Characters in the Play

• Irina Nikolayevna Arkadin (Madame Treplev) (an actress)

• Konstantin Gavrilovitch Treplev (her son, a young man)

• Pyotr Nikolayevitch Sorin (her brother)

• Nina Mihailovna Zaretchny (a young girl, the daughter of a wealthy landowner)

• Ilya Afanasyevitch Shamraev (a retired lieutenant, Sorin’s steward)

• Polina Andreyevna (his wife)

• Masha (his daughter)

• Boris Alexeyevitch Trigorin (a literary man)

• Yevgeny Sergeyevitch Dorn (a doctor)

• Semyon Semyonovitch Medvedenko (a schoolmaster)

• Yakov (a labourer)

• A Man Cook

• A Housemaid

The action takes place in Sorin’s house and garden. Between the Third and the Fourth Acts there is an interval of two years.