The Three Sisters: Act One Summary & Analysis

The three Prozorov sisters are sitting in their drawing-room on a sunny fifth of May. Irina, the youngest sister, is celebrating her name-day. Olga, the eldest, recalls that exactly one year ago, the sisters’ father, an army general, died; it was a cold and snowy day. Olga thought she wouldn’t live through it, but today they’re remembering the event without pain, and Irina looks radiant. “Why bring it all back!” Irina objects.

Three men—Baron Tuzenbakh, Chebutykin, and Solyony—appear in the reception hall beyond. Olga continues to reminisce about the family’s departure from their hometown of Moscow 11 years ago. This morning, when she saw the beauty of spring, “joy welled up in [her] soul and [she] had a huge longing for home.”

The middle sister, Masha, is reading a book and quietly whistling. Olga scolds her and goes on to complain that teaching at the Gymnasium has given her chronic headaches and sapped her youth. She and Irina agree that their strongest desire is to sell the house and move back to Moscow.

Irina feels “radiant” and hopeful. Olga observes that Irina and Masha are still beautiful, but that at 28, she’s gotten thin and lost her looks. She says her life would be better if she were married and could stay at home. After a pause, she adds, “I’d love my husband.”

Tuzenbakh comes in and tells them that Vershinin, their new commander, will be stopping by. Vershinin is in his 40s, talkative, and married—his wife is “sort of crazy […] and often attempts suicide.” Solyony and Chebutykin enter. Irina greets Chebutykin joyously, telling him that she knows the way she wants to live. She has concluded that happiness comes from work, whether one is a laborer, a shepherd, or a schoolteacher—anything is better than being “a young woman who gets up at midday […] then spends two hours dressing.”

Tuzenbakh says he understands Irina’s desire. He, too, was “protected from work” in his privileged upbringing, but now he believes that “a mighty, healthy storm is rising,” which will “blow sloth, indifference […] right out of our society” in 25 years’ time. Chebutykin laughs that he’s never “lifted a finger” or read a book since he left university, then leaves the room on a thin pretext, obviously planning to bring Irina a gift.

Masha prepares to leave, too, singing “an oak in leaf […] a chain of gold.” She says the name-day crowd is much smaller than when their father was alive, and it’s making her sad. Irina is cross at her departure, but Olga tearfully understands. Masha scolds Olga to “stop blubbing.” Then the old servants, Anfisa and Ferapont, bring in a cake that Protopopov, the head of the District Council, has sent for Irina. Chebutykin brings in a silver samovar. The sisters object to such an expensive present, but Chebutykin says the girls are all he has in his life. He also loved their late mother.

Lieutenant-Colonel Vershinin arrives. He remembers meeting the sisters when they were just little girls. The sisters are delighted to learn that Vershinin is from Moscow, having served as an officer in their father’s brigade. He even lived for a time on the same street. The sisters tell him that they expect to move to Moscow by the autumn. Masha suddenly remembers Vershinin—when they were girls, they’d teasingly called him “The Lovesick Major.” She says that Vershinin has aged and inexplicably starts to cry.

Vershinin mentions the sisters’ mother, and Masha remarks that she’s beginning to forget her mother’s face—and that someday, they, too, will be forgotten. Vershinin agrees that being forgotten is human destiny. The things that seem significant to us, he goes on, will no longer seem important to future generations. Likewise, perhaps Columbus and Copernicus seemed like “crank[s]” to their own generations. Tuzenbakh adds that, on the other hand, perhaps people will look back and admire modern-day ethical advances (“no tortures, no executions”). Solyony just says, “Cluck, cluck, cluck” in mockery of their philosophical talk.

Offstage, Andrey is heard playing the violin. Irina explains that he’s “our scholar,” headed for a university chair. They like to tease Andrey about his love for a local woman, whose clothes Masha mocks as “pathetic.” Andrey has better taste than that and is probably just teasing them with this love affair. She calls Andrey in and introduces him to Vershinin. The sisters proceed to brag about Andrey as a “master of all trades.” Looking at one of Andrey’s homemade portrait frames, Vershinin just says, “Yes…that’s something…”

Andrey explains that their late father “piled education onto us,” like foreign languages; Irina even speaks Italian. Masha calls it “superfluous knowledge.” Vershinin says that even backward provincial towns need educated people, and that even if they’re presently outnumbered, in time their numbers will increase, and someday “life on earth will be inexpressibly beautiful and amazing.” He affirms that it’s our duty now to dream and prepare for that day. At this, Masha abruptly takes off her hat and says, “I’m staying for lunch.”

Tuzenbakh agrees with Vershinin, but says that in order to prepare for that “beautiful and amazing” life, one must work. Vershinin wanders around the pleasant drawing-room and muses about the idea that life is just a “rough draft”; if he had the chance to start over again, he wouldn’t marry.

Kulygin enters and offers Irina his good wishes. He gives her the present of a book he’s written, a history of the school where he and Olga teach. When Irina explains that he’d already given her this book for Easter, he just laughs. He introduces himself to Vershinin before the latter leaves, and he kisses Masha. Happily embracing his wife, he tells Masha that they are invited to an excursion at the Principal’s house. Masha angrily refuses to come at first, then glumly concedes, asking Kulygin to leave her alone.

Olga announces that lunch is served. Masha sternly warns Chebutykin not to drink, and he insists that he no longer drinks excessively; besides, what does it matter? To herself, Masha complains about a boring evening with Kulygin’s colleagues—“what a cursed, intolerable life…” Everyone, including Vershinin, proceeds to the table, except for Irina and Tuzenbakh. Irina tells Tuzenbakh that Masha is “out of sorts,” and that when she married Kulygin at 18, he seemed very intelligent to her. Now, although he is “the kindest of men,” he no longer seems so intelligent.

Now that they’re alone together, Tuzenbakh begins speaking to Irina of his love for her. She tries to cut him off, but he keeps talking: “I have a passionate thirst for life […] for work, and that thirst has merged in my soul with my love for you.” Because of Irina’s beauty, life is beautiful to him. Crying, Irina wonders if life only seems beautiful. She says that for “us three sisters life […] has choked us like a weed.” The only solution to such pessimism, she says, is to work.

Natasha arrives then, late for lunch, wearing a pink dress with a green belt. Seeing so many guests, she feels embarrassed and awkward. Olga comes out and greets her, warning her in a low voice that her green belt doesn’t go with her outfit. Natasha tearfully protests that it’s really “a sort of neutral color.” She joins everyone in the hall.

Two special lieutenants, Fedotik and Rode, arrive with a basket of flowers for Irina. Fedotik takes photographs and gives her a spinning top as a gift. Irina is delighted. During lunch, Kulygin observes that there are 13 guests at the table, and he jokes that this means there are lovers present. Chebutykin teases Natasha for blushing at this. Natasha runs out of the hall.

Andrey follows Natasha into the drawing-room and begs her to stay. He assures her that everyone is fond of her and didn’t mean any harm. They move out of sight of the other guests, and Andrey declares his love for Natasha and asks her to become his wife. They kiss.