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Kulygin
Chebutykin is a physician and an old Prozorov family friend who is especially devoted to Irina. He is 60 at the beginning of the play and is usually seen reading a newspaper or making comical, tangential asides. He also sometimes drinks to excess. Unmarried and lonely, he’s a failure professionally and has forgotten or faked much of what he once knew as a young doctor. Halfway through the play, this results in a patient’s death and an existential breakdown for Chebutykin. At this point, he starts saying, “What can it matter?” more and more, becoming somewhat disconnected from reality.
Ivan Romanych Chebutykin Quotes in The Three Sisters
The The Three Sisters quotes below are all either spoken by Ivan Romanych Chebutykin or refer to Ivan Romanych Chebutykin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act Three
Quotes
CHEBUTYKIN: Last Wednesday I had a patient at Zasyp, a woman—she died and it’s my fault that she died. Yes… Twenty-five years ago I knew a few things but now I remember nothing. Nothing. Perhaps I am not a man but only look as if I have arms and legs and a head; perhaps I don’t exist at all but only think that I walk, eat, sleep. [Weeps.] Oh if only I could just not exist! [Stops weeping; gloomily] Devil knows… A couple of days ago they were chatting in the Club; talking about Shakespeare, Voltaire… I haven’t read them, haven’t read them at all, but I tried to look as if I had. And the others did what I did. How cheap! How low! And I remembered the woman I murdered on Wednesday… and I remembered everything, and I felt I was morally deformed, vile, loathsome… I went off and hit the bottle…
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Act Four
Quotes
OLGA [embracing both her sisters]: The band is playing so gaily and cheerfully, it makes one want to live! My God! Time will pass and we will be gone for ever, they’ll forget us, forget our faces, our voices and how many there were of us, but for those who live after us our sufferings will become joy —happiness and peace will come down on earth, and there’ll be a kind word and a blessing for those who are living now. Dear sisters, our life is not yet over. We shall live! The band is playing so gaily, so joyfully, and I think in a little while we too will know why we live, why we suffer… If we only knew, if we only knew!
CHEBUTYKIN: […] What can it matter! What can it matter!
OLGA: If we only knew, if we only knew!
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Ivan Romanych Chebutykin Quotes in The Three Sisters
The The Three Sisters quotes below are all either spoken by Ivan Romanych Chebutykin or refer to Ivan Romanych Chebutykin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act Three
Quotes
CHEBUTYKIN: Last Wednesday I had a patient at Zasyp, a woman—she died and it’s my fault that she died. Yes… Twenty-five years ago I knew a few things but now I remember nothing. Nothing. Perhaps I am not a man but only look as if I have arms and legs and a head; perhaps I don’t exist at all but only think that I walk, eat, sleep. [Weeps.] Oh if only I could just not exist! [Stops weeping; gloomily] Devil knows… A couple of days ago they were chatting in the Club; talking about Shakespeare, Voltaire… I haven’t read them, haven’t read them at all, but I tried to look as if I had. And the others did what I did. How cheap! How low! And I remembered the woman I murdered on Wednesday… and I remembered everything, and I felt I was morally deformed, vile, loathsome… I went off and hit the bottle…
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Act Four
Quotes
OLGA [embracing both her sisters]: The band is playing so gaily and cheerfully, it makes one want to live! My God! Time will pass and we will be gone for ever, they’ll forget us, forget our faces, our voices and how many there were of us, but for those who live after us our sufferings will become joy —happiness and peace will come down on earth, and there’ll be a kind word and a blessing for those who are living now. Dear sisters, our life is not yet over. We shall live! The band is playing so gaily, so joyfully, and I