Analysis and Summary of Chekhov's 'The Seagull' Anonymous 12th Grade

The Seagull is a typical Chekhovian drama, part of a sub-genre which could be referred to as an "undramatic drama". It has little plot, and most of the plot's place is taken up by psychological portraits, lyricism, and a certain, truly ungraspable atmosphere, built up in the harsh realities of the Russian 19th century. Action is replaced by conversation, and the well-known, humorous dialogues of the era are replaced by the staccato style of speaking of the main characters.

The drama is built around one family, and their little community's web of relationships, and is represented through a line of situation and conversations, as if the whole plot is a line of genre paintings, representing just moments of the lives of the characters. The outline of the first three acts is that of Arkadina and Trigorin's one week vacation, and their departure from Sorin's estate. In neither of the acts can a traditional, informational exposition, in the very first scene we see a stage being built, which's symbolism is not be forgotten about, as we see this very stage described as being broken, and looking like a skeleton in the ending scene, thus making it an important symbol, and a key to setting the atmosphere of the book. In this first act the...