The Three Sisters Love Quotes

It seems like Irina is primed to fall in love. She's asking about the age of this new guy to see if he's a potential suitor. What's next—does he look like Brad Pitt?

A little self-delusion goes a long way. That's part of what keeps Kulygin one of the most contented characters in the play.

Now that's a proposal to swoon over. We just fall head-over-heels when someone calls us "ordinary," don't you? Anyway—it's actually Natasha's ordinariness that turns Andrey against her as the play progresses. And we wonder if the fact that he never loved anyone before may have something to do with his not really knowing what love is, until he finds out what it isn't.

Natasha is a symbol of simple family love in the play. This would be a nice scene of mom-kid bonding if we didn't think Natasha was generally full of, um, non-sympathetic feelings.

Chebutykin is obsessed with Irina in a half-romantic, half-fatherly-I-was-in-love-with-your-mother-and-you-look-just-like-her kind of way. It's weird, but sort of cute in a way.

Another person who can't live without Irina. This time, though, it sort of is creepy. And take note: most of the love speeches in Three Sisters have something to say about the eyes. The window to the soul, we hear.

Good grief, another love speech for Irina. And also, alas, a little bit of foreshadowing here. This is in Act III, when Tuzenbach tries to wear Irina down with his gentlemanly devotion—before either of them realizes he will ultimately sacrifice his life for her in his duel with Solyony (the creeper from the love speech in Quote #6).

Do you think Olga and Irina knew about this affair before Masha confessed it? People are pretty good at figuring out each other's business in this play, after all…

Just after Vershinin's departure, Masha's in pieces. Sure, Kulygin's an annoying dude—but the acceptance and devotion he expresses here bring us back over to his side. He wants to keep up appearances to cover over the affair, but there's plenty of real emotion mixed in there, too.