3 sisters read online. List of actors and system of characters in Chekhov's drama

Vershinin Alexander Ignatievich in the play "Three Sisters" - lieutenant colonel, battery commander. He studied in Moscow and began his service there, served as an officer in the same brigade as the father of the Prozorov sisters. At that time he visited the Prozorovs and was teased as a "major in love". Appearing again, Vershinin immediately captures everyone's attention, uttering sublime pathetic monologues, through most of which the motive of a brighter future runs through. He calls it "philosophizing." Expressing dissatisfaction with real life, the hero says that if he could start over, he would live differently. One of his main themes is his wife, who from time to time tries to commit suicide, and two daughters, whom he is afraid to entrust to her. In the second act, he is in love with Masha Prozorova, who reciprocates his feelings. At the end of the play "Three Sisters", the hero leaves with the regiment.

Irina (Prozorova Irina Sergeevna) Andrey Prozorov's sister. In the first act, her name day is celebrated: she is twenty years old, she feels happy, full of hope and enthusiasm. She thinks she knows how to live. She delivers an impassioned, inspirational monologue about the need for work. She is tormented by longing for work.

In the second act, she is already serving as a telegraph operator, returning home tired and dissatisfied. Then Irina serves in the city government and, according to her, hates, despises everything that they let her do. Four years have passed since her name day in the first act, life does not bring her satisfaction, she worries that she is getting old and is moving further and further away from the “real life”. wonderful life”, and the dream of Moscow never comes true. Despite the fact that she does not love Tuzenbakh, Irina Sergeevna agrees to marry him, after the wedding they should immediately go with him to the brick factory, where he got a job and where she, having passed the exam for a teacher, is going to work at school. These plans are not destined to come true, since Tuzenbakh, on the eve of the wedding, dies in a duel with Solyony, who is also in love with Irina.

Kulygin Fedor Ilyich - Gymnasium teacher, husband of Masha Prozorova, whom she loves very much. He is the author of a book where he describes the history of the local gymnasium for fifty years. Kulygin gives it to Irina Prozorova for her name day, forgetting that he has already done it once. If Irina and Tuzenbakh constantly dream of work, then this hero of Chekhov's play Three Sisters, as it were, personifies this idea of ​​socially useful labor ("I worked yesterday from morning to eleven o'clock in the evening, I'm tired and today I feel happy"). However, at the same time, he gives the impression of a contented, narrow-minded and uninteresting person.

Masha (Prozorova) - Prozorov's sister, wife of Fyodor Ilyich Kulygin. She got married when she was eighteen years old, then she was afraid of her husband, because he was a teacher and seemed to her "terribly learned, smart and important", but now she is disappointed in him, weighed down by the company of teachers, her husband's comrades, who seem to her rude and uninteresting. She says words that are important for Chekhov, that "a person must be a believer or must seek faith, otherwise his life is empty, empty ...". Masha falls in love with Vershinin.

She goes through the whole play “Three Sisters” with verses from Pushkin’s “Ruslan and Lyudmila”: “At Lukomorye there is a green oak; a golden chain on that oak .. A golden chain on that oak .. "- which become the leitmotif of her image. This quote speaks of the inner concentration of the heroine, the constant desire to understand herself, to understand how to live, to rise above everyday life. At the same time, the textbook essay, from which the quote is taken, exactly appeals to the gymnasium environment, where her husband rotates and to which Masha Prozorova is forced to be closest.

Natalya Ivanovna - the bride of Andrei Prozorov, then his wife. A tasteless, vulgar and selfish lady, in conversations fixated on her children, harsh and rude to the servants (the nanny Anfisa, who has been living with the Prozorovs for thirty years, wants to be sent to the village, because she can no longer work). She has an affair with Protopopov, the chairman of the zemstvo council. Masha Prozorova calls her a "philistine". The type of predator, Natalya Ivanovna, not only completely subjugates her husband, making him an obedient executor of her unbending will, but also methodically expands the space occupied by her family - first for Bobik, as she calls her first child, and then for Sofochka, the second child (it is possible that from Protopopov), displacing other inhabitants of the house - first from the rooms, then from the floor . In the end, due to huge debts made in cards, Andrei mortgages the house, although it belongs not only to him, but also to his sisters, and Natalya Ivanovna takes the money.

Olga (Prozorova Olga Sergeevna) - Sister Prozorov, daughter of a general, teacher. She is 28 years old. At the beginning of the play, she remembers Moscow, where their family left eleven years ago. The heroine feels tired, the gymnasium and lessons in the evenings, according to her, take away her strength and youth, and only one dream warms her - "rather to Moscow." In the second and third acts, she acts as the head of the gymnasium, constantly complains of fatigue and dreams of a different life. In the last act, Olga is the head of the gymnasium.

Prozorov Andrey Sergeevich - son of a general, secretary of the zemstvo council. As the sisters say about him, “he is both a scientist and plays the violin, and cuts out various things, in a word, a jack of all trades.” In the first act he is in love with a local young lady Natalya Ivanovna, in the second he is her husband. Prozorov is dissatisfied with his service, he, according to him, dreams that he is "a professor at Moscow University, a famous scientist who is proud of the Russian land!" The hero admits that his wife does not understand him, and he is afraid of his sisters, afraid that they will laugh at him, shame him. He feels like a stranger and alone in his own home.

