Act III
The drawing-room in Serebryakov’s house. Three doors: on the right, on the left and in the middle. Daytime.
| Voynitsky and Sonya seated, and Yelena Andreyevna walking about the stage, thinking. | |
| Voynitsky | The Herr Professor has graciously expressed a desire that we should all gather together in this room at one o’clock today looks at his watch. It is a quarter to. He wishes to make some communication to the world. |
| Yelena | Probably some business matter. |
| Voynitsky | He has no business. He spends his time writing twaddle, grumbling and being jealous. |
| Sonya | In a reproachful tone. Uncle! |
| Voynitsky | Well, well, I am sorry motioning towards Yelena Andreyevna. Just look at her! she is so lazy that she almost staggers as she walks. Very charming! Very! |
| Yelena | You keep buzzing and buzzing away all day—aren’t you tired of it? Miserably. I am bored to death. I don’t know what I’m to do. |
| Sonya | Shrugging her shoulders. Isn’t there plenty to do? If only you cared to do it. |
| Yelena | For instance? |
| Sonya | You could help us with the estate, teach the children or look after the sick. There’s plenty to do. When father and you were not here, Uncle Vanya and I used to go to the market ourselves and sell the flour. |
| Yelena | I don’t know how to do such things. And they are not interesting. It’s only in novels with a purpose that people teach and doctor the peasants. How am I, all of a sudden, apropos of nothing, to go and teach them or doctor them? |
| Sonya | Well, I don’t see how one can help doing it. Wait a little, and you too will get into the way of it puts her arm round her. Don’t be depressed, dear laughs. You are bored and don’t know what to do with yourself, and boredom and idleness are catching. Look at Uncle Vanya—he does nothing but follow you about like a shadow. I have left my work and run away to talk to you. I have grown lazy—I can’t help it! The doctor, Mihail Lvovitch, used to come and see us very rarely, once a month; it was difficult to persuade him to come, and now he drives over every day. He neglects his forestry and his patients. You must be a witch. |
| Voynitsky | Why be miserable? Eagerly. Come, my precious, my splendid one, be sensible! You have mermaid blood in your veins—be a mermaid! Let yourself go for once in your life! Make haste and fall head over ears in love with some water-sprite—and plunge headlong into the abyss so that the Herr Professor and all of us may throw up our hands in amazement! |
| Yelena | Angrily. Leave me in peace! How cruel it is! Is about to go out. |
| Voynitsky | Prevents her. Come, come, my dearest, forgive me. … I apologise kisses her hand. Peace! |
| Yelena | You would drive an angel out of patience, you know. |
| Voynitsky | As a sign of peace and harmony I’ll fetch you a bunch of roses; I gathered them for you this morning. Autumn roses—exquisite, mournful roses … goes out. |
| Sonya | Autumn roses—exquisite, mournful roses. … Both look out of window. |
| Yelena | It’s September already. However are we to get through the winter here? A pause. Where is the doctor? |
| Sonya | In Uncle Vanya’s room. He is writing something. I am glad Uncle Vanya is gone. I want to talk to you. |
| Yelena | What about? |
| Sonya | What about! Lays her head on Yelena’s bosom. |
| Yelena | Come, there, there … strokes her head. |
| Sonya | I am not good-looking. |
| Yelena | You have beautiful hair. |
| Sonya | No! Looks round so as to see herself in the looking-glass. No! When a woman is plain, she is always told “You have beautiful eyes, you have beautiful hair.” … I have loved him for six years. I love him more than my own mother. Every moment I am conscious of him. I feel the touch of his hand and I watch the door. I wait, expecting him every moment to come in. And here you see I keep coming to you simply to talk of him. Now he is here every day, but he doesn’t look at me—doesn’t see me. … That’s such agony! I have no hope at all—none, none! In despair. Oh, my God, give me strength. … I have been praying all night. … I often go up to him, begin talking to him, look into his eyes. I have no pride left, no strength to control myself. I couldn’t keep it in and told Uncle Vanya yesterday that I love him. … And all the servants know I love him. Everybody knows it. |
| Yelena | And he? |
| Sonya | No. He doesn’t notice me. |
| Yelena | Musing. He is a strange man. … Do you know what? Let me speak to him. … I’ll do it carefully—hint at it … a pause. Yes really—how much longer are you to remain in uncertainty? Let me! |
