Summary
Serebryakov and Helen doze in the dining room that evening. Serebryakov wakes with a start and grumbles that he feels excruciating pain in his left leg; he thinks that it’s probably rheumatism, not gout. He laments the repulsiveness of old age and how no one can stand the sight of him. Helen sighs that his old age is not their fault. He responds bitterly that she is a young and beautiful woman and he is an old man; he says that he clearly understands that she is just waiting for him to free her by dying.
Helen responds that she feels faint and asks him to stop talking, which he finds amusing since he is the old one. Helen tears up and asks what he wants from her, and he responds that he does not want anything. He adds that if it were Vanya Voynitsky or his mother talking everyone would listen, but people think that he is boring and disgusting.
Helen gets up and shuts the window because it looks like there will be rain. Serebryakov continues to complain about giving his life to scholarship only to end up exiled here, “watching others succeed and going in fear of death” (131). Helen simply says that in a few years she will be old too.
Sonya enters, chiding her father for not seeing Astrov. Serebryakov is unrepentant and calls the doctor a crackpot. Sonya sits down. She explains that she does not like him acting like a child and treating her poorly.
Vanya enters and comments on the storm. He announces that he is here to relieve the women, and Serebryakov bursts out that he does not want to be left alone with Vanya because the man will talk his head off. He urges Vanya to leave as well—they can talk about their past friendship another time. Vanya scoffs at this.
Marina enters and Sonya tells her she ought to get some rest. The old woman lovingly helps Serebryakov up and out of bed. Sonya joins them.
Helen says to Vanya that she cannot stand her husband, and Vanya agrees that the old man is wearying. He thinks that Helen and her husband have disrupted the whole house, but she advises him that he is the one who must step in and make peace. He bends to kiss her hand and bemoans his sorry, wasted life. Helen pulls her hand away.
Vanya asks her angrily what she is waiting for, but she accuses him of just being drunk. She becomes annoyed and leaves.
Alone, Vanya muses that he should have pursued her ten years ago when she was 17 and he was 37, but now he is too old and a fool. He should have never idolized the professor and worked to keep the estate for him; the professor once seemed like a god, but now his work is revealed for what it actually is: meaningless.
Astrov enters with Telegin, the latter carrying a guitar. Astrov, a bit tipsy, tells Telegin to play. Telegin strums the instrument.
Astrov meanders about, asking where the ladies are, complimenting Helen’s beauty, and asking wryly if Vanya loves her. When Vanya says that she is a friend, Astrov laughs that a woman can only be a man’s friend once she passes through the roles of acquaintance and mistress. When Vanya disagrees, Astrov laughs about his own bumptiousness and impudence and how he feels in this moment that he can actually do something and change things for the better.
When Sonya enters, Astrov and Telegin leave to get more to drink. Sonya chastises her uncle for drinking so much and focusing more on illusions than actual work. She sees the tears in his eyes, though, and becomes concerned when he starts to lament the loss of his dear sister. He departs sadly.
Sonya goes to Astrov and tells him to stop encouraging her uncle to drink. Astrov agrees, and then says he is getting ready to depart tomorrow once the rain is gone. Sonya asks if he wants something to eat, and he admits he does.
Astrov complains about the difficulty of being in this house with these people, and that even the beautiful Helen is vexing because she has no responsibilities and is too idle. Sonya asks if he is satisfied with life; he responds that he generally is, but that provincial and parochial Russian life is stultifying and his private life is dull. Sonya wonders if he cares for anyone and he states that he does not, for the peasants are all the same and all these friends of theirs are stupid and petty even though they are educated. He reaches for a drink, and Sonya softly asks him not to. He gives her his word that he will not: he will remain sober until the end of his days.
Astrov tells Sonya that he does not think he could grow fond of anyone anymore, but even as he starts to think about Helen he shudders, remembering a patient who died under chloroform. Sonya haltingly asks him how he would respond if she had a friend or younger sister who loved him. He shrugs and says he’d make it clear he couldn’t love her; then he bids Sonya goodbye and leaves.
Alone, Sonya feels a thrill of happiness even though she does not know his true feelings. She is upset that she is not beautiful, but she still has hope.