IN family life this hero of the play "Three Sisters" by Chekhov is disappointed, he plays cards and loses rather big sums. Then it becomes known that he mortgaged the house, which belongs not only to him, but also to his sisters, and his wife took the money. In the end, he no longer dreams of a university, but is proud that he became a member of the zemstvo council, the chairman of which Protopopov is his wife's lover, which the whole city knows about and which he alone does not want to see (or pretends to). The hero himself feels his worthlessness and sets himself in a way that is characteristic of Chekhov's artistic world with the question “Why do we, having barely begun to live, become boring, gray, uninteresting, lazy, indifferent, useless, unhappy? ..” He again dreams of a future in which he sees freedom - “from idleness, from a goose with cabbage, from sleep after lunch, from vile parasitism ... ". However, it is clear that dreams, given his spinelessness, will remain dreams. In the last act, he, having grown fat, carries a carriage with his daughter Sofochka.

Solyony Vasily Vasilievich - staff captain. He often takes a bottle of perfume out of his pocket and sprays his chest, his hands - this is his most characteristic gesture, with which he wants to show that his hands are stained with blood ("They smell like a corpse to me," Solyony says). He is shy, but wants to appear as a romantic, demonic figure, when in fact he is ridiculous in his vulgar theatricality. He says about himself that he has the character of Lermontov, he wants to be like him. He constantly teases Tuzenbach, saying in a thin voice "chick, chick, chick ...". Tuzenbach calls him a strange person: when Solyony is left alone with him, he is smart and affectionate, but in society he is rude and builds a bullshit out of himself. Solyony is in love with Irina Prozorova and in the second act declares his love for her. She responds to her coldness with a threat: he should not have happy rivals. On the eve of Irina's wedding with Tuzenbakh, the hero finds fault with the baron and, having challenged him to a duel, kills him.

Tuzenbakh Nikolay Lvovich - Baron, lieutenant. In the first act of the play "Three Sisters" he is under thirty. He is passionate about Irina Prozorova and shares her longing for "work." Recalling Petersburg childhood and youth, when he knew no worries, and his boots were pulled off by a footman, Tuzenbach condemns idleness. He constantly explains, as if justifying himself, that he is Russian and Orthodox, and there is very little German left in him. Tuzenbach leaves military service to work. Olga Prozorova says that when he first came to them in a jacket, he seemed so ugly that she even cried. The hero gets a job at a brick factory, where he intends to go, having married Irina, but dies in a duel with Solyony

Chebutykin Ivan Romanovich - military doctor. He is 60 years old. He says about himself that after the university he did nothing, he didn’t even read a single book, but only read newspapers. He writes out various useful information from newspapers. According to him, the Prozorov sisters are the most precious thing in the world for him. He was in love with their mother, who was already married, and therefore did not marry himself. In the third act, out of dissatisfaction with himself and life in general, he starts drinking heavily, one of the reasons for which is that he blames himself for the death of his patient. He passes through the play with the proverb “Ta-ra-ra-bumbia ... I am sitting on the pedestal”, expressing the boredom of life that his soul languishes.

Drama in four acts

Characters

Prozorov Andrey Sergeevich. Natalya Ivanovna, his fiancee, then wife.

Olga Masha Irina

his sisters.

Kulygin Fedor Ilyich, teacher of the gymnasium, Masha's husband. Vershinin Alexander Ignatievich, lieutenant colonel, battery commander. Tuzenbakh Nikolay Lvovich, baron, lieutenant. Solyony Vasily Vasilievich, staff captain. Chebutykin Ivan Romanovich, military doctor. Fedotik Alexey Petrovich, lieutenant. Rode Vladimir Karlovich, lieutenant. Ferapont, a watchman from the Zemstvo council, an old man. Anfisa, nanny, old woman 80 years old.

The action takes place in provincial city.

Act one

In the house of the Prozorovs. Living room with columns behind which you can see Big hall. Noon; it's sunny and fun outside. Breakfast is served in the hall.

Olga, in the blue uniform of a female gymnasium teacher, corrects her student's notebooks all the time, standing and walking; Masha in a black dress, with a hat on her knees, sits and reads a book, Irina in a white dress is standing in thought.

Olga . Father died exactly a year ago, just on this day, May 5, on your name day, Irina. It was very cold, then it was snowing. It seemed to me that I would not survive, you lay in a swoon, as if dead. But now a year has passed, and we remember it easily, you are already in a white dress, your face shines. (The clock strikes twelve.) And then the clock also struck.

I remember when they carried my father, music played, they shot at the cemetery. He was a general, he commanded a brigade, meanwhile there were few people. However, it was raining then. Heavy rain and snow.

Irina . Why remember!

Behind the columns, in the hall near the table, Baron Tuzenbach, Chebutykin and Solyony are shown.

Olga . It's warm today, you can keep the windows wide open, but the birch trees have not yet blossomed. My father got a brigade and left Moscow with us eleven years ago, and, I remember very well, in early May, at that time in Moscow everything was already in bloom, warm, everything was flooded with sun. Eleven years have passed, and I remember everything there, as if we left yesterday. My God! This morning I woke up, saw a lot of light, saw spring, and joy stirred in my soul, I passionately wanted to go home. Chebutykin. Hell no! Tuzenbach. Of course, it's nonsense.

Masha, thinking about the book, quietly whistles a song.

Olga . Don't whistle, Masha. How can you!

Because I go to the gymnasium every day and then give lessons until evening, my head constantly hurts and I have such thoughts as if I had already grown old. And in fact, during these four years, while serving in the gymnasium, I feel how strength and youth come out of me every day, drop by drop. And only one dream grows and grows stronger ...

Irina . To go to Moscow. Sell ​​the house, finish everything here and go to Moscow... Olga . Yes! More likely to Moscow.

Chebutykin and Tuzenbakh laugh.

