Suddenly i remembered that woman id killed at zasyp. It all came back to me. I was such a swine. Im so sick of myself that i went out and got drunk. Lets sit down in here for a while. No one will come in here. The whole town would have burnt down but for the soldiers. Theyre a fine lot of fellows, excellent fellows. Oh, oh, yeah. Yes, theyre a fine lot. What is the time . Almost three. Its beginning to get light. Well, everyones sitting in the ballroom and no one thinks of leaving. That man solyony there too. You should go to bed, doctor. Oh, well im all right. Perhaps hes youre a fine one. In vino veritas as they used to say in rome . Everybody keeps asking me to arrange a concert in aid of the victims of the fire. Huh, who would you get to perform in it . It can be done if we wanted to. Maria sergeyevna plays the piano wonderfully well in my opinion. Yes, wonderfully well. Shes forgotten how to. She hasnt played for three years, maybe its four. Nobody understands music in this town, not a single person, but i do, i really do and i assure you that Maria Sergeyevna plays magnificently. Shes almost a genius for it. Yes, youre quite right, baron. I am so fond of masha, shes such a nice girl. Fancy being able to play so exquisitely and yet having nobody, nobody at all to appreciate. Yeah, but would it be quite proper for her to play at the concert . Well, of course, i dont know anything about these things but it will be perfectly all right although our director as you all know is a very good man, a very good man indeed and most intelligent but i do know that he does hold certain views in this. Oh god, it doesnt really concern him, does it . No. But id better ask him about, its all the same. If you like ive got my clothes in such a mess helping to put out the fire, i must look like nothing on earth. Yesterday i heard a rumor that our brigade might be transferred to somewhere a long way away. Some said it is supposed to be poland and some said chita in siberia. Yes, i heard that too. Well, the town will seem quite deserted. Well go away too. Oh god. Oh, smashed to smithereens. Fancy breaking such a valuable thing. Ivan romanovich, ivan romanovich, youll get a bad mark for that. That was my mothers clock. I suppose it was. If it was your mothers, then it was your mothers. Perhaps i didnt break it. Perhaps it only appears that i did. Perhaps it only appears that we exist when, in fact, we dont exist at all, i dont know. I dont know anything. No one knows anything. Why are you all staring at me . Natasha is having a nice little affair with protopopov but you dont see it at all. You dont see anything. You sit here seeing nothing. Natasha is having a nice little affair with protopopov. Would you like to date. So, how odd it all is really . When the fire started, i ran back home as fast as i could. And when i got near i could see that our house was all right and out of danger. Okay. The two little girls were standing in the doorway in their night clothes. Their mother wasnt there. People were rushing about, horses and dogs and in the childrens faces i saw a frightened, anxious appealing look i dont know what. My heart sank when i saw their faces. My god, i thought, what will these children have to go through in the course of their poor lives . And they may live a long time too. I picked them up and i ran back here with them and all the time i was running i was thinking the same thing. What will they have to go through . [bell ringing] and when i got here, my wife was here already, angry and shouting and when my little girls were standing there in the doorway with nothing on but their night clothes and the street was red with the glow from the fire and full of terrifying noises, it struck me that the same sort of thing used to happen years ago when armies would make a sudden raid on towns and plunder them and set them on fire. Anyway, is there any essential difference between things as they were and as they are now . Before very long, say in another two or three hundred years people may look at our present life as we look at the past now with horror and scorn. Our own times may seem uncouth to them, boring, frightfully uncomfortable and strange. Oh, what a great life it would be then, what a life. Please forgive me, im philosophizing my head off again but may i go on please, im bursting to philosophize, just at the moment im in the mood for it. You all seem as if youve gone to sleep. As i was saying, what a great life it will be in the future. Just try to imagine it. At the present time there are only three people of your intellectual caliber in the whole of this town but future generations will be more productive with people like you. They will go on producing more and more of the same sort until at long last the time will come when everything will be just as youd wish it yourselves. People will lead their lives in your way and then even you may be outmoded and a new lot will come along that will be even better. Im in quite a special mood today. I feel full of a tremendous urge to live, to love. All ages are in free, and passion is good for you and me. [humming] burned. Everything ive got is burned. Well, its hardly a joking matter. Is everything really burned . Everything, completely, ive got nothing left. My guitars burned. My photographs are burned. All my letters are burned, even the little notebook i was going to give to you has been burned. [laughing] no please, go away vasilyevich, you cant come in here. Cant i . Why, why can the baron come in here if i cant . We really must leave, all of us. Whats the fire doing . Its dying down, they say. Well, i must say its a peculiar thing that the baron can come in here if i cant. Lets go to the ballroom. Very well, well make a note of this. I need hardly make my moral yet more clear that might be teasing this