How we cite our quotes: (Act.Line)
Quote #1
Konstantin: She's bored. She's also jealous. She already hates me, she hates my play, she hates this performance tonight because she's afraid her writer friend might like Nina… She's angry because Nina's the star of the show and she isn't. (1.24-6)
Arkadina's jealousy of Nina's youth and talent mirror Konstantin's envy of Trigorin's experience and fame.
Quote #2
Konstantin: Oh Uncle… it's awful! She has all these famous people at her parties, writers and actors, and I'm the only one there who isn't famous, and they only tolerate me because I'm her son. (1.30)
While Konstantin criticizes Trigorin for being an attention-seeking hack, he has the same desire for fame and recognition.
Quote #3
Nina: Those wonderful stories he writes!
Konstantin: (coldly) I don't know. I never read them. (1.62-3)
Konstantin is just as fearful as Arkadina that some love connection will happen between Nina and Trigorin.
Quote #4
Konstantin: "Nay, but to live
in the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
stewed in corruption, honeying and making love
over the nasty sty –" (1.89)
Arkadina starts reciting Hamlet as a barb at her neurotic son—but he gives it right back to her. In this quotation, Hamlet criticizes his mother for her hasty, lust-driven marriage to Hamlet's uncle. Konstantin implies that Arkadina's relationship with Trigorin is less than innocent.
Quote #5
Paulina: I know why you want to be rid of me. It's because you've got lots of women, don't you? I'm not the only one, am I? You can't have them all move in with you, can you? (2.68)
Perhaps Masha inherited the tendency to love the wrong man from her mother, Paulina. Dorn, of course, has no intention of moving in with anybody.
Quote #6
Konstantin: Here comes the real talent! Behold, he enters! Just like Hamlet—he was reading a book too. (2.87)
Konstantin misses no opportunities to belittle Trigorin in front of Nina. It's a lost cause, though.
Quote #7
Trigorin: Her son's acting crazy. First he shoots himself, now he wants to fight a duel with me. What's the point? He sulks, he goes around whining about everything, wants to be a prophet of new forms… There's plenty of room for all the forms you want—why fight about it? (3.12)
Trigorin clearly has the upper hand in the rivalry with Konstantin. Do you think he's threatened by the younger writer at all?
Quote #8
Trigorin: And then people read it and say: "Yes, very nice, he's quite talented, very nice, but he's no Tolstoy." (2.102)
For a creative person—even a commercially successful one like Trigorin—it seems there's no escape from the envy of others.
Quote #9
Konstantin: You and those tired old friends of yours—you've taken over everything artistic; you think the only thing that's real and legitimate is your own work! Anybody different, you try to shut them up and get rid of them! I don't respect any of you! I don't respect you, and I don't respect him!
Arkadina: You… Symbolist! (3.73-4)
Talk about dysfunctional. The mother/son relationship is complicated further by the fact that Konstantin and Arkadina defend opposing artistic positions.
Quote #10
Trigorin: She's calling me! This may be what I've always needed!
Arkadina: The love of a country girl? How little you know yourself! (3.93)
Arkadina's worst fear has come true: Trigorin wants to be with Nina, not her. Arkadina won't let him go without a fight. She proceeds to flatter him into staying with her (at least for now).