya, Telegin, and Marina enter. Serebryakov complains about the house. As her father prepares to speak, Sonya goes up to Helen and asks what Astrov said. Helen only says she will tell her later, and Sonya trembles and asks if he said he wasn't going to come anymore. Helen nods. Serebryakov tells everyone to sit down and Vanya asks in an annoyed, agitated tone if he is needed. Serebryakov tells him that he obviously is, and he wonders why he is acting like this. He begins his speech a moment later, explaining that he needs everyone's advice. He is old now and has to think about putting his affairs in order. It is impossible for him to live in the country, and the estate's income will not support them in the city. It is his proposal that they sell the estate, which would allow for a smaller cottage near St. Petersburg. Vanya is stunned and asks what Serebryakov thinks he, Mrs. Voynitksy, and Sonya will do. Serebryakov replies that they will figure that out in time. Vanya shakes his head, saying that he thought all this time that this was Sonya's estate. Serebryakov replies that it is, and that he would do this in her best interest. This does not comfort Vanya, even though Mrs. Voynitsky suggests listening to the professor. Serebryakov doesn't understand why people are upset, and Vanya interrupts clueless Telegin's comments to explain angrily how he gave up part of his inheritance so that his sister could buy this land. Furthermore, it is free from debt because he, Vanya, has worked so hard on it for twenty-five years. All this time, Serebryakov has neither thanked him nor given him an extra ruble. Telegin and Mrs. Voynitsky try to calm Vanya down but he continues, saying how he used to revere the professor's writing and books but how he now despises them. He says they used to think of the professor as superior, but now he sees that he knows nothing of the art he writes about. Serebryakov is still confused and Helen tries to calm Vanya down. Serebryakov tells Vanya that, if he wants the estate, it is his. Telegin runs out in distress. Helen shouts that she can't stand this. Vanya moans that his life is ruined, and that he could have been a Schopenhauer or Dostoevsky but for Serebryakov; he feels like he is going mad. Sonya leans before Marina in anguish. Vanya calls out to his mother, then announces he knows what to do, and runs out. Serebryakov proclaims he does not know what is wrong with Vanya, and Helen insists they must leave today. Sonya turns to her father and begs him to understand that she and her uncle are so unhappy and worked so hard for him their whole lives. Helen tells her husband that she must sort this out. Grudgingly, Serebryakov leaves to talk to Vanya with Helen following. Marina comforts Sonya. Suddenly, a shot is heard; Helen's scream follows. Serebryakov staggers back in, shouting about Vanya's madness. Helen and Vanya struggle over a revolver. Vanya bests her and fires again at Serebryakov but misses. He tries again and misses. He curses and sinks into a chair. Helen leans against a wall, her chest heaving. She says she must leave. Vanya wonders desperately what he is doing, and Sonya cries for Nanny.