Irina . My brother will probably be a professor, he won't live here anyway. Only here is the stop for poor Masha. Olga . Masha will come to Moscow for the whole summer, every year.

Masha quietly whistles a song.

Irina . God willing, everything will be fine. (Looking out the window.) Good weather today. I don't know why my heart is so light! This morning I remembered that I was a birthday girl, and suddenly I felt joy, and remembered my childhood, when my mother was still alive. And what marvelous thoughts agitated me, what thoughts! Olga . Today you are all shining, you seem unusually beautiful. And Masha is beautiful too. Andrei would be good, only he has become very fat, this does not suit him. But I have grown old, I have lost a lot of weight, probably because I am angry at the girls in the gymnasium. Today I am free, I am at home, and my head does not hurt, I feel younger than yesterday. I'm twenty-eight years old, only ... Everything is fine, everything is from God, but it seems to me that if I got married and sat at home all day, it would be better.

I would love my husband.

Tuzenbach (Salty). You talk such nonsense, I'm tired of listening to you. (Entering the living room.) I forgot to say. Today our new battery commander Vershinin will pay a visit to you. (Sits down at the piano.) Olga . Well! I am very happy. Irina . He is old? Tuzenbach. There is nothing. At the most, forty, forty-five years. (Plays softly.) Apparently a nice guy. Not stupid, that's for sure. Just talks a lot. Irina . Interesting person? Tuzenbach. Yes, wow, just a wife, mother-in-law and two girls. Moreover, he is married for the second time. He makes visits and says everywhere that he has a wife and two girls. And he will say here. The wife is kind of crazy, with a long girlish braid, she says only high-flown things, philosophizes and often attempts suicide, obviously to annoy her husband. I would have left this one a long time ago, but he endures and only complains. Salty (entering from the hall into the living room with Chebutykin). With one hand I lift only one and a half pounds, and with two five, even six pounds. From this I conclude that two people are not twice as strong as one, but three times, even more ... Chebutykin (reads newspaper as he walks). For hair loss... two spools of naphthalene per half bottle of alcohol... dissolve and consume daily... (Writes in a book.) Let's write it down! (To Salty.) So, I tell you, the cork is stuck into the bottle, and a glass tube passes through it ... Then you take a pinch of the simplest, most common alum ... Irina . Ivan Romanovich, dear Ivan Romanovich! Chebutykin. What, my girl, my joy? Irina . Tell me why am I so happy today? It’s as if I’m on sails, above me is a wide blue sky and big white birds are flying. Why is this? From what? Chebutykin (kissing her both hands, tenderly). My white bird... Irina . When I woke up today, got up and washed my face, it suddenly seemed to me that everything in this world was clear to me, and I knew how to live. Dear Ivan Romanych, I know everything. A person must work, work hard, no matter who he is, and in this alone lies the meaning and purpose of his life, his happiness, his delights. How good it is to be a worker who gets up at dawn and beats stones in the street, or a shepherd, or a teacher who teaches children, or a train driver ... My God, not like a man, it’s better to be an ox, it’s better to be a simple horse, if only to work than a young woman who gets up at twelve o'clock in the afternoon, then drinks coffee in bed, then dresses for two hours ... oh, how terrible! In hot weather, sometimes you want to drink, as I wanted to work. And if I don't get up early and work, then refuse me your friendship, Ivan Romanych. Chebutykin (gently). I refuse, I refuse... Olga . Father taught us to get up at seven o'clock. Now Irina wakes up at seven, and at least until nine lies and thinks about something. A serious face! (Laughs.) Irina . You're used to seeing me as a girl and it's strange for you when I have a serious face. I am twenty years old! Tuzenbach. Longing for work, oh my God, how I understand it! I have never worked in my life. I was born in St. Petersburg, cold and idle, in a family that never knew work and no worries. I remember when I came home from the corps, the footman pulled off my boots, I was capricious at that time, and my mother looked at me with reverence and was surprised when others looked at me differently. I was protected from work. Only it was hardly possible to protect, hardly! The time has come, a mass is approaching all of us, a healthy, strong storm is preparing, which is coming, is already close and will soon blow away laziness, indifference, prejudice to work, rotten boredom from our society. I will work, and in some 2530 years every person will work. Every! Chebutykin. I will not work. Tuzenbach. You don't count. Salty. In twenty-five years you will no longer be in the world, thank God. In two or three years, you will die of kondrashka, or I will flare up and put a bullet in your forehead, my angel. (Takes a bottle of perfume out of his pocket and sprays his chest and arms.) Chebutykin (laughs). And I never really did anything. As I left the university, I didn’t strike a finger on my finger, I didn’t even read a single book, but only read newspapers ... (Takes another newspaper out of his pocket.) Here ... I know from the newspapers that there was, let's say, Dobrolyubov, but what he wrote there I don’t know ... God knows him ...

You can hear the knocking on the floor from the lower floor.

Here ... They call me down, someone came to me. I'll be right there... wait... (He hurriedly leaves, combing his beard.)

Irina . He made up something. Tuzenbach. Yes. He left with a solemn face, obviously, he will bring you a gift now. Irina . How unpleasant! Olga . Yes, it's terrible. He always does stupid things. Masha. By the seaside, a green oak, a golden chain on that oak ... A golden chain on that oak ... (Gets up and sings softly.) Olga . You are sad today, Masha.

Masha, singing, puts on her hat.

Where are you going?

