THE THREE SISTERS by ANTON CHEKHOV
My Character
Masha, the middle sister, 23 years old. She is married to her husband, Kulygin, when she was 18 and just out of school. She once thought her husband clever but she has been disillusioned by his 'small-town mentality'. Masha falls completely in love with the idealistic Lieutenant-Colonel Vershinin at first sight when he starts going on about how life in the future will be beautiful. Vershinin clearly has a broader and more hopeful view of the world around him, and this is pretty refreshing for a lady as brilliant and as bored as Masha.
Masha did not try no hide her love towards Vershinin at all, they begin a clandestine love affair. There's a fire, and in the middle of the chaos, Masha confesses her affair with Vershinin to her sisters. When Vershinin has transferred away, she is very heartbroken but returns to life with her husband who accepts her back despite knowing what she has done.
Masha has a short temper, which is seen frequently throughout the play especially being really mean to Vershinin when he has to leave to attend to his crazy, suicidal wife. Masha is also the sister who disapproves the most of Natasha.
The setting of the play
Setting of this play is given as "a provincial city". The Three Sisters takes place in a province because the emotion that occurs on stage is centered around what the main characters think of where they live. Olga, Masha, Irina and Andrey all feel that their lives would be much better if they were living in Moscow.
More specifically, all of the action takes place at the Prozorov's house. The Prozorov family can be seen as a rich family as their wealth and refinement are evident in the decor, the piano, the presence of servants and the ability to host a big birthday party. It may be a boring town, but at least they're living the cushy life.
A couple years have passed (Act 3), and the sisters have retreated to the attic at the demand of Natasha. There's a more claustrophobic feeling in that smaller room.
By Act IV, Natasha has succeeded in almost entirely evicting the Prozorovs from the house. Even her husband Andrey pushes the baby carriage around in the garden while her lover Protopopov sits inside. The sisters are bidding farewell to the departing soldiers, and Masha now totally dissociates herself from her home. "I'm never setting foot in that house again," she says.
Themes of the play
Relationships - This play is all about relationships between the characters, Masha regretted it for being married to Kulygin in the first place when she was only 18. She meets Vershinin and totally falls for him after listening to how he says about knowledge. Besides, Vershinin has married to a woman and had two kids, but he talked about how not comfortable it is when he's being together with his wife during the play. And for Kulygin, he confesses to Olga that he would want to marry her if he wasn't Masha's husband. Here's another example, Andrey and Natasha. Throughout the play, Andrey shows more of his soft and cowardly side by how he did not fight back with Natasha even when she treated his sisters badly.
Conflicts - Whenever there's relationship in a play, there will be more conflicts around, not only for the moments when actors show it directly to us during the play, most of it was what we think about it. When Kulygin says "Masha loves me, my wife loves me". It may be a very normal sentence for a husband to say, but for me, it sounds like Kulygin was trying to make Masha feels better or beloved as he knows that their relationship is falling apart. Conflict can sometimes be seen as subtle, something that was made up in audience's mind. It depends how much the actor wanted to show. In the play, all character seems to have their little story behind, it makes more conflicts between each character when they are together. Especially when the main characters are a family.
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