In a play where not much happens, this act features several encounters that would be immensely significant, were it not for Chekhov's droll tone and the lack of any consequence or change following said encounters. There is Helen's attempt to find out Astrov's feelings for Sonya, Astrov's attempt to seduce Helen, Serebryakov's announcement that he wants to sell the estate, and Vanya's breakdown and subsequent attempted murder of Serebryakov. All of the characters, critic Kael D. Kramer writes, "are determined to make a melodrama out of something that is ordinary human experience." They "try to maximize the minimum, creating the effect of anticlimax. The way they do this is by regularly resorting to self-dramatization or indulging in self-pity." John Weston agrees, lauding Chekhov's vision of evil " precisely in the midst of idle talk, everyday pettiness, and people with nothing to distinguish them: neither vice nor virtue." There are conflicts and problems in their lives, yes, but the main one is merely "one of good but ineffectual people with the harsh crudeness of real life, a clash of the dream and reality of an ordinary life." Thus, the Sonya-Helen-Astrov dynamic seems like it would be more momentous than it actually is. Sonya is in love with Astrov, but even when Helen reveals to her that he does not love her back, she quells her feelings of sadness and focuses on caring for her uncle. Helen admits that she finds Astrov interesting and attractive, but she will not actually cheat on her husband. And Astrov is sexually attracted to Helen, but he does not seem to have any real feelings for her; he is merely drunk and feeling a sense of lust rooted in the desire to destroy, to sublimate his fears and sorrows, and to rile and rouse the stultifying country life he is stuck in. In this seduction scene, he is the destroyer, not the creator, even though he decried such behavior earlier in the play. This act, perhaps like the play itself, belongs to Vanya. When Serebryakov announces to the family that he wishes to sell the estate so he and Helen can afford to live elsewhere, Vanya snaps. He reminds his brother-in-law that the estate is only in the family because of his deceased sister, and because of the efforts of Sonya and himself. Serebryakov's feint  that he does not understand why Vanya is so upset only adds fuel to the fire; he acts as if he were the aggrieved one and perceives Vanya only as a petulant child. The putative loss of the estate vexes Vanya because Serebryakov's behavior encapsulates everything that he hates about the man. Vanya explodes that he worked the estate for twenty-five years and Serebryakov " thanked me once" . He and the others talked only of Serebryakov and his works and "were proud of you and worshipped the very sound of your name" . Now, though, Vanya seethes that Serebryakov's writings are worthless and that he's made a fool of them. Before he rushes out to grab the revolver, he says, "You've ruined my life! I've not lived, I tell you. Thanks to you the best years of my life have been thrown down the drain. You are my worst enemy!" and "My life's ruined. I'm gifted, intelligent, courageous. If I'd had a normal life I might have been a Schopenhauer or a Dostoevsky" . What to make of Vanya's outburst? There is certainly truth to it. Serebryakov is not a great man, and Vanya did work hard for seemingly nothing. However, Vanya is excessively self-pitying. As Kramer explains, Vanya often " himself in the role of victim" and "casts Serebryakov as the villain of his drama." Serebryakov doesn't deserve this much ire; he is simply too inane. Earlier, Sonya told her uncle that his complaining is boring, although she comforts him in his despair at the end of the play. Sadly, the "heart of Vanya's senseless mistake... he is asking for validation from one whose credentials belie all credibility."
sparknotes
Set in the daytime, Act III opens in the drawing room with Voynitsky and Sonya seated as Yelena paces in thought. The professor has called a meeting at one o'clock. After grumbling about Serebryakov, Voynitsky attacks Yelena, describing her as ready to "drop from sheer laziness". Yelena replies that she is dying of boredom and is without an idea of what to do. Sonya produces a number of possibilities: help with the estate, teaching, nursing, and so on. Yelena cannot imagine being interested; only people in ideological novels undertake such work. For Sonya, Yelena's idleness is "infectious"--her effect on Vanya, herself, and the doctor, all of whom having deserted their work to follow her, make this clear. Yelena is certainly a witch. Voynitsky adds that she must have the blood of a mermaid and should flee the estate by diving into a whirlpool with some water sprite. Yelena is enraged: Voynitsky offers to pick her a bouquet of roses in apology and exits. Sadly Sonya then puts her head on Yelena's breast and once again begins pining for the doctor. Having loved him for six years, she has lost all pride and confessed her love to everyone except Astrov. Remarking that he is a strange person, Yelena resolves to find out what he thinks of Sonya, using his cartograms as a pretext. Sonya pauses for a moment, wondering if uncertainty is better and exits to fetch him. Yelena then delivers a soliloquy, ruminating on how Sonya cannot help falling for such a "fascinating" man amidst such boredom and admits her own fascination for the doctor. Recalling Vanya's quip about the mermaid, she wonders if she should flee with him--her conscience, however, prevents it. Indeed, she already feels guilty, ready to prostrate herself before Sonya and weep. Astrov then enters with a cartogram and proceeds to explain the progressive degeneration of the region. Forests, settlements, and wildlife have disappeared in the "downhill struggle for existence"; instead of progress, the same swamps, diseases, and disasters remain. It is clear to Astrov that Yelena is uninterested. He breaks off, and she cross-examines him with regards to Sonya. Astrov does not love her. He is, however, convinced that the subtext of Yelena's cross-examination is her own desire and that she is finally responding to his longtime advances. Much to Yelena's dismay, he embraces her passionately and insists upon arranging a rendezvous. Yelena resists, and suddenly Voynitsky enters unseen. For a moment, Yelena will then relent, laying her head on Astrov's chest. Just as the doctor proposes a rendezvous, however, she sees Voynitsky and disengages herself from his arms. Astrov chats about the weather, noting that the days are getting shorter, and he exits. Nervously, Yelena insists that Voynitsky prevail upon her husband for an immediate departure from the estate; a shaken Voynitsky replies that he has seen everything.