Masha. Home. Irina . Strange... Tuzenbach. Leaving the birthday! Masha. Anyway... I'll come in the evening. Farewell, my dear ... (Kisses Irina.) I wish you again, be healthy, be happy. In the old days, when my father was alive, thirty or forty officers came to our name day every time, it was noisy, but today there are only one and a half people and it’s quiet, like in the desert ... me and don't listen to me. (Laughing through tears.) After we'll talk, but for now goodbye, my dear, I'll go somewhere. Irina (displeased). Well, what are you... Olga (with tears). I understand you Masha. Salty. If a man philosophizes, then it will be philosophizing or there sophistry; if a woman or two women philosophize, then it will be pull my finger. Masha. What do you mean by that, terribly scary man? Salty. Nothing. He did not have time to gasp, as the bear settled on him. Masha (to Olga, angrily). Do not Cry!

Anfisa and Ferapont enter with cake.

Anfisa. Here, my father. Come in, your feet are clean. (To Irina.) From the zemstvo council, from Protopopov, Mikhail Ivanovich... Pie. Irina . Thank you. Thank you. (Takes the cake.) Ferapont. What? Irina (louder). Thank you! Olga . Nanny, give him a pie. Ferapont, go, they'll give you a pie there. Ferapont. What? Anfisa. Let's go, father Ferapont Spiridonitch. Let's go to... (Exits with Ferapont.) Masha. I do not like Protopopov, this Mikhail Potapych, or Ivanovich. He should not be invited. Irina . I didn't invite. Masha. And great.

Chebutykin enters, followed by a soldier with a silver samovar; a murmur of amazement and discontent.

Olga (covers face with hands). Samovar! It's horrible! (Goes into the hall to the table.)

Together

Irina . Dear Ivan Romanych, what are you doing! Tuzenbach (laughs). I told you. Masha. Ivan Romanych, you simply have no shame!

Chebutykin. My dears, my good ones, you are my only ones, you are the most precious thing in the world to me. I am soon sixty, I am an old man, a lonely, worthless old man ... There is nothing good in me, except this love for you, and if it were not for you, I would not have lived in the world for a long time ... (Irina.) Dear, my child, I have known you since the day you were born... I carried you in my arms... I loved my dead mother... Irina . But why such expensive gifts! Chebutykin (through tears, angrily). Expensive gifts ... Well, you really! (To the batman.) Bring the samovar there... (Teasing.) Expensive gifts...

The batman takes the samovar into the hall.

Anfisa (passing through the living room). Darlings, an unfamiliar colonel! He's taken off his coat, little children, he's coming here. Arinushka, be gentle, polite... (Leaving.) And it's time for breakfast... Lord... Tuzenbach. Vershinin must be.

Vershinin enters.

Lieutenant Colonel Vershinin!

Vershinin (to Masha and Irina). I have the honor to introduce myself: Vershinin. Very, very glad that, finally, I have you. What have you become! Ay! ouch! Irina . Sit down please. We are very pleased. Vershinin (cheerfully). How glad I am, how glad I am! But you are three sisters. I remember three girls. I don’t remember the faces, but that your father, Colonel Prozorov, had three little girls, I remember very well and saw with my own eyes. How time goes by! Oh, oh, how time goes by! Tuzenbach. Alexander Ignatievich from Moscow. Irina . From Moscow? Are You from Moscow? Vershinin. Yes, from there. Your late father was a battery commander there, and I was an officer in the same brigade. (to Masha.) I remember your face a little, I think. Masha. And I you no! Irina . Olya! Olya! (Screams in the hall.) Olya, go!

Olga enters from the hall into the living room.

Lieutenant Colonel Vershinin, it turns out, is from Moscow.

Vershinin. You, therefore, are Olga Sergeevna, the eldest... And you are Maria... And you are Irina, the youngest... Olga . Are You from Moscow? Vershinin. Yes. He studied in Moscow and began his service in Moscow, served there for a long time, finally got a battery here - he moved here, as you can see. I don't actually remember you, I only remember that you were three sisters. Your father has remained in my memory, so I close my eyes and see how alive. I visited you in Moscow... Olga . It seemed to me that I remember everyone, and suddenly ... Vershinin. My name is Alexander Ignatievich... Irina . Alexander Ignatievich, you are from Moscow... What a surprise! Olga . After all, we are moving there. Irina . We think we'll be there by autumn. Our hometown, we were born there... On Staraya Basmannaya Street...

Both laugh with joy.

Masha. Suddenly, they saw a fellow countryman. (Quickly.) Now I remember! Do you remember, Olya, we used to say: “major in love”. You were then a lieutenant and were in love with someone, and for some reason everyone teased you as a major ... Vershinin (laughs). Here, here ... Major in love, it's so ... Masha. You only had a mustache then... Oh, how old you are! (Through tears.) How old you are! Vershinin. Yes, when I was called the enamored major, I was still young, I was in love. Now it's not. Olga . But you still don't have one. gray hair. You are old, but not old yet. Vershinin. However, for the forty-third year. How long have you been from Moscow? Irina . Eleven years. Well, why are you crying, Masha, eccentric ... (Through tears.) And I will cry ... Masha. I'm nothing. What street did you live on? Vershinin. On Staraya Basmannaya. Olga . And we are there too... Vershinin. At one time I lived on Nemetskaya Street. From Nemetskaya Street I went to the Red Barracks. There is a gloomy bridge along the way, under the bridge the water is noisy. Lonely becomes sad at heart.

And here, what a wide, what a rich river! Great river!

Olga . Yes, but only cold. It's cold and there are mosquitoes... Vershinin. What do you! Here is such a healthy, good, Slavic climate. Forest, river... and birches here too. Dear, modest birches, I love them more than all trees. It's good to live here. Only strange, the station railway twenty miles away... And no one knows why this is so. Salty. And I know why it is.

