Uncle Vanya Chekhov Bio and Themes

A detailed Summary of Uncle Vanya Chekhov Bio and Themes

Russian playwright Anton Chekhov was born in Taganrog, Russia on January 20, 1860. As a boy he was fond of practical joking and any sort of comic activity. When he was sixteen years old his family fled to Moscow after going bankrupt and left him behind to fend for himself. He supported himself by tutoring and eventually he won a scholarship for medicine at a school in Moscow. He received his medical degree in 1884, but chose to pursue writing as a career. His first work as a writer came in the form of writing comic strips for popular Russian magazines. He soon graduated to writing short stories and plays. The first of his plays to reach production was Ivanov (1887) and was not very successful. He re-worked the play and when it when opened once again in St. Petersburg, it was a resounding success. After several moderately successful works, his play The Seagull (1896), was nearly booed off stage and he vowed to give up writing for good. Seagulls was also re-worked and gained a great amount of success the second time around. Chekhov returned to writing plays and won widespread acclaim for Uncle Vanya (1899), The Three Siste

There are many prevalent themes in the play, such as the ill effects of the Industrial Revolution as it began to take hold in Russia. Industrial growth was now being openly pursued in Russia during the 1890's. It began shaping people's lives as well as the countryside itself. The doctor, Astrov, has a short speech where he speaks of his behaviour while drunk. It is satire and can be easily related to the way the industrial revolution treats its workers.

"I take on the most difficult operations and perform them perfectly. Drawup the most sweeping plans for the future. At such times I ... believe I'm

of insects so far as I'm concerned. Microbes." (Five Major Plays p.152)

Another theme present in the play is the myth that money brings happiness and that a pampered lifestyle is not necessarily all that it is cracked up to be. At the time when the play is

my own philosophical system and all of you, my lads, are no more than a lot

set, Russia has a distinct class society where the prevailing idea is that a higher class brings with it a better over-all life. However, the characters in the play, despite being well

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Approximate Word count = 766
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History

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