Three Sisters Lesson Plan

What sources of tension exist between characters at this point in the play?

Tensions only continue to rise as time goes by. Andrei continues to gamble and become the subject of gossip in the town, while Natasha engages in an affair with Protopopov and becomes a cruel head of the household when it comes to overseeing the long-suffering servants. Masha becomes all the more enamored of Vershinin, even though they are both married. Chebutykin breaks two years of sobriety on the night of the fire, and bemoans the fact that he is losing his memory and can no longer practice medicine.

There is also a tension in the play between the concrete world and the abstract world. After...