Everyone is looking at him.

Because if the station was close, it would not be far, and if it is far, then it is not close.

An awkward silence.

Tuzenbach. Joker, Vasily Vasilyevich. Olga . Now I remember you too. I remember. Vershinin. I knew your mother. Chebutykin. She was good, the kingdom of heaven to her. Irina . Mom was buried in Moscow. Olga . In Novo-Devichy ... Masha. Imagine, I'm already starting to forget her face. So we will not be remembered. Forget. Vershinin. Yes. Forget. Such is our fate, nothing can be done. What seems to us serious, significant, very important the time will come will be forgotten or will seem unimportant.

And interestingly, now we cannot know at all what, in fact, will be considered high, important and what is pathetic, ridiculous. Didn't the discovery of Copernicus or, let's say, Columbus at first seem unnecessary, ridiculous, and some empty nonsense written by an eccentric, didn't it seem true? And it may turn out that our present life, with which we put up so much, will in time seem strange, uncomfortable, stupid, not clean enough, perhaps even sinful ...

Tuzenbach. Who knows? Or maybe our life will be called high and remembered with respect. Now there are no tortures, no executions, no invasions, but at the same time, how much suffering! Salty (thin voice.) Chick, chick, chick... Don't feed the Baron porridge, just let him philosophize. Tuzenbach. Vasily Vasilyich, I beg you to leave me alone... (Sits down in another place.) It's boring, after all. Salty (in a thin voice). Chick, chick, chick... Tuzenbakh (Vershinin). The suffering that is being observed now is so much! they still talk about a certain moral upsurge that society has already achieved ... Vershinin. Yes of course. Chebutykin. You just said, baron, our life will be called high; but people are still short... (Gets up.) Look how short I am. It is for my consolation that I must say that my life is a lofty, understandable thing.

Behind the scenes playing the violin.

Masha. This is Andrey playing, our brother. Irina . He is our scientist. Must be a professor. Dad was a military man, and his son chose a scientific career. Masha. At the request of the father. Olga . We teased him today. He seems to be a little in love. Irina . In one local young lady. Today it will be with us, in all likelihood. Masha. Oh, how she dresses! Not that it's ugly, it's not fashionable, it's just pathetic. Some strange, bright, yellowish skirt with a sort of vulgar fringe and a red blouse. And cheeks so washed, washed! Andrei is not in love, I don’t admit it, after all, he has taste, but he just teases us, fools around. I heard yesterday that she is marrying Protopopov, the chairman of the local council. And wonderful... (To the side door.) Andrew, come here! Honey, just a minute!

Andrew enters.

Olga . This is my brother, Andrey Sergeyevich. Vershinin. Vershinin. Andrey . Prozorov. (Wipes his sweaty face.) Are you a battery commander to us? Olga . Can you imagine, Alexander Ignatich from Moscow. Andrey . Yes? Well, congratulations, now my sisters will not give you peace. Vershinin. I've already had enough of your sisters. Irina . Look what a frame for a portrait Andrey gave me today! (Shows a box.) This he himself did. Vershinin (looking at the frame and not knowing what to say). Yes...thing... Irina . And that frame that is above the piano, he also made.

Andrew waves his hand and walks away.

Olga . He is both a scientist and plays the violin, and cuts out various things, in a word, a jack of all trades. Andrew, don't go! He has a habit of always walking away. Come here!

Masha and Irina take him by the arms and lead him back with a laugh.

Masha. Go, go! Andrey . Please leave. Masha. How funny! Alexander Ignatievich was once called a major in love, and he did not get angry at all. Vershinin. Not at all! Masha. And I want to call you: a violinist in love! Irina . Or a professor in love! Olga . He's in love! Andrew is in love! Irina (applauding). Bravo, bravo! Bis! Andrew is in love! Chebutykin (comes up to Andrey from behind and takes him by the waist with both hands). For love alone, nature brought us into the world! (Laughs; he is always with the newspaper.) Andrey . Well, that's enough, that's enough... (Wipes his face.) I haven't slept all night and now I'm a little out of my mind, as they say. I read until four o'clock, then went to bed, but nothing came of it. I was thinking about this and that, and then it was early dawn, the sun was climbing into the bedroom. I want to translate one book from English during the summer, while I'm here. Vershinin. Do you read English? Andrey . Yes. The Father, the kingdom of heaven to him, oppressed us with education. It's ridiculous and stupid, but I still have to admit it, after his death I began to gain weight and now I grew fat in one year, as if my body had been freed from oppression. Thanks to my father, my sisters and I know French, German and English languages, and Irina also knows Italian. But what was it worth! Masha. In this city, knowing three languages ​​is an unnecessary luxury. Not even a luxury, but some kind of unnecessary appendage, like a sixth finger. We know too much. Vershinin. Here you go! (Laughs.) You know a lot of superfluous things! It seems to me that there is not and cannot be such a boring and dull city in which an intelligent, educated person would not be needed. Let us suppose that among the one hundred thousand inhabitants of this city, of course, backward and rude, there are only three like you. It goes without saying that you cannot defeat the dark mass that surrounds you; in the course of your life, little by little you will have to give in and get lost in a crowd of a hundred thousand, you will be drowned out by life, but still you will not disappear, you will not be left without influence; perhaps six like you will come after you, then twelve, and so on, until at last people like you become the majority. In two hundred, three hundred years, life on earth will be unimaginably beautiful, amazing. A person needs such a life, and if it does not exist yet, then he must anticipate it, wait, dream, prepare for it, he must see and know more for this than his grandfather and father saw and knew. (Laughs.) And you complain that you know too much. Masha (takes off her hat). I stay for breakfast. Irina (with a sigh). Really, it should have been written down...

