The Three Sisters: Act Four Summary & Analysis

A little more than a year later, various members of the Prozorov household and their soldier friends are in the garden. Tuzenbakh and Irina say goodbye to Fedotik and Rode. Fedotik takes a photograph to remember them by—the soldiers march out for Poland in less than an hour. Tuzenbakh, who’s retired from the military, observes that “a terrible boredom” will descend on the town in the brigade’s absence.

Chebutykin, who’s in a euphoric mood, says that he’ll soon change his lifestyle completely and become “so very good and well-behaved.” Tuzenbakh exits, but Irina and Kulygin interrupt Chebutykin’s newspaper-reading to press him for details about something that happened in town yesterday—rumor has it that Solyony lost his temper with Tuzenbakh. Kulygin says it’s rumored that Solyony loves Irina, which one can understand, although, personally, he loves Masha.

Irina hears shouted greetings offstage and shudders, remarking that “somehow everything scares me today.” She says she is sending off her belongings after dinner, as tomorrow she and Tuzenbakh are getting married and heading off to the brick factory. The day after that, she’ll start a teaching career: “a new life is beginning.” When she passed the teachers’ exam, “I even cried for joy and well-being…” Kulygin says that “somehow it’s not very serious,” but he wishes her the best. Chebutykin is overcome, giving his blessing and saying he’s like “a migratory bird which has got old and can’t fly.”

Kulygin says that with the Army’s departure, everything will go back to what it was before. Whatever anyone else says, Masha is “a fine, honest woman,” and he’s thankful for his destiny. He asks about Olga’s whereabouts, and Irina says that now that Olga’s become headmistress, she lives at the Gymnasium, and Irina is alone and bored. She has decided that if she’s destined not to live in Moscow, there is nothing she can do. She thought about Tuzenbakh’s proposal and made the decision to marry him, and then “it was as if my spirit had grown wings”—she wanted to work once again. But ever since yesterday, “some mystery is hanging over me.”

When the others go in to greet Olga’s arrival, Masha sits down with Chebutykin and asks about his love for her mother. He says that he loved her very much, but he can’t remember if she loved him. Masha says that if “you get happiness in snatches, in small pieces, and then lose it,” it hardens a person. She sees Andrey pushing his baby’s carriage in the yard and compares him to an expensive church bell that suddenly falls and smashes.

Andrey asks about the incident in the town yesterday. Chebutykin says it was nothing, just “nonsense”—Solyony challenged the Baron to a duel after an angry exchange. In fact, it’s about time for the duel now. Solyony has survived duels before. Masha says this duel shouldn’t be allowed, as the Baron could be killed, but Chebutykin says, “one baron more or one baron less—what can it matter?” In fact, we don’t even exist—“it just seems that we do.” Masha walks off, waiting for Vershinin and noticing the “dear […] happy birds” above.

Andrey admits to Chebutykin that he finds Natasha “amazingly coarse,” even inhuman, and can’t remember why he once loved her. Chebutykin tells Andrey that he’s leaving town tomorrow and advises him to do the same. Solyony walks by, on his way to the duel, and Chebutykin goes with him. Andrey walks off with Ferapont in pursuit, wanting him to sign papers.

Irina and Tuzenbakh enter. Irina asks Tuzenbakh why he is so distracted today. He won’t answer and doesn’t want to talk about what happened in town yesterday. He has an errand to do now, he says, and then will come back to her. He tells Irina how much he loves her, and that tomorrow they’ll go away together and be happy—but he knows she doesn’t love him. Irina weeps. She’s never loved anyone, except in her dreams: her soul is “like an expensive piano, shut and its key lost.” He kisses her again and, at a loss for words, walks off.

Andrey comes in, pushing the baby’s carriage again. He wonders where time and hope have gone—no sooner do people begin to live than they become “indifferent, useless, unhappy.” Yet, when he thinks of the future, “there’s a feeling of ease, of space,” and he imagines that he and his children will be freed from “the ignoble life of a parasite.” Natasha looks out the window and scolds him for talking too loudly around the sleeping baby. She orders Ferapont to push the carriage instead.

Vershinin, Olga, and Anfisa come outside to listen to some traveling musicians. Anfisa greets Irina and tells her how good life has become—she’s now living in a school apartment with Olga, with her own room and no expenses. She feels that there’s “no human being happier than me.”

While Anfisa goes in search of Masha, Olga and Vershinin say goodbye. Olga comments that “nothing happens as we want it”—now that she’s become headmistress, a job she never sought, she won’t go to Moscow. Vershinin offers her a “bit of philosophy” as a goodbye, saying that while life seems heavy and hopeless, it’s gotten better every day, and someday it will be “filled with light.” Humanity is seeking something to fill the void left by its former obsession with war and will someday find it—“if only it could be quick about it!”

Olga moves aside as Masha enters and kisses Vershinin goodbye. He asks her not to forget him and quickly leaves. Olga tries to stop Masha’s tears, but when Kulygin comes in, he tells Olga to let her cry. He tells Masha, “You are my wife and I am happy in spite of everything […] We will begin to live again as we used to and I won’t say one word to you.” Masha, struggling against sobs, sings “an oak in leaf.”

In the distance, there’s the sound of a muffled shot. Olga and Irina sit with Masha, trying to comfort her. Kulygin puts on a fake mustache and beard he’d confiscated from a little boy at school. Olga laughs and Masha cries.

Natasha comes out, giving orders about the children and telling Andrey that he must move into Irina’s old room to play his violin, and baby Sofochka will get his room. Now that the sisters are gone from the house, she’s busy making plans to cut down trees on the property. She tells Irina that the belt she’s wearing is tasteless and doesn’t suit her. She walks off shouting at a maid.

A band starts playing to accompany the soldiers’ departure. Chebutykin comes in and reluctantly whispers something in Olga’s ear. She is alarmed, but Chebutykin says irritably, “What can it matter!” Olga embraces Irina and struggles to tell her what’s happened—Tuzenbakh has just been killed in a duel. Irina weeps: “I knew it, I knew it…” Chebutykin sits down with his newspaper and softly sings a cheerful song.

The three sisters stand clinging to one another. Masha says they must start life anew. Irina says that someday, they’ll understand the reason for all this suffering, but for now, there’s nothing to do but work—as a teacher, she will “give away [her] whole life to those who perhaps need it.” Olga hugs her sisters and says that although they’ll be forgotten in time, their suffering will become joy for those who come after—but if only they knew why they suffer. Chebutykin continues to mutter, “What can it matter!” Olga says again, “If we only knew!”