Helen enters and opens the windows to let the fresh air in. She asks Sonya if they can be friends, not enemies, and Sonya happily complies. They embrace. Sonya cries a bit, and Helen is moved to do so as well. She explains to Sonya that she did marry Serebryakov for love and because he was an attractive and public figure, but that clearly it was not real love. She apologizes to Sonya, but Sonya just asks if Helen wishes she were married to someone younger.
Helen laughs and says of course. She then asks Sonya about the doctor, and when Sonya confesses, Helen compliments the doctor’s vision and brilliance. She wises Sonya happiness and says sadly that, as for herself, she is inconsequential and unhappy.
Sonya is happy now and tears up with joy. She asks Helen to play something on the piano and Helen is excited to do so; Sonya runs out to ask her father if this can happen, and he reports back that he said no.
Analysis
In Act II, Chekhov provides a window into Serebryakov and Helen’s stultifying marriage and how each of their particular issues makes them feel alone within that union. Serebryakov is old and unwell—but, as he rejects the doctor’s attention, he is partially blameworthy for the latter. He knows the others dislike him and comments, “I’ve only to open my mouth and everyone starts feeling miserable. Even my voice disgusts you. All right, I’m disgusting, I’m selfish, I’m a tyrant” (131). He also knows that he is old and “[spends] every moment regretting [my] past” (131). Helen offers no solace because she doesn't love him, and her youth and beauty continually remind him of what he does not possess. On the other hand, he claims “I’m the only person who’s happy and enjoys life” (131); he also lives in a bubble of sorts that precludes him from understanding the suffering of others (see Act III, when he announces he wants to sell the estate).
As for Helen, it is certainly possible to feel sympathy for her. She confides in Sonya that she did marry Serebryakov for love but that it was not real love and now she is deeply unhappy. As a woman, she has no real place except the home, and she is valued primarily for her looks, not her intellect. She seeks human connection but rarely achieves it. The only thing that brings any light to her eyes is music, but when she asks Soya to ask Serebryakov if it is okay for her to play the piano, Serebryakov says no. She wants to believe in art again, but her marriage makes this impossible. Critic Jane Anderson writes of this moment, “[The characters] are offered the possibility of art, but this opportunity is repeatedly devalued.”
Ultimately, though, Helen indulges in her boredom, desire for flattery and attention, and complaining. She quickly becomes flustered and dismissive, and puts her own needs above everyone else’s. It is no wonder that she has no interest in Astrov’s maps depicting the loss of forests and the concomitant deleterious effects on the Russian people: she does not see beyond herself.
Chekov makes Astrov the most nuanced character, especially in this act. First, he vacillates between hope and despair, and between the problems of the short-term and the hope of the long-term. He delights in planting a tree, obsesses over losing a patient, complains about peasants and educated people alike, and commits himself to his profession even though it often wears him down. He does not seem to believe in an afterlife but he “continues to behave in a manner that takes into account future generations” and “retains his faith in the idea of creating a better future for humanity,” as critic Geoffrey Borny writes. When Astrov speaks about forestry in Act I and Act III, he does so in a passionate, irony-free manner. He is often honest when other characters constantly lie to themselves and others. He mocks Vanya but also tries to comfort him. He is gentle with Marina and kind to Sonya, especially after he finds out she has feelings for him. His behavior towards Helen is a bit more problematic, but we will discuss that in the next analysis.
In this second act, Chekhov reaffirms that his play is essentially about nothing—or, rather, lots of little nothings. There are big emotions here, but they are cloaked in trivialities and self-obsession. Critic Ronald Hingley notes that it is easier to say what Chekhov’s plays are not about than what they are about. While Chekhov’s drama has a notably new depiction of mankind, “to him—or so he appears to imply—human affairs were flatter, duller, less eventful, less heroic than they were to earlier playwrights.” Uncle Vanya is not a grand tragedy or a harmonious comedy because “human existence is more pointless, more frustrating, less heroic, less satisfying than members of his audience may privately conceive.” However, the plays were phenomenally popular with turn-of-the-century theatergoers because they delighted in the “real” world onstage and the recognizable dynamics between characters.