Andrey is not there, he quietly left.

Tuzenbach. In many years, you say, life on earth will be beautiful, amazing. This is true. But in order to participate in it now, although from afar, one must prepare for it, one must work... Vershinin (gets up). Yes. How many flowers do you have! (Looking around.) And the apartment is wonderful. I envy! And all my life I hung out in apartments with two chairs, with one sofa, and with stoves that always smoke. In my life, it was precisely these flowers that were missing ... (Rubs his hands.) Eh! Well, what! Tuzenbach. Yes, you need to work. You probably think: the German was deeply moved. But, honestly, I don’t even speak Russian and German. My father is Orthodox... Vershinin (walks around the stage). I often think: what if I could start life again, moreover, consciously? If one life, which has already been lived, was, as they say, in rough outline, the other cleanly! Then each of us, I think, would first of all try not to repeat himself, at least he would create for himself a different environment of life, arrange for himself such an apartment with flowers, with a lot of light ... I have a wife, two girls, moreover wife, an unhealthy lady, and so on, and so on, well, if I had to start life all over again, I would not have married... No, no!

Enter Kulygin in a uniform tailcoat.

Kulygin (approaches Irina). Dear sister, let me congratulate you on your angel's day and wish you sincerely, from the bottom of your heart, health and all that you can wish a girl of your age. And let me bring you this book as a gift. (Hands over a book.) The history of our gymnasium for fifty years, written by me. An empty book, written from nothing to do, but you still read it. Hello gentlemen! (To Vershinin.) Kulygin, teacher at the local gymnasium. Outside Advisor. (To Irina.) In this book you will find a list of all those who completed the course in our gymnasium during these fifty years. Feci quod potui, faciant meliora potentes. (Kisses Masha). Irina . But you already gave me such a book for Easter. Kulygin (laughs). Can't be! In that case, give it back, or better, give it to the colonel. Take it, Colonel. Someday read out of boredom. Vershinin. Thank you. (Goes to leave.) I'm extremely glad to have met... Olga . Are you leaving? No no! Irina . You will stay with us for breakfast. Please. Olga . I ask you to! Vershinin (bows). I seem to be on a birthday. I'm sorry, I didn't know, didn't congratulate you... (Leaves with Olga into the hall.) Kulygin. Today, gentlemen, is Sunday, a day of rest, let us rest, let us have fun, each according to his age and position. Carpets will have to be removed for the summer and hidden until winter ... Persian powder or mothballs ... The Romans were healthy, because they knew how to work, they knew how to relax, they had mens sana in corpore sano. Their life flowed according to certain forms. Our director says: the main thing in any life is its form... What loses its form ends and it is the same in our everyday life. (Takes Masha by the waist, laughing.) Masha loves me. My wife loves me. And the window curtains are also there with carpets ... Today I am cheerful, in good mood spirit. Masha, at four o'clock today we are at the director's. A walk for teachers and their families is arranged. Masha. I won't go. Kulygin (disappointed). Dear Masha, why? Masha. After that... (Angrily.) Okay, I'll go, just leave me alone, please... (Walks away.) Kulygin. And then we will spend the evening with the director. Despite his morbid condition, this person tries above all to be social. Excellent, bright personality. Magnificent person. Yesterday, after the advice, he said to me: “Tired, Fyodor Ilyich! Tired!" (Looks at the wall clock, then at his own.) Your clock is seven minutes fast. Yes, he says he's tired!

Behind the scenes playing the violin.

Olga . Gentlemen, you are welcome, please have breakfast! Pie! Kulygin. Ah, my dear Olga, my dear! Yesterday I worked from morning to eleven o'clock in the evening, I was tired and today I feel happy. (Goes into the hall to the table.) My darling... Chebutykin (puts newspaper in pocket, combs his beard). Pie? Fabulous! Masha (To Chebutykin strictly). Just watch: don't drink anything today. Do you hear? It's bad for you to drink. Chebutykin. Eva! I've already passed. Two years without drinking. (Impatiently.) Eh, mother, is it all the same! Masha. Still, don't drink. Don't dare. (Angry, but in such a way that the husband does not hear.) Again, damn it, to miss the whole evening with the director! Tuzenbach. I wouldn't go if I were you... Very simple. Chebutykin. Don't go, my dear. Masha. Yes, don't go... This life is accursed, unbearable... (Goes into the hall.) Chebutykin (goes to her). Well! Salty (passing into the hall). Chick, chick, chick... Tuzenbach. Enough, Vasily Vasilyich. Will! Salty. Chick, chick, chick... Kulygin (cheerfully). Your health, Colonel. I am a teacher, and here in the house there is a man, Masha's husband... She is kind, very kind... Vershinin. I'll drink this dark vodka... (Drinks.) Cheers! (to Olga.) I feel so good with you! ..

Only Irina and Tuzenbakh remain in the living room.

Irina . Masha is not in a good mood today. She married at eighteen when he seemed to her the most smart person. And now it's not. He is the kindest, but not the smartest. Olga (impatiently). Andrew, come on! Andrew (offstage). Now. (Enters and goes to the table.) Tuzenbach. What are you thinking about? Irina . So. I don't like and fear this Salty of yours. He's talking nonsense... Tuzenbach. He is a strange person. I feel sorry for him, and annoying, but more sorry. It seems to me that he is shy ... When we are alone with him, he is very smart and affectionate, but in society he is a rude person, a bully. Do not go, let them sit at the table for now. Let me be near you. What are you thinking about?

