Summary
In the drawing room, Vanya and Sonya sit; Helen, deep in thought, walks up to them. Vanya complains to the ladies that Serebryakov wants to speak to them, no doubt about something pointless. He mocks Helen for her charming laziness, and Helen furrows her brow. She tells him to stop and says that she is excessively bored.
Sonya suggests that there are plenty of things for her to do, such as working on the farm, or teaching, or nursing. Helen simply replies that she cannot to do that sort of thing. Sonya tells her that her boredom is infectious, and that she could certainly teach.
Vanya sneers that Helen has mermaid’s blood and ought to just fall into the river with a river-god. Helen is angry, even when Vanya apologizes and kisses her hand. She wonders how they will ever get through the winter.
After Vanya leaves, Sonya confides in Helen that she is sad that she is not beautiful. Helen compliments her hair, but this does not comfort Sonya. She loves Astrov’s voice, his hand, and the sound of him arriving at the house, but he doesn’t seem to even notice her. Helen thoughtfully says she will talk to him on her behalf; Sonya is pleased but a bit agitated, and makes Helen promise to tell her exactly what he says. Helen does; the plan is for Sonya to tell Astrov that Helen wants to see his maps.
After Sonya departs, Helen muses aloud that Astrov certainly does not love Sonya; however, even though she is not beautiful, she would make him a good wife because she is clever and unspoiled. Helen feels like she understands Sonya, and she certainly understands ghastly boredom and how Astrov’s occasional appearance enlivens that boredom. He is different from the others and is like a “bright moon rising in the darkness” (147). Helen sighs that she wishes she could fly away like a bird from all of this, but she is too much of a coward to leave.
Astrov enters with his maps, happily asking if she wants to see them. Astrov spreads them out; as he does so, he asks where she is from and where she was educated. He wonders if she could actually be interested in this; Helen responds that she might not know much about country life, but she has read a lot.
Astrov begins to speak about the maps, a pleasure he allows himself only once a month. The first map, he begins, is the district fifty years ago. Half the area was wooded. The land featured small isolated hamlets and a great deal of birds and cattle and horses. Twenty-five years ago, though, some of the animals were gone, and only a third of the area was wooded. Old hamlets and farmsteads vanished, and the “general picture is one of a gradual and unmistakable decline” (148). Things have certainly worsened over the last years. Astrov pauses and says that if people had built roads and railways instead of simply destroying the forests, or had erected factories and schools, then the peasants would be better off and happier. However, this did not happen: the district is still mosquito-laden, poor, and prone to fires and disease. People find the struggle for existence difficult, he says: they are backward, ignorant, and have no idea what they’re doing. A man’s only instinct is to be warm and fed, and he does not think about the future.
Astrov looks at Helen and coldly comments that she is bored. She replies that she understands little, but he denies this: she is just not interested. Helen asks if she can change the subject, so they sit down and asks bluntly about Sonya—does she attract him as a woman? He answers no.
Helen sighs and says that Sonya is so unhappy, and that he ought to stop coming here. Astrov, annoyed, stands up. Helen feels that this is a disagreeable conversation and is wearied by it. She tells them that they ought to pretend like nothing was said.
Astrov stares at her and asks why she brought it up. He shrugs but then regards her more carefully and comments that she is a little box of tricks. Helen is confused, and he laughs that she has it all figured out. He presses on and says she knows perfectly well why he comes here, that she’s a little vampire, and that he is not new to this. Helen is still confused, and Astrov smiles that she is a beautiful little weasel. He bows his head and mockingly says that he surrenders.
Helen is surprised, calls him crazy, and moves to leave, but he bars her way and takes her hand. He moves closer and passionately begs her to let him kiss her. He kisses her hand as she tries to pull away. He leans in, imploring her to tell him when they can meet, and he kisses her as Vanya walks in. Helen does not see Vanya, but she tells Astrov to leave her alone. He insists that she meet him at the forest reservation, but she still tries to extricate herself, especially once she notices Vanya.
Vanya is carrying roses and puts them down. Astrov bitterly talks about the weather as he rolls up the maps. Helen runs up to Vanya and says he must do all he can to get her husband and her away from this house. Vanya is distracted but says "of course."
Serebryakov, Sonya, Telegin, and Marina enter. Serebryakov complains about the house.
As her father prepares to speak, Sonya goes up to Helen and asks what Astrov said. Helen only says she will tell her later, and Sonya trembles and asks if he said he wasn’t going to come anymore. Helen nods.
Serebryakov tells everyone to sit down and Vanya asks in an annoyed, agitated tone if he is needed. Serebryakov tells him that he obviously is, and he wonders why he is acting like this. He begins his speech a moment later, explaining that he needs everyone’s advice. He is old now and has to think about putting his affairs in order. It is impossible for him to live in the country, and the estate’s income will not support them in the city. It is his proposal that they sell the estate, which would allow for a smaller cottage near St. Petersburg.
Vanya is stunned and asks what Serebryakov thinks he, Mrs. Voynitksy, and Sonya will do. Serebryakov replies that they will figure that out in time. Vanya shakes his head, saying that he thought all this time that this was Sonya’s estate. Serebryakov replies that it is, and that he would do this in her best interest. This does not comfort Vanya, even though Mrs. Voynitsky suggests listening to the professor.