| Sonya nods her head in consent. | |
| Yelena | That’s right. It won’t be difficult to find out whether he loves you or not. Don’t you be troubled, darling; don’t be uneasy. I’ll question him so tactfully that he won’t notice it. All we want to find out is yes or no a pause. If it’s no, he had better not come here, had he? |
| Sonya nods in agreement. | |
| Yelena | It’s easier to bear when one doesn’t see the man. We won’t put things off; we will question him straight away. He was meaning to show me some charts. Go and tell him that I want to see him. |
| Sonya | In violent agitation. You will tell me the whole truth? |
| Yelena | Yes, of course. It seems to me that the truth, however dreadful it is, is not so dreadful as uncertainty. Rely on me, dear. |
| Sonya | Yes, yes … I shall tell him you want to see his charts is going, and stops in the doorway. No, uncertainty is better. … One has hope, at least. … |
| Yelena | What do you say? |
| Sonya | Nothing goes out. |
| Yelena | Alone. Nothing is worse than knowing somebody else’s secret and not being able to help. Musing. He is not in love with her—that’s evident; but why should he not marry her? She is not good-looking, but she would be a capital wife for a country doctor at his age. She is so sensible, so kind and pure-hearted. … No, that’s not it … a pause. I understand the poor child. In the midst of desperate boredom, with nothing but grey shadows wandering about instead of human beings, with only dull commonplaces to listen to, among people who can do nothing but eat, drink and sleep—he sometimes appears on the scene unlike the rest, handsome, interesting, fascinating, like a bright moon rising in the darkness. … To yield to the charm of such a man … forget oneself … I believe I am a little fascinated myself. Yes, I feel bored when he does not come, and even now I am smiling when I think of him. … That Uncle Vanya says I have mermaid’s blood in my veins. “Let yourself go for once in your life.” Well, perhaps that’s what I ought to do. … If I could fly, free as a bird, away from all of you—from your sleepy faces, from your talk, forget your existence. … But I am cowardly and diffident. … My conscience troubles me. … He comes here every day. I guess why he comes, and already I have a guilty feeling. I am ready to throw myself on my knees before Sonya, to beg her pardon, to cry. … |
| Astrov | Comes in with a chart. Good day! Shakes hands. You wanted to see my handiwork. |
| Yelena | You promised yesterday to show me. … Can you spare the time? |
| Astrov | Oh, of course! Spreads the map on a card table and fixes it with drawing pins. Where were you born? |
| Yelena | Helping him. In Petersburg. |
| Astrov | And where did you study? |
| Yelena | At the School of Music. |
| Astrov | I expect this won’t be interesting to you. |
| Yelena | Why not? It’s true that I don’t know the country, but I have read a great deal. |
| Astrov | I have my own table here, in this house … in Ivan Petrovitch’s room. When I am so exhausted that I feel completely stupefied, I throw everything up and fly here and amuse myself with this for an hour or two. … Ivan Petrovitch and Sofya Alexandrovna click their counting beads, and I sit beside them at my table and daub away—and I feel snug and comfortable, and the cricket churrs. But I don’t allow myself that indulgence too often—only once a month. … Pointing to the map. Now, look here! It’s a picture of our district as it was fifty years ago. The dark and light green stands for forest; half of the whole area was covered with forest. Where there is a network of red over the green, elks and wild goats were common. … I show both the flora and the fauna here. On this lake there were swans, geese and ducks, and the old people tell us there were “a power” of birds of all sorts, no end of them; they flew in clouds. Besides the villages and hamlets, you see scattered here and there all sorts of settlements—little farms, monasteries of Old Believers, water-mills. … Horned cattle and horses were numerous. That is shown by the blue colour. For instance, the blue colour lies thick on this neighbourhood. Here there were regular droves of horses, and every homestead had three on an average a pause. Now look lower down. That’s how it was twenty-five years ago. Already, you see, only a third of the area is under forest. There are no goats left, but there are elks. Both the green and the blue are paler. And so it goes on and on. Let