How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Act.Line). Every time a character talks counts as one line, even if what they say turns into a long monologue. We used Julius West's translation.
Quote #1
ANYA. We went to Paris; it's cold there and snowing. I talk French perfectly horribly. My mother lives on the fifth floor. I go to her, and find her there with various Frenchmen, women, an old abbé with a book, and everything in tobacco smoke and with no comfort at all. (1.48)
Anya reacts negatively to the foreignness of Paris: the living quarters, the language, the people, the religion, and the habits. She wants to save her mother from this alien world.
Quote #2
LUBOV. But suppose I'm dreaming! God knows I love my own country, I love it deeply; I couldn't look out of the railway carriage, I cried so much. (1.96)
Lubov's overwhelming emotional response upon returning home creates high stakes for the loss of that home. It also increases our frustration when Lubov does nothing to save it.
Quote #3
LUBOV. Last year, when they had sold the villa to pay my debts, I went away to Paris, and there he robbed me of all I had and threw me over and went off with another woman. I tried to poison myself. ... It was so silly, so shameful. ... And suddenly I longed to be back in Russia, my own land, with my little girl. (2.59)
For Lubov, escaping to Russia becomes the solution to the problems in Paris. When the problems in Russia become insurmountable, she'll return to Paris.
Quote #4
DUNYASHA. I hardly knew you, Yasha. You have changed abroad. (1.66)
Dunyasha is attracted to Yasha's new cosmopolitan airs. Her crush seems to stem from a combination of sexual interest and a belief that he might be a key to upward mobility.
Quote #5
PISCHIK. [To LUBOV ANDREYEVNA] What about Paris? Eh? Did you eat frogs?
LUBOV. I ate crocodiles. (1.120)
Lubov's stay in Paris gives her an exoticism that excites the men at home.
Quote #6
VARYA. There are two telegrams for you, little mother. [Picks out a key and noisily unlocks an antique cupboard] Here they are.
LUBOV. They're from Paris. ... [Tears them up without reading them] I've done with Paris. (1.125)
In a wily use of a prop – the telegram – Chekhov gives us a visual representation of Lubov's changing attitude toward home and Paris. In Act 1, she tears the telegrams up without reading them. By Act 3, she's hiding them in her sleeve.
Quote #7
CHARLOTTA. [Thoughtfully] I haven't a real passport. (2.1)
Charlotta's the only character without a strong allegiance to Paris or Russia. Her independence frees her from the painful attachments of, say, Lubov, but it doesn't seem to fulfill her.
Quote #8
DUNYASHA. [To YASHA] Still, it must be nice to live abroad.
YASHA. Yes, certainly. I cannot differ from you there. [Yawns and lights a cigar.]
EPIKHODOV. That is perfectly natural. Abroad everything is in full complexity. (2.6-8)
Epikhodov tries to sound educated and knowledgeable to compete with Yasha. Instead, he makes strange pronouncements like this.
Quote #9
YASHA. If you go to Paris again, then please take me with you. It's absolutely impossible for me to stop here. [Looking round; in an undertone] What's the good of talking about it, you see for yourself that this is an uneducated country, with an immoral population, and it's so dull. (3.92)
Yasha has none of the sentimental attachment to Russia shared by Lubov, Gaev, and Anya. He wants excitement and escape. He also wants to sever ties with his peasant past, in the shape of his mother.
Quote #10
YASHA. What's the use of crying? [Drinks champagne] In six days I'll be again in Paris. To-morrow we get into the express and off we go. I can hardly believe it. Vive la France! It doesn't suit me here, I can't live here ... it's no good. Well, I've seen the uncivilized world; I have had enough of it. [Drinks champagne] (4.49)
Though they come from the same place, Yasha uses his travel as an excuse to discard Dunyasha as something lower than he.