You are twenty years old, I am not yet thirty. How many years we have left ahead, a long, long series of days full of my love for you...

Irina . Nikolai Lvovich, don't talk to me about love. Tuzenbach (not listening). I have a passionate thirst for life, struggle, work, and this thirst in my soul has merged with love for you, Irina, and, as if on purpose, you are beautiful, and life seems so beautiful to me! What are you thinking about? Irina . You say life is great. Yes, but if she only seems like that! With us, three sisters, life was not yet beautiful, it drowned us out like weeds ... Tears flow from me. It is not necessary... (Quickly wipes his face, smiles.) Need to work, work. That is why we are not happy and we look at life so gloomy that we do not know labor. We were born of people who despised work...

Natalia Ivanovna enters; She is in a pink dress with a green belt.

Natasha. They are already sitting down to breakfast there ... I was late ... (Looks briefly in the mirror, correcting herself.) It seems that her hair is wow ... (Seeing Irina.) Dear Irina Sergeevna, I congratulate you! (Kisses hard and long.) You have many guests, I really feel ashamed ... Hello, baron! Olga (entering the living room). Well, here is Natalia Ivanovna. Hello my dear!

They kiss.

Natasha. With the birthday girl. You have such a big company, I'm terribly embarrassed... Olga . All right, we have everything. (In an undertone of fear.) You have a green belt! Honey, this is not good! Natasha. Is there an omen? Olga . No, it just doesn't work... and it's kind of weird... Natasha (in a crying voice). Yes? But it's not green, but rather matte. (Follows Olga into the hall.)

They sit down to breakfast in the hall; not a soul in the living room.

Kulygin. I wish you, Irina, a good groom. It's time for you to get out. Chebutykin. Natalya Ivanovna, and I wish you a bridegroom. Kulygin. Natalya Ivanovna already has a fiance. Masha (thumping fork on plate). I'll drink a glass of wine! Eh-ma, crimson life, where ours did not disappear! Kulygin. You behave on three with a minus. Vershinin. And the drink is delicious. What is it based on? Salty. On cockroaches. Irina (in a crying voice). Ugh! Ugh! What disgust! Olga . Dinner will be roast turkey and sweet apple pie. Thank God, today I am at home all day, in the evening at home ... Gentlemen, come in the evening. Vershinin. Let me come tonight too! Irina . Please. Natasha. They simply have. Chebutykin. For love alone, nature brought us into the world. (Laughs.) Andrew (angrily). Stop it gentlemen! You are not tired.

Fedotik and Rode enter with a large basket of flowers.

Fedotik. However, they are already having breakfast. Rode (loud and burr). Do they have breakfast? Yes, they're having breakfast... Fedotik. Wait a minute! (Takes a photo.) Once! Wait a little more... (Takes another photo.) Two! Now it's done!

They take the basket and go to the hall, where they are greeted with noise.

Rode (loudly). Congratulations, I wish you all the best! The weather today is charming, one splendor. Today all morning I walked with the high school students. I teach gymnastics in high school... Fedotik. You can move, Irina Sergeevna, you can! (Taking a photo.) You are interesting today. (Takes out a top from his pocket.) Here, by the way, is a spinning top ... An amazing sound ... Irina . How lovely! Masha. By the seashore there is a green oak, a golden chain on that oak ... A golden chain on that oak ... (Winningly.) Well, why am I saying this? This phrase has stuck with me since morning. Kulygin. Thirteen at the table! Rode (loudly). Gentlemen, do you really attach importance to prejudices? Kulygin. If thirteen are at the table, then there are lovers here. Isn't it you, Ivan Romanovich, what good... Chebutykin. I am an old sinner, but why Natalya Ivanovna was embarrassed, I absolutely cannot understand.

Loud laughter; Natasha runs out of the hall into the living room, followed by Andrey.

Andrey . Completely, pay no attention! Wait... wait, please... Natasha. I'm ashamed... I don't know what's going on with me, but they make fun of me. The fact that I just left the table is indecent, but I can't... I can't... (He covers his face with his hands.) Andrey . My dear, I beg you, I beg you, do not worry. I assure you they are joking, they are from good heart. My dear, my dear, they are all kind, warm-hearted people and love me and you. Come here to the window, they can't see us here... (Looks around.) Natasha. I'm so not used to being in society! .. Andrey . O youth, wonderful, beautiful youth! My dear, my dear, don't worry like that!.. Believe me, believe me... I feel so good, my soul is full of love, delight... Oh, they don't see us! Do not see! Why, why did I fall in love with you, when I fell in love oh, I don’t understand anything. My dear, good, pure, be my wife! I love you, I love you... like never before...

Prozorov Andrey Sergeevich.

Natalya Ivanovna, his fiancee, then wife.

Olga

Masha his sisters.

Irina

Kulygin Fedor Ilyich, teacher of the gymnasium, Masha's husband.

Vershinin Alexander Ignatievich, lieutenant colonel, battery commander.

Tuzenbakh Nikolay Lvovich, baron, lieutenant.

Solyony Vasily Vasilievich, staff captain.

Chebutykin Ivan Romanovich, military doctor.

Fedotik Alexey Petrovich, lieutenant.

Rode Vladimir Karlovich, lieutenant.

Ferapont, a watchman from the zemstvo council, an old man.

Anfisa, nanny, old woman 80 years old.

The action takes place in the provincial town.

Act one

In the house of the Prozorovs. Living room with columns overlooking a large hall. Noon; it's sunny and fun outside. Breakfast is served in the hall. Olga in a blue uniform dress of a female gymnasium teacher, all the time correcting student notebooks, standing on the go; Masha in a black dress, with a hat on her knees, sits and reads a book; Irina in a white dress stands thoughtful.

Olga. Father died exactly a year ago, just on this day, May 5, on your name day, Irina. It was very cold, then it was snowing. It seemed to me that I would not survive, you lay in a swoon, as if dead. But now a year has passed, and we remember it easily, you are already in a white dress, your face is shining ...

The clock strikes twelve.

And then the clock also struck.

Pause.

I remember when they carried my father, music played, they shot at the cemetery. He was a general, he commanded a brigade, meanwhile there were few people. However, it was raining then. Heavy rain and snow.

Irina. Why remember!

Behind the columns, in the hall near the table, the baron Tuzenbakh, Chebutykin And Salty.

Olga. It's warm today, you can keep the windows wide open, but the birch trees have not yet blossomed. My father got a brigade and left Moscow with us eleven years ago, and, I remember very well, in early May, at this time, everything in Moscow was already in bloom, warm, everything was flooded with sun. Eleven years have passed, and I remember everything there, as if we left yesterday. My God! This morning I woke up, saw a lot of light, saw spring, and joy stirred in my soul, I passionately wanted to go home.

Chebutykin. Hell no!

Tuzenbach. Of course, it's nonsense.

Masha, thinking about the book, quietly whistles a song.

Olga. Don't whistle, Masha. How can you!

Pause.

Because I go to the gymnasium every day and then give lessons until evening, my head constantly hurts and I have such thoughts as if I had already grown old. And in fact, during these four years, while serving in the gymnasium, I feel how strength and youth come out of me every day, drop by drop. And only one dream grows and grows stronger ...

Irina. To go to Moscow. Sell ​​the house, finish everything here and - to Moscow ...

Olga. Yes! More likely to Moscow.

Chebutykin and Tuzenbakh laugh.

Irina. My brother will probably be a professor, he won't live here anyway. Only here is the stop for poor Masha.

Olga. Masha will come to Moscow for the whole summer, every year.

Masha quietly whistles a song.

Irina. God willing, everything will be fine. (Looking out the window.) Nice weather today. I don't know why my heart is so light! This morning I remembered that I was a birthday girl, and suddenly I felt joy, and remembered my childhood, when my mother was still alive! And what marvelous thoughts agitated me, what thoughts!

Olga. Today you are all shining, you seem unusually beautiful. And Masha is beautiful too. Andrei would be good, only he has become very fat, this does not suit him. But I have grown old, I have lost a lot of weight, probably because I am angry at the girls in the gymnasium. Today I am free, I am at home, and my head does not hurt, I feel younger than yesterday. I am twenty-eight years old, only ... Everything is fine, everything is from God, but it seems to me that if I got married and sat at home all day, it would be better.

Pause.

I would love my husband.

Tuzenbach(Salty). You talk such nonsense, I'm tired of listening to you. (Entering the living room.) I forgot to say. Today our new battery commander Vershinin will pay a visit to you. (Sits down at the piano.)

Olga. Well! I am very happy.

Irina. He is old?

Tuzenbach. There is nothing. At the most, forty, forty-five years. (Plays softly.) Apparently a nice guy. Not stupid, that's for sure. Just talks a lot.

Irina. Interesting person?

Tuzenbach. Yes, wow, just a wife, mother-in-law and two girls. Moreover, he is married for the second time. He makes visits and says everywhere that he has a wife and two girls. And he will say here. The wife is kind of crazy, with a long girlish braid, she says only high-flown things, philosophizes and often attempts suicide, obviously to annoy her husband. I would have left this one a long time ago, but he endures and only complains.

Salty(Entering from the hall into the living room with Chebutykin). With one hand I lift only one and a half pounds, and with two five, even six pounds. From this I conclude that two people are not twice as strong as one, but three times, even more ...

Chebutykin(reads newspaper as he walks). For hair loss ... two spools of naphthalene per half bottle of alcohol ... dissolve and use daily ... (Writes in a book.) Let's write it down! (Salty.) So, I tell you, the cork is stuck into the bottle, and a glass tube passes through it ... Then you take a pinch of the simplest, most common alum ...

Irina. Ivan Romanovich, dear Ivan Romanovich!

To be honest, I like individual works A.P. Chekhov, including "Three Sisters". So, as they say, you can simply remember the content of the play and give the correct answer, but you must admit that this is not very interesting and effective. After all, whatever one may say, clear arguments and confirmations are needed. And sometimes it surprises me when some authors just write something and say that this is the correct answer. And just without any confirmation. Just believe it or not. But before suggesting a way to answer this question, let me take this opportunity and talk about how popular Chekhov is in our time. So his plays are a great success in modern processing. Here are footage from new play. This is of course an illustration that simply attracts viewers. And here is one from the modern version of the play. And it should be noted that in the play "Three Sisters" everyone's favorite actors and actresses play.

So because of some actresses you can watch this performance. Well, now it's time to return to the question. To be honest, even if I didn't know the real answer, my intuition told me that Natalia was the correct answer. But you can not watch this play and not read Chekhov, but give the correct answer. And this can be done simply by the poster. Here are the characters and performers of one of the versions of the play "Three Sisters".

So the correct answer can be given by elimination method. First of all, let's separate the sisters themselves. And we see that it is Olga Masha and Irina. They are the main characters at the top of the list. So no options left that Prozorov's wife is Natalya. So as you can see, my system for determining the correct answer works and itself confirms the correct answer and, of course, in this case and there is no need to argue, everything is clear and understandable.