us pass to the third part—a map of the district as it is at present. There is green here and there, but only in patches; all the elks have vanished, and the swans and the capercailzies too. … Of the old settlements and farms and monasteries and mills there is not a trace. In fact, it’s a picture of gradual and unmistakable degeneration which will, apparently, in another ten or fifteen years be complete. You will say that it is the influence of civilisation—that the old life must naturally give way to the new. Yes, I understand that. If there were highroads and railways on the site of these ruined forests, if there were works and factories and schools, the peasants would be healthier, better off, more intelligent; but, you see, there is nothing of the sort! There are still the same swamps and mosquitoes, the same lack of roads, and poverty, and typhus and diphtheria and fires in the district. … We have here a degeneration that is the result of too severe a struggle for existence. This degeneration is due to inertia, ignorance, to the complete lack of understanding, when a man, cold, hungry and sick, simply to save what is left of life, to keep his children alive, instinctively, unconsciously clutches at anything to satisfy his hunger and warm himself and destroys everything heedless of the morrow. … Almost everything has been destroyed already, but nothing as yet has been created to take its place. Coldly. I see from your face that it doesn’t interest you. |
| Yelena | But I understand so little about all that. |
| Astrov | There’s nothing to understand in it; it simply doesn’t interest you. |
| Yelena | To speak frankly, I am thinking of something else. Forgive me. I want to put you through a little examination, and I am troubled and don’t know how to begin. |
| Astrov | An examination? |
| Yelena | Yes, an examination … but not a very formidable one. Let us sit down. They sit down. It concerns a certain young lady. We will talk like honest people, like friends, without beating about the bush. Let us talk and forget all about it afterwards. Yes? |
| Astrov | Yes. |
| Yelena | It concerns my stepdaughter Sonya. You like her, don’t you? |
| Astrov | Yes, I have a respect for her. |
| Yelena | Does she attract you as a woman? |
| Astrov | After a pause. No. |
| Yelena | A few words more, and I have done. Have you noticed nothing? |
| Astrov | Nothing. |
| Yelena | Taking him by the hand. You do not love her … I see it from your eyes. … She is unhappy. … Understand that and … give up coming here. |
| Astrov | Gets up. My day is over. Besides, I have too much to do shrugging his shoulders. What time have I for such things? He is confused. |
| Yelena | Ough! What an unpleasant conversation! I am trembling as though I’d been carrying a ton weight. Well, thank God, that’s over! Let us forget it. Let it be as though we had not spoken at all, and … and go away. You are an intelligent man … you’ll understand a pause. I feel hot all over. |
| Astrov | If you had spoken a month or two ago I might, perhaps, have considered it; but now … he shrugs his shoulders. And if she is unhappy, then of course … There’s only one thing I can’t understand: what induced you to go into it? Looks into her eyes and shakes his finger at her. You are a sly one! |
| Yelena | What does that mean? |
| Astrov | Laughs. Sly! Suppose Sonya is unhappy—I am quite ready to admit it—but why need you go into it? Preventing her from speaking, eagerly. Please don’t try to look astonished. You know perfectly well what brings me here every day. … Why, and on whose account, I am here, you know perfectly well. You charming bird of prey, don’t look at me like that, I am an old sparrow. … |
| Yelena | Perplexed. Bird of prey! I don’t understand. |
| Astrov | A beautiful, fluffy weasel. … You must have a victim! Here I have been doing nothing for a whole month. I have dropped everything. I seek you greedily—and you are awfully pleased at it, awfully. … Well, I am conquered; you knew that before your examination folding his arms and bowing his head. I submit. Come and devour me! |
| Yelena | You are mad! |
| Astrov | Laughs through his teeth. You—diffident. … |
| Yelena | Oh, I am not so bad and so mean as you think! I swear I’m not! Tries to go out. |
| Astrov | Barring the way. I am going away today. I won’t come here again, but … takes her hand and looks round where shall we see each other? Tell me quickly, where? Someone may come in; tell me quickly. … Passionately. How wonderful, how magnificent you are! One kiss. … If I could only kiss your fragrant hair. … |
