The Seagull is widely considered to be one of Chekhov's "major plays," along with The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya, and The Three Sisters.
The Seagull tells the story of the famous actress Irina Nikolayevna Arkadina; her lover, the writer Boris Alekseyevich Trigorin; her struggling son Konstantin Gavrilovich Treplev; and his neighbor and girlfriend, Nina Mikhailovna Zarechnaya. At the beginning of the play, Arkadina is involved with Trigorin, and Treplev is involved with and deeply in love with Nina; mother and son have a deeply conflicted relationship. Nina, who lives in an isolated home across the lake with her father and stepmother, both loves Treplev and worships Arkadina, Trigorin,...