How we cite our quotes: (Act.Line)
Quote #1
Medvedenko: Konstantin wrote a play, and that Zarechny girl is starring in it. They're in love. Tonight their souls will be united in a unique artistic endeavor. (1.7)
The non-artist characters idealize the arts as some higher calling. The artist characters realize the blood, sweat, and soul-shattering disappointments that are the reality of creative practice.
Quote #2
Konstantin: Now, this is what I call a theater! A curtain, two wings, right and left, and then nothing. No set. Empty space! The curtain opens, all you see is the lake and the far horizon. And the curtain will open at exactly eight-thirty, just as the moon rises. (1.20)
A traditional set in Chekhov's time would be, as Konstantin describes it, "a room with three walls" (1.28). Konstantin's preference for the open air—and the real effect of a rising moon—indicates his progressive tastes, especially in comparison with his mom's.
Quote #3
Sorin: One time I was singing just like this, and one of the people in my office said: "You know, sir, you have a really loud voice." Then he thought for a minute and said: "loud… and ugly." (1.41)
A light, comic reference to the serious matter of Sorin's regret. He would like to have been a writer, artist, talented at something. He feels he's wasted his life.
Quote #4
Konstantin: Is the firepot ready? And the sulfur? When the red eyes start to glow, there has to be a smell of sulfur. (1.59)
Oh dear, oh dear. With effects like this, we can tell Konstantin's in for a bruising, critical reception.
Quote #5
Shamrayev: In Poltava, about twenty-five years ago. She was wonderful! Ravishing! Brilliant acting! And that comic, Chadin, Pavel Chadin? Do you remember him? Best Raspluyev I ever saw; better than Sadovsky, madame, I swear to God. (1.81)
For Shamrayev, name-dropping artists is a way to elevate his status with the gentlefolk.
Quote #6
Arkadina: And now it turns out he's written a masterpiece! Can you believe this? He arranged all this, that foul smell, not as a joke, but as an attack upon me! He wants to teach us how to write and how to act… Did he ever think of what I might like to watch? No, he gives us some sort of Symbolist raving. (1.112)
Ouch, mom. Arkadina feels threatened and insulted by Konstantin's rejection of the traditional theatrical forms to which she's devoted her career. So she lashes out with brutal criticism.
Quote #7
Konstantin: It started that night my play was such a howling failure. Women never forgive failures. I burned it, every last page. (2.87)
Konstantin believes that Nina rejects him because of his play. So he's failed as an artist and as a man. Double ouch.
Quote #8
Arkadina: You're so talented, so smart, you're the greatest writer alive, you're the only hope of Russia… you think I'm exaggerating? Lying? Look into my eyes. (3.103)
Arkadina knows the way to a writer's heart: his ego.
Quote #9
Dorn: Evenings, when you left your hotel, the entire street was full of people. You drift along with the crowd, no destination in mind, just back and forth; it becomes a living thing, and you become part of it, spiritually as well as physically; you begin to believe that a universal world soul is possible… like in your play, Konstantin, remember? (4.65)
Intelligent, educated, and sensitive, Dorn was the only person to genuinely compliment Konstantin on his play in Act 1.
Quote #10
Trigorin: Oh, by the way, is that stage still out there? You remember? Where you did your play. I want to take a look at it; I'm writing a story about it, so I wanted to check the setting again. (4.98)
Conversations, experiences, even the creative work of others—all just fodder for Trigorin's own art.