| Yelena | I assure you … |
| Astrov | Preventing her from speaking. Why assure me? There’s no need. No need of unnecessary words. … Oh, how beautiful you are! What hands! Kisses her hands. |
| Yelena | That’s enough … go away … withdraws her hands. You are forgetting yourself. |
| Astrov | Speak, speak! Where shall we meet tomorrow? Puts his arm round her waist. You see, it is inevitable; we must meet kisses her; at that instant Voynitsky comes in with a bunch of roses and stands still in the doorway. |
| Yelena | Not seeing Voynitsky. Spare me … let me go lays her head on Astrov’s chest. No! Tries to go out. |
| Astrov | Holding her by the waist. Come to the plantation tomorrow..at two o’clock. … Yes? Yes? You’ll come? |
| Yelena | Seeing Voynitsky. Let me go! In extreme confusion goes to the window. This is awful! |
| Voynitsky | Lays the roses on a chair; in confusion wipes his face and his neck with his handkerchief. Never mind … no … never mind. |
| Astrov | Carrying it off with bravado. The weather is not so bad today, honoured Ivan Petrovitch. It was overcast in the morning, as though we were going to have rain, but now it is sunny. To tell the truth, the autumn has turned out lovely … and the winter corn is quite promising rolls up the map. The only thing is the days are getting shorter … goes out. |
| Yelena | Goes quickly up to Voynitsky. You will try—you will do your utmost that my husband and I should leave here today! Do you hear? This very day! |
| Voynitsky | Mopping his face. What? Oh, yes … very well … I saw it all, Hélène—all. … |
| Yelena | Nervously. Do you hear? I must get away from here today! |
| Enter Serebryakov, Telyegin and Marina. | |
| Telyegin | I don’t feel quite the thing myself, your Excellency. I have been poorly for the last two days. My head is rather queer. … |
| Serebryakov | Where are the others? I don’t like this house. It’s a perfect labyrinth. Twenty-six huge rooms, people wander in different directions, and there is no finding anyone rings. Ask Marya Vassilyevna and Yelena Andreyevna to come here. |
| Yelena | I am here. |
| Serebryakov | I beg you to sit down, friends. |
| Sonya | Going up to Yelena Andreyevna, impatiently. What did he say? |
| Yelena | Presently. |
| Sonya | You are trembling! You are agitated! Looking searchingly into her face. I understand. … He said that he won’t come here again … yes? A pause. Tell me: yes? |
| Yelena Andreyevna nods. | |
| Serebryakov | To Telyegin. One can put up with illness, after all; but what I can’t endure is the whole manner of life in the country. I feel as though I had been cast off the earth into some other planet. Sit down, friends, I beg! Sonya! Sonya does not hear him; she stands with her head drooping sorrowfully. Sonya! A pause. She does not hear. To Marina. You sit down too, nurse. Nurse sits down, knitting a stocking. I beg you, my friends, hang your ears on the nail of attention, as the saying is laughs. |
| Voynitsky | Agitated. Perhaps I am not wanted? Can I go? |
| Serebryakov | No; it is you whom we need most. |
| Voynitsky | What do you require of me? |
| Serebryakov | Require of you. … Why are you cross? A pause. If I have been to blame in any way, pray excuse me. |
| Voynitsky | Drop that tone. Let us come to business. What do you want? |
| Enter Marya Vassilyevna. | |
| Serebryakov | Here is maman. I will begin, friends a pause. I have invited you, gentlemen, to announce that the Inspector-General is coming. But let us lay aside jesting. It is a serious matter. I have called you together to ask for your advice and help, and, knowing your invariable kindness, I hope to receive it. I am a studious, bookish man, and have never had anything to do with practical life. I cannot dispense with the assistance of those who understand it, and I beg you, Ivan Petrovitch, and you, Ilya Ilyitch, and you, maman. … The point is that manet omnes una nox—that is, that we are all mortal. I am old and ill, and so I think it is high time to settle my worldly affairs so far as they concern my family. My life is over. I am not thinking of myself, but I have a young wife and an unmarried daughter a pause. It is impossible for me to go on living in the country. We are not made for country life. But to live in town on the income we derive from this estate is impossible. If we sell the forest, for instance, that’s an exceptional measure which we cannot repeat every year. We must take some steps which would guarantee us a permanent and more or less definite income. I have thought of such a measure, and have the honour of submitting it to your consideration. Omitting details I will put it before you in rough outline. Our estate yields on an average not more than two percent on its capital value. I propose to sell it. If we invest the money in suitable securities, we should get from four to five percent, and I think we might even have a few thousand roubles to spare for buying a small villa in Finland. |
| Voynitsky | Excuse me … surely my ears are deceiving me! Repeat what you have said. |
| Serebryakov | To put the money in some suitable investment and with the remainder purchase a villa in Finland. |
| Voynitsky | Not Finland. … You said something else. |
| Serebryakov | I propose to sell the estate. |
| Voynitsky | That’s it. You will sell the estate; superb, a grand idea. … And what do you propose to do with me, and your old mother and Sonya here? |
| Serebryakov | We will settle all that in due time. One can’t go into everything at once. |
| Voynitsky | Wait a minute. It’s evident that up to now I’ve never had a grain of common sense. Up to now I have always imagined that the estate belongs to Sonya. My father bought this estate as a dowry for my sister. Till now I have been simple; I did not interpret the law like a Turk, but thought that my sister’s estate passed to Sonya. |
| Serebryakov | Yes, the estate belongs to Sonya. Who disputes it? Without Sonya’s consent I shall not venture to sell it. Besides, I am proposing to do it for Sonya’s benefit. |
| Voynitsky | It’s inconceivable, inconceivable! Either I have gone out of my mind, or … or … |
| Marya | Jean, don’t contradict Alexandr. Believe me, he knows better than we do what is for the best. |
| Voynitsky | No; give me some water drinks water. Say what you like—say what you like! |
| Serebryakov | I don’t understand why you are so upset. I don’t say that my plan is ideal. If everyone thinks it unsuitable, I will not insist on it. |
| A pause. | |
| Telyegin | In confusion. I cherish for learning, your Excellency, not simply a feeling of reverence, but a sort of family feeling. My brother Grigory Ilyitch’s wife’s brother—perhaps you know him?—Konstantin Trofimitch Lakedemonov, was an M.A. … |
| Voynitsky | Stop, Waffles; we are talking of business. … Wait a little—later. … To Serebryakov. Here, ask him. The estate was bought from his uncle. |
| Serebryakov | Oh! why should I ask him? What for? |
| Voynitsky | The estate was bought at the time for ninety-five thousand roubles. My father paid only seventy thousand, and twenty-five thousand remained on mortgage. Now, listen. … The estate would never have been bought if I had not renounced my share of the inheritance in favour of my sister, whom I loved dearly. What’s more, I worked for ten years like a slave and paid off all the mortgage. … |
| Serebryakov | I regret that I broached the subject. |
| Voynitsky | The estate is free from debt and in a good condition only owing to my personal efforts. And now that I am old I am to be kicked out of it! |
| Serebryakov | I don’t understand what you are aiming at. |
| Voynitsky | I have been managing this estate for twenty-five years. I have worked and sent you money like the most conscientious steward, and you have never thanked me once in all these years. All that time—both when I was young and now—you have given me five hundred roubles a year as salary—a beggarly wage!—and it never occurred to you to add a rouble to it. |
| Serebryakov | Ivan Petrovitch, how could I tell? I am not a practical man, and don’t understand these things. You could have added as much to it as you chose. |
| Voynitsky | Why didn’t I steal? How is it you don’t all despise me because I didn’t steal? It would have been right and I shouldn’t have been a pauper now! |
| Marya | Sternly. Jean! |
| Telyegin | In agitation. Vanya, my dear soul, don’t, don’t … I am all of a tremble. … Why spoil our good relations? Kisses him. You mustn’t. |
| Voynitsky | For twenty-five years I have been here within these four walls with mother, buried like a mole. … All our thoughts and feelings belonged to you alone. By day we talked of you and your labours. We were proud of you; with reverence we uttered your name. We wasted our nights reading books and magazines for which now I have the deepest contempt! |
| Telyegin | Don’t, Vanya, don’t … I can’t stand it. … |
| Serebryakov | Wrathfully. I don’t know what it is you want. |
| Voynitsky | To us you were a being of a higher order, and we knew your articles by heart. … But now my eyes are opened! I see it all! You write of art, but you know nothing about art! All those works of yours I used to love are not worth a brass farthing! You have deceived us! |
| Serebryakov | Do stop him! I am going! |
| Yelena | Ivan Petrovitch, I insist on your being silent! Do you hear? |
| Voynitsky | I won’t be silent. Preventing Serebryakov from passing. Stay! I have not finished. You have destroyed my life! I have not lived! I have not lived! Thanks to you, I have ruined and wasted the best years of my life. You are my bitterest enemy. |
| Telyegin | I can’t bear it … I can’t bear it … I must go goes out, in violent agitation. |
| Serebryakov | What do you want from me? And what right have you to speak to me like this? You nonentity! If the estate is yours, take it. I don’t want it! |
| Yelena | I am going away from this hell this very minute screams. I can’t put up with it any longer! |
| Voynitsky | My life is ruined! I had talent, I had courage, I had intelligence! If I had had a normal life I might have been a Schopenhauer, a Dostoevsky. … Oh, I am talking like an idiot! I am going mad. … Mother, I am in despair! Mother! |
| Marya | Sternly. Do as Alexandr tells you. |
| Sonya | Kneeling down before the nurse and huddling up to her. Nurse, darling! Nurse, darling! |
| Voynitsky | Mother! What am I to do? Don’t speak; there’s no need! I know what I must do! To Serebryakov. You shall remember me! Goes out through middle door. |
| Marya Vassilyevna follows him. | |
| Serebryakov | This is beyond everything! Take that madman away! I cannot live under the same roof with him. He is always there points to the middle door—almost beside me. … Let him move into the village, or into the lodge, or I will move; but remain in the same house with him I cannot. … |
| Yelena | To her husband. We will leave this place today! We must pack up this minute! |
| Serebryakov | An utterly insignificant creature! |
| Sonya | On her knees, turns her head towards her father; hysterical through her tears. You must be merciful, father! Uncle Vanya and I are so unhappy! Mastering her despair. You must be merciful! Remember how, when you were younger, Uncle Vanya and grandmamma sat up all night translating books for you, copying your manuscripts … all night … all night … Uncle Vanya and I worked without resting—we were afraid to spend a farthing on ourselves and sent it all to you. … We did not eat the bread of idleness. I am saying it all wrong—all wrong; but you ought to understand us, father. You must be merciful! |
| Yelena | In agitation, to her husband. Alexandr, for God’s sake make it up with him. … I beseech you! |
| Serebryakov | Very well, I will talk to him. … I am not accusing him of anything, I am not angry with him. But you must admit that his behaviour is strange, to say the least of it. Very well, I’ll go to him goes out by middle door. |
| Yelena | Be gentle with him, soothe him … follows him out. |
| Sonya | Hugging Nurse. Oh, Nurse, darling! Nurse, darling! |
| Marina | Never mind, child. The ganders will cackle a bit and leave off. … They will cackle and leave off. … |
| Sonya | Nurse, darling! |
| Marina | Stroking her head. You are shivering as though you were frozen! There, there, little orphan, God is merciful! A cup of lime-flower water, or raspberry tea, and it will pass. … Don’t grieve, little orphan. Looking towards the middle door wrathfully. What a to-do they make, the ganders! Plague take them! |
| A shot behind the scenes; a shriek from Yelena Andreyevna is heard; Sonya shudders. | |
| Marina | Ough! Botheration take them! |
| Serebryakov | Runs in, staggering with terror. Hold him! hold him! He is out of his mind! |
| Yelena Andreyevna and Voynitsky struggle in the doorway. | |
| Yelena | Trying to take the revolver from him. Give it up! Give it up, I tell you! |
| Voynitsky | Let me go, Hélène! Let me go! Freeing himself from her, he runs in, looking for Serebryakov. Where is he? Oh, here he is! Fires at him. Bang! A pause. Missed! Missed again! Furiously. Damnation—damnation take it … flings revolver on the floor and sinks on to a chair, exhausted. Serebryakov is overwhelmed; Yelena leans against the wall, almost fainting. |
| Yelena | Take me away! Take me away! Kill me … I can’t stay here, I can’t! |
| Voynitsky | In despair. Oh, what am I doing! What am I doing! |
| Sonya | Softly. Nurse, darling! Nurse, darling! |
| Curtain. |