Serebryakov doesn’t understand why people are upset, and Vanya interrupts clueless Telegin’s comments to explain angrily how he gave up part of his inheritance so that his sister could buy this land. Furthermore, it is free from debt because he, Vanya, has worked so hard on it for twenty-five years. All this time, Serebryakov has neither thanked him nor given him an extra ruble.
Telegin and Mrs. Voynitsky try to calm Vanya down but he continues, saying how he used to revere the professor’s writing and books but how he now despises them. He says they used to think of the professor as superior, but now he sees that he knows nothing of the art he writes about.
Serebryakov is still confused and Helen tries to calm Vanya down. Serebryakov tells Vanya that, if he wants the estate, it is his. Telegin runs out in distress. Helen shouts that she can’t stand this. Vanya moans that his life is ruined, and that he could have been a Schopenhauer or Dostoevsky but for Serebryakov; he feels like he is going mad. Sonya leans before Marina in anguish. Vanya calls out to his mother, then announces he knows what to do, and runs out.
Serebryakov proclaims he does not know what is wrong with Vanya, and Helen insists they must leave today. Sonya turns to her father and begs him to understand that she and her uncle are so unhappy and worked so hard for him their whole lives. Helen tells her husband that she must sort this out.
Grudgingly, Serebryakov leaves to talk to Vanya with Helen following. Marina comforts Sonya. Suddenly, a shot is heard; Helen’s scream follows. Serebryakov staggers back in, shouting about Vanya’s madness.
Helen and Vanya struggle over a revolver. Vanya bests her and fires again at Serebryakov but misses. He tries again and misses. He curses and sinks into a chair. Helen leans against a wall, her chest heaving. She says she must leave. Vanya wonders desperately what he is doing, and Sonya cries for Nanny.
Analysis
In a play where not much happens, this act features several encounters that would be immensely significant, were it not for Chekhov’s droll tone and the lack of any consequence or change following said encounters. There is Helen’s attempt to find out Astrov’s feelings for Sonya, Astrov’s attempt to seduce Helen, Serebryakov’s announcement that he wants to sell the estate, and Vanya’s breakdown and subsequent attempted murder of Serebryakov.
All of the characters, critic Kael D. Kramer writes, “are determined to make a melodrama out of something that is ordinary human experience.” They “try to maximize the minimum, creating the effect of anticlimax. The way they do this is by regularly resorting to self-dramatization or indulging in self-pity.” John Weston agrees, lauding Chekhov’s vision of evil “[resting] precisely in the midst of idle talk, everyday pettiness, and people with nothing to distinguish them: neither vice nor virtue.” There are conflicts and problems in their lives, yes, but the main one is merely “one of good but ineffectual people with the harsh crudeness of real life, a clash of the dream and reality of an ordinary life.”
Thus, the Sonya-Helen-Astrov dynamic seems like it would be more momentous than it actually is. Sonya is in love with Astrov, but even when Helen reveals to her that he does not love her back, she quells her feelings of sadness and focuses on caring for her uncle. Helen admits that she finds Astrov interesting and attractive, but she will not actually cheat on her husband. And Astrov is sexually attracted to Helen, but he does not seem to have any real feelings for her; he is merely drunk and feeling a sense of lust rooted in the desire to destroy, to sublimate his fears and sorrows, and to rile and rouse the stultifying country life he is stuck in. In this seduction scene, he is the destroyer, not the creator, even though he decried such behavior earlier in the play.
This act, perhaps like the play itself, belongs to Vanya. When Serebryakov announces to the family that he wishes to sell the estate so he and Helen can afford to live elsewhere, Vanya snaps. He reminds his brother-in-law that the estate is only in the family because of his deceased sister, and because of the efforts of Sonya and himself. Serebryakov’s feint (no doubt sincere) that he does not understand why Vanya is so upset only adds fuel to the fire; he acts as if he were the aggrieved one and perceives Vanya only as a petulant child. The putative loss of the estate vexes Vanya because Serebryakov’s behavior encapsulates everything that he hates about the man. Vanya explodes that he worked the estate for twenty-five years and Serebryakov “[hasn’t’] thanked me once” (154). He and the others talked only of Serebryakov and his works and “were proud of you and worshipped the very sound of your name” (155). Now, though, Vanya seethes that Serebryakov’s writings are worthless and that he’s made a fool of them. Before he rushes out to grab the revolver, he says, “You’ve ruined my life! I’ve not lived, I tell you. Thanks to you the best years of my life have been thrown down the drain. You are my worst enemy!” and “My life’s ruined. I’m gifted, intelligent, courageous. If I’d had a normal life I might have been a Schopenhauer or a Dostoevsky” (155).
What to make of Vanya’s outburst? There is certainly truth to it. Serebryakov is not a great man, and Vanya did work hard for seemingly nothing. However, Vanya is excessively self-pitying. As Kramer explains, Vanya often “[casts] himself in the role of victim” and “casts Serebryakov as the villain of his drama.” Serebryakov doesn’t deserve this much ire; he is simply too inane. Earlier, Sonya told her uncle that his complaining is boring, although she comforts him in his despair at the end of the play. Sadly, the “heart of Vanya’s senseless mistake…[is that] he is asking for validation from one whose credentials belie all credibility.”