idea. [clucks] solyony has smoked the whole room out. The barons asleep. Baron, baron . Im awfully tired. The brickworks. No, im not talking in my sleep. I really do intend to go to the brickworks and start working there quite soon. Ive already had a talk with the manager. Youre so pale, so beautiful, so fascinating. Your color seems to light up the darkness around you as if it were luminous somehow. Youre sad . Youre dissatisfied with the life you have to live. Oh, come away with me. Lets go away and Work Together . Nikolai lvovich, i wish youd go away. Oh, youre here, are you . I didnt see you. Goodbye, im going. You know, when i look at you now i keep on thinking of that day, it was a long time ago, your saints day when you talked to us about the joy of working. You were so gay and highspirited then and what a happy life i saw ahead of me. Where is it all now . There are tears in your eyes . You should go to bed. Beginning to get light, its almost morning. Oh, if only i could give my life for you. Nikolai lvovich, please go away, really now. Im going. Fyodor, are you asleep . Why dont you go home . My darling masha, oh my sweet, precious masha. Shes tired freddy, let her rest a while. Yes, ill go in a minute. My dear wife, my own good wife, if only you know how much i love you, only you. Yes. We really shouldnt do messing work. I married you seven years ago and it seemed as if it were only yesterday. My dear, well, you are amazing. Oh, i am so happy, happy, happy. And im so bored, bored, bored. I cant get it out of my head. Its simply disgusting. Its like having a nail driven in your head. No, i cant keep quiet any longer. Its about andrei. He has actually mortgaged this house to a bank and his wifes got hold of all the money and yet this house doesnt belong to him. It belongs to all four of us. Surely he must realize that if he has any honesty. Masha, why bring this up . Why we talk about it now . Andrei owes money all around, let him alone. Anyway, its disgusting. Well, we arent poor. I have my job. I teach at the county school. I give lessons in my spare time. Im just a plain, honest man. Omnia mea mecum porto. As they say. Oh, im not asking for anything. Im just disgusted by injustice. Why dont you go home fyodor. Yes, yes youre tired. You stay here and rest while i go home and ill wait for you. You have a little sleep. I am happy, happy, happy. Truth is that andrei is getting to be shallowminded. Hes aging and since hes been living with that woman hes lost all the inspiration he used to have. Long ago he was working for a professorship and yet only yesterday he boasted of having at last been elected a member of the county council. Fancy him a member with protopopov, his chairman. They say the whole towns laughing at him and hes the only one that doesnt know anything or see anything. And now you see everyones at the fire while he is just sitting in his room not taking the slightest notice of it, just playing his violin. Oh how dreadful it all is, how dreadful, dreadful. I cant stand it any longer, i cant. I really cant. You must take me out of here, take me out. I cant bear it anymore. What is it, what is it darling . Where has it all gone to . Where is it . God, id forgotten, id forgotten everything, nothing but a muddle in my head. I dont remember what the italian for window is or for ceiling. Im forgetting more and more every day and lifes slipping by and itll never come back and we shall never go to moscow. I can see that we shall never go. Dont my dear, dont. Im so miserable, i cant work. I wont work. Ive had enough of it, enough. First i worked at the telegraph and now im at the county Council Office and i hate and despite everything they give me to do there. Im 23 years old, ive been working all this time and i feel as though my brains dried up. I know ive gotten thinner and uglier and older and i find no kind of satisfaction in anything, not at all. The times passing and i feel as if im moving away from any hope of a genuine fine life. Im moving further and further away and sinking into a kind of abyss. I feel in despair and i dont know why im still alive, why i havent killed myself. Oh, dont cry my dear child, dont cry. It hurts me. Im not crying anymore. Thats enough of it, enough. Look, im not crying now. Thats enough of it, enough. Darling, let me tell you something. I just want to speak as your sister, as your friend, that is, if you want my advise. Why dont you marry the baron . After all, you do respect him. You think a lot of him. Its true, hes not good looking, but hes such a decent, cleanminded sort of man. After all, one doesnt marry for love but to fulfill a duty at least i think so. And id marry, even if i werent in love. Id marry anyone that proposed to me as long as he was a decent man. Id even marry an old man. I have been waiting all this time, imagining that wed be moving to moscow and id meet the man im meant for there, dreamt about him and ive loved him in my dreams. And its all turned out to be nonsense. Nonsense . Oh, my darling sweetheart, i understand everything perfectly. When the baron resigned his commission and came to see us in his civilian clothes, i thought he looked so plain that i actually started to cry. He asked me why i was crying but how could i tell him . But, of course, if it were gods will that he should marry you, id feel perfectly happy about it. Thats quite a different matter, quite different. She goes about looking as if shed started the fire. Oh, youre silly, masha. Youre the stupidest person in our family, forgive me for saying so. Oh my dear sisters, ive got something to confess to you, i must get some relief. I feel the need of it in my heart. Ill confess it to you two alone and then never again, never to anyone. Ill tell you in a minute. Its a secret, but youll have to know