As noted earlier, among all the erotic criss-crossings in the play, Astrov and Yelena's intrigue structurally resembles an affair from conventional melodrama, in which the impassioned lover comes to rescue the beautiful heroine from her unhappy marriage. Indeed, in The Wood Demon,Uncle Vanya's precursor, their intrigue takes on this form. Certainly here we have elements that might suggest that Yelena's escape from Serebryakov and something like a "happy ending" could be imminent. Notably, the prospect of this escape is cast in "fairy tale" terms: like a mermaid, Yelena may disappear into a whirlpool with her water sprite. Moreover, Yelena's soliloquy reveals the extent of her fascination with the doctor. In musing over Astrov, she already feels guilty, finding herself ready to implore Sonya for forgiveness. One wonders then if at some level she has already accepted the doctor as a paramour. At the same time, Astrov's seduction is strangely "off"--awkward, bungled, and more farcical than romantic. One cannot but laugh, for example, at such pet names as "dear bird of prey" and "beautiful, fluffy weasel". Astrov's boorishness aside, we will also examine the strangeness of this seduction by looking at two of Chekhov's primary dramaturgical devices: indirect action and subtext. Allowing an indefinite period of time to pass between Acts II and III , Chekhov opens a gap between what happened since we left off and what transpires at the moment on stage. Thus one experiences an almost ridiculous abruptness in Astrov's attempt. This is even more the case as Astrov seems to take great interpretative liberties in identifying Yelena's desire as the subtext of their conversation: his accusation that she wants him seems wishful at best. At the same time, his proposition is not quite absurd. Framed in realist fashion, the events here would seem to take what was admitted in the act previous to its logical conclusion--namely, the fascination Yelena and Astrov share for each other that should culminate in an erotic encounter. Moreover, we are told that the doctor has been visiting the estate daily for some time now. Indirect action and Astrov's unconvincing sense of subtext make this encounter jarring even as it is entirely reasonable in the narrative. Thus Chekhov undermines the seduction one might find in conventional melodrama. No dashing doctor rescues a beautiful wife from her decrepit husband here. The seduction will end quite anti-climatically, the lovers never getting to a first rendezvous. Indeed, the theme of the "might-have-been" prevails: Yelena refuses the doctor once caught, this break prefiguring their almost elegiac farewell in Act IV. As Astrov tells Yelena in the last scene: "It is strange somehow, we never got to know each other, and all at once for some reason--we shall never meet again. So it is with everything in the world." Theirs will be a "love" at last sight, never realized and nostalgically rooted in what might have been. These scenes are also notable in defining Yelena's character. First, they reveal her in all her idleness: she cannot even begin to be interested in the tasks Sonya offers her, tasks that might rescue her from her boredom. Nor can she feign interest in Astrov's cartogram. As Sonya notes, this idleness is "infectious," bewitching, inspiring the household's general malaise. Once again, as indicated throughout the play, Yelena's arrival, along with that of her husband, has thrown the life of the estate out of joint, plunging it into indolence. One might speculate then on how her wasted life perhaps reminds those around her of their own situations, making work impossible. Recall that in Act I, for example, when Voynitsky declares that before Yelena he cannot bear the thought of another wasting her life on the estate as he has.