The house in The Three Sisters is fifteen miles from the railway station. It's situated in a little town so sleepy, and with inhabitants so dull, that the cosmopolitan sisters might as well be on a desert island. Only a few military men are around to party, chat it up, and serve as potential suitors. A good bit of solitaire is played in the house, along with other one-person activities such as reading, playing piano, grading papers, and translating books.
But that's not all. The characters are emotionally isolated too, incapable of enjoying almost any company that happens to be around. They're always longing to be somewhere else. Combine the emotional and geographic isolation and you have a recipe for some serious ennui (pronounced uhn-wee). That's deep, existential boredom with a capital UGH.
Questions About Isolation
- Why don't the sisters just leave and return to Moscow?
- Why isn't Vershinin bothered by the backwardness of the town? What about Tuzenbach?
- Why is there such a divide between Andrey and his sisters?
Chew on This
The geographic isolation in The Three Sisters serves as a scapegoat for the sisters' dissatisfaction.
The three sisters would be just as unhappy in Moscow.