everything. I cant keep silent any longer. Im in love, in love, in love. I love that man. You saw him there just now. Well, whats the good, i love vershinin. Dont say it. I dont want to hear it. Oh, whats to be done . I thought he was strange at first and then i started to pity him and then i began to love him, love everything about him, his voice, his talk, his misfortunes, his two little girls. Nevertheless, i dont want to hear it. You can say any nonsense youd like, im not listening. Oh olya, youre stupid. If i love him, thats my fate. Thats my destiny. He loves me too. Its all rather frightening, isnt it . Its not a good thing, is it . Oh my dear, how are we going to live through the rest of our lives . Whats going to become of us . When you read a novel, everything in it seems so old and obvious. But when you fall in love yourself you suddenly discover that you dont know anything and youve got to make your own decisions. Oh my dear sisters, my dear sisters, ive confessed it all to you and now ill be quiet. Ill be like that madman in the story by gogol, silence, silence, silence. Well, what do you want . I dont understand you. And ive told you 10 times already andrei sergeyevich. In the first place youre not to call me andrei sergeyevich, call me, your honor. The firemen are asking, your honor, if they can drive through your garden to get to the river . Theyve been going the long way around all this time, its a terrible business. All right, tell them its all right. They keep on plaguing me. Wheres olya . I wanted to see you. Will you give me the keys to the cupboard, ive lost mine, you know, the key. I mean, the small one youve got. What a terrific fire. Its going down though. That ferapont annoying, may the devil take him. Silly thing he made me say, telling him to call me, your honor. Why dont you say anything olya . Its about time you stopped this nonsense, sulking like this for no reason whatever. Youre here masha and irinas here too, thats excellent. We can talk it over then. Frankly, and once and for all, what have you got against me . What is it . Drop it now andrusha, lets talk it over tomorrow. What a dreadful night. Dont get upset. Im asking you quite calmly what have you got against me . Tell me frankly. Good night olya, god bless, sleep well. Good night andrei, i should leave them now, theyre tired, tired. Talk it over tomorrow. Really andrusha, lets leave it till tomorrow. Its time to go to bed. I only want to say one thing then ill go, in a moment. First of all youve got something against my wife, against natasha. Ive always been conscious of it from the day we got married. Natasha is a fine woman. Shes honest, straightforward and highprincipled. Thats my opinion. I love and respect my wife. Do you understand that i respect her and i expect others to respect her too . I repeat, shes an honest, highprincipled woman and all your grievances against her if you dont mind my saying so are just imagination and nothing more. Secondly, you seem to be annoyed with me for not making myself a professor and not doing any Academic Work, but im working in the Council Office, im a member of the county council and i feel that my service there is just as fine and valuable as any Academic Work i might do. Im a member of the county council and if you want to know im proud of it. Thirdly, theres Something Else i must tell you. I know i mortgaged the house without asking your permission. That was wrong, i admit it, and i ask you to forgive me but i was driven to it by my debts. Im in debt for about 35,000 rubles. I dont play cards anymore. Ive given it up long ago. The only thing i can say to justify myself is that, well you girls get an annuity while i dont get anything, no income, i mean. Is masha there . Oh, is masha here . And where can she be then . Its very strange. So you wont listen . Natasha is a good, honest woman, i tell you. When i married her i thought we were going to be happy. I thought we should all be happy. Oh god. [crying] my dear sisters, my dear good sisters, dont believe what ive been saying. Dont believe it. Wheres masha, she isnt here . Extraordinary. [bells ringing] [knocking] olya, whos that knocking on the floor . Its the doctor, ivan romanovich. Hes drunk. Its been one thing after another all night. Olya, have you heard, the troops are being moved from the district. Theyre being sent somewhere a long way off. Thats only a rumor. Well be left quite alone then. Olya . What . I do respect the baron. I think a lot of him. Hes a very good man. Ill marry him olya. Ill agree to marry him if only we can go to moscow, oh lets go, please do lets go. Theres nowhere in all the world like moscow. Lets go olya, lets go. What a variety of characters. Though we cant expect to understand every word and gesture they make, we can try to understand by suspending judgment. In doing so, we will make possible the enjoyment of a great play by a writer unsurpassed in his ability to depict real people. According to psychiatrist bruno bettelheim, if we hope to live not just from moment to moment but in true consciousness of our existence, then our greatest need and most difficult achievement is to find meaning in our lives. Many of chehkovs characters persist in that attempt. We in the audience observe the search, knowing neither they nor we will necessarily succeed. As in life, there will be no grand moment of revelation. If life is tragedy to those who feel and comedy to those who think, chehkov in encouraging both compassion and thought, rises above any one category in favor of truth. This was a coproduction of Miami Dade Community college and british broadcasting corporation, british open university. [music] announcer the Bare Necessities of living healthy are easy. Just eat right, be active, and have fun. Yeah go to mypyramid. Gov to find out more