The Seagull Study Guide (12MB) - Goodman Theatre

Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Composer:
One Author
BY ELIZABETH MORK
Anton Chekhov the scholar was also Anton Chekhov the
doctor, but perhaps he is best known as Anton Chekhov
the writer. Simply put, he was a prolific writer. During his
lifetime, Chekhov penned around a dozen plays, several
novels and some 200 short stories. His works, often
autobiographical in nature, reflect the different career
paths and people that made up his life.
His early comedic pieces are a product of his first job
scripting low-brow humor for a local newspaper. (Can you
imagine grabbing a work by Chekhov that resembles the
Sunday comics?) His initial plays also retain this comedic
flair.
Surprisingly, Chekhov was not known as a playwright for
much of his lifetime. Many of his works for the theater
were either outright rejected, or else they were major
flops on stage. Chekhov even momentarily swore that
The Seagull would be his last theater endeavor; he wrote
Uncle Vanya a year later.
Regardless of the form, Chekhov’s creations are rich
with literary allusions. His works reference popular
literature, pertinent social issues of the day and
various pieces done by Shakespeare. This technique
of concealing information within the text, known as
“Aesopic language,” is essentially a way to avoid blatant
censorship but retain relevance for a literate public.
Avid readers of Chekhov also would note elements of his
short stories appearing in his plays, thus enriching the
action happening upon stage through these connections.
For example, The Seagull, written in 1896, has nearly
verbatim quotes from his story Ariadna, written in 1985.
Ariadna chronicles the life of a young actress whose
adventures include fostering a disenchanting love affair
with an older man. In a moment of repose, the story’s
narrator, a man in love with Ariadna, describes the
following scene among himself, Ariadna and Ariadna’s
older love interest:
When Ariadna and I were fishing, Lubkov would lie on
the sand close by and make fun of me, or lecture me on
the conduct of life.
“I wonder, my dear sir, how you can live without a
love affair,” he would say. “You are young, handsome,
interesting — in fact, you’re a man not to be sniffed
at, yet you live like a monk. Och! I can’t stand these
fellows who are old at 28! I’m nearly 10 years older than
you are, and yet which of us is the younger? Ariadna
Grigoryevna, which?”
“You, of course,” Ariadna answered him.
This scene reappears in The Seagull among Masha,
Doctor Dorn and Arkadina. While lounging next to an
un-played game of croquet, Arkadina instructs Masha
to stand beside her before calling on Dorn to name
the younger looking of the two. Dorn selects the older
Arkadina with a simple “You, of course.”
New Times (Новое время) Magazine, for which Chekhov often wrote. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
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