The Three Sisters: Act Three Summary & Analysis

A year later, a fire is raging in the town. It’s after two o’clock in the morning at the Prozorov house. Nobody has slept. Olga is handing out clothing for those whose homes have burnt. The Vershinins’ house almost burned, so they’ll be spending the night.

Natasha comes in, saying they must form a charitable association to help the fire victims. She’s quickly distracted by her reflection in the mirror, worrying that she looks bad while so many people are in the house. Then she yells at Anfisa, who’s exhausted from helping, for daring to sit down in her presence. She tells Olga she doesn’t understand why the Prozorovs keep the old woman, who’s no longer capable of working much. Olga, angered by Natasha’s attitude, says that Anfisa has been with them for 30 years. Natasha stamps her feet and insists that she is in charge of the household, not Olga, and that she wants “that old witch” gone.

Kulygin enters in search of Masha. Offhandedly, he tells Olga that if he hadn’t found Masha, he would have married her instead. Then he hears Chebutykin coming, drunk for the first time in years. They all retreat. Chebutykin enters, walking soberly, and laments that he’s forgotten everything he knew as a young doctor. The other day, one of his patients died under his care. He reflects that perhaps he is “not a man but only look as if I have arms and legs and a head […] if only I could just not exist!” The memory of the woman’s death made him feel “morally deformed […] loathsome,” so he got drunk.

Irina, Tuzenbakh, and Kulygin come in and talk about arranging a benefit concert for the fire victims. Vershinin mentions that the brigade might be transferred to Poland soon; Irina says that they will be leaving, too, for Moscow. Just then, Chebutykin drops a clock that had belonged to the sisters’ mother. “Perhaps I didn’t break it,” he says, “but it just looks as if I did. Perhaps we just think we exist but really we don’t.” He asks why they all just sit here and “don’t see anything.” He tells them that Natasha is having an affair with Protopopov.

Vershinin reflects on the strangeness of the night—the fright of the fire reminds him of long-ago pillaging and burning, and makes him wonder how “clumsy and burdensome” modern life will appear to people in two or three hundred years. He apologizes for talking philosophy, but he’s in the mood for it. He starts singing an aria about love from Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin, and Masha sings along.

Tuzenbakh announces that he will soon be starting work in a brick factory. He sees Irina’s dissatisfaction with life and recalls their past conversation about the joys of work—“if only I were allowed to give up my life for you!”

Masha tells Kulygin that he should go home. Kulygin calls her an “astonishing woman” and declares his love for her and his happiness. Masha just crankily recites the Latin conjugation for the verb “to love” and changes the subject to Andrey’s troubles. Andrey has mortgaged the sisters’ house to pay his gambling debts, but Natasha has taken all the money. Kulygin says he’ll wait for Masha at home while she rests.

Irina laments that Andrey has become a “trivial man,” and that Natasha has led him astray. He’s boasting of finally having become a member of the District Council; meanwhile, the town laughs at him because he’s oblivious to Natasha’s affair with Protopopov, the chairman. Even now, he sits in his room, oblivious to the fire. She starts to cry.

Irina weeps that she’s getting older and now sees that they won’t be moving to Moscow after all. She works in the Town Council and hates it every bit as much as the Telegraph Office. At 23, she feels that she’s only moving “further and further away, into some abyss.”

Olga advises her sister to marry Baron Tuzenbakh. He may not be handsome, but he is “decent and honest,” and “after all, we marry not for love but just to do our duty.” Olga herself would marry without love, as long as a “decent man” proposed, even if he were old. Irina replies that she’s been waiting until they move to Moscow—she dreamed of meeting her true love there. But that has “turned out to be nonsense, all nonsense.”

Masha comes in, saying she wants to confess; her spirit is heavy: “In a word, I love Vershinin…” Olga retreats behind her bedroom screen and says that she can’t hear whatever silly things Masha is saying. Masha replies that loving Vershinin must be her destiny—love is so different from what one reads in a novel.

Andrey joins his sisters and says it’s time to “really have it out, once and for all”—what do they all have against him? Just then Masha hears Vershinin singing in the distance and excuses herself. The other sisters want to sleep instead of argue, but Andrey presses on. He knows, first of all, that they’ve had something against Natasha ever since his wedding day, but they should know that she is an “honest, noble human being.” And, second, his membership in the District Council is “just as hallowed and elevated” as the academic job they wanted him to have. Finally, he asks their forgiveness for mortgaging the house without their permission—he has no income to pay his card-playing debts, though he claims to have stopped playing cards now.

Kulygin passes through the room in search of Masha. Andrey notices that his sisters aren’t listening, but he repeats, “Natasha is an exceptional, honest human being.” He thought that when they got married, they’d be happy. He starts weeping, saying, “dear sisters, don’t believe me, don’t believe me…” and exits.

Olga and Irina talk about the rumor that the brigade will be transferred somewhere far away. Finally, Irina says that she does respect the Baron and will indeed marry him—“only,” she says, “let us go to Moscow! I beg you, let us go! There’s nothing better than Moscow in the whole world!”