Uncle Vanya Act III

There are new discoveries in this chapter that stir up more excitement and questions in this act, the audience learn of Sonya's love for Astrov. Elena is told this by Sonya and she reveals her lack of self-confidence and weakness for Astrov who is not at all interested in her. Elena is placed in the difficult position of questioning him about the matter and also reporting back to Sonya the man's feelings. This shows a very strong friendship and how deeply one cares for the other since they are willing to do awkward, uncomfortable things for the other. The disappointment that Sonya feels is very real because the fact of one sided affection is a very common fact of life and happens very often. These aspects of the play are the ones that make it easily for a broad audience to relate to since any of the characters could be a regular person dealing with the same issues. "I'm not beautiful" in this quote Sonya is addressing an issue that many young women face and have faced every single day, their vanity. And, like many, she is unhappy with herself especially because she feels under appreciated for her looks and envies people like Elena, it is sad how this fact of her plainness distresses her.

Astrov's acknowledgement of nature's degrading state shows that Chekhov intended to send a very real and relevant message by adding facts like the abuse of nature by man. To me this shows that he is really trying to accurately recreate life in a certain place with very real people and issues. "Already only one third of the area is woodland. There are no longer any goats..." I can't believe that a hundred years ago an author was already addressing issues that we are seeing in huge proportions today, this means that man's over expansion has been effecting our world long before anyone really took a stand against the terrible effects. I think plays like Chekhov's even though he doesn't focus on the matter could have been a start. The way Chekhov weaves in the environmental problem shows that people from the beginning were very indifferent or too ignorant to understand or care, this clearly portrays problems that we still face today with relation to ignorance and indifference and he is showing how dangerous and damaging this position can be. Astrov, though passionate gets quickly brushed off when he begins discussing the environment and today we still face many of the same reactions.

One quote that I found very interesting was, "Dr. Mikhail Lvovich rarely came to visit us before, once a month perhaps, and then it was hard to persuade him, but now he drives over every day; he's deserted both his forests and his medicine. You must be a witch." Sonya is talking to Elena and I think this quote shows the clearest difference in between the two women, one gets all of the men and good fortune while the other is not particularly attractive and is unmarried. Like the fact the Sonya is madly in love with Astrov and he confesses a terrible infatuation for Elena puts her in a difficult position with her friend but must be also very frustrating because these things happen unconsciously but still she sometimes has to suffer the consequences. Also, I wonder why it was the Elena and Sonya had been fighting before, another very usual thing and very probable even in the best relationship. Serebryakov's selfish nature brings out the good and bad in people and only the best stand by him, there are many older people out there just like him who are huge ungrateful burdens and so we understand Sonya's and Elena's frustration because they don't have a choice, they are bound to him. At the end of this act Voinitsky tries to kill Serebryakov, I think that his actions show exactly how much of a burden the man has been and how much Voinitsky is suffering because he was driven to such desperation. When humans are panicking or greatly dissatisfied or have nothing to lose they may resort to very irresponsible and dangerous actions just like Voinitsky to fight their last fight before giving up on themselves. Voinitsky is the clearest example of blind suffering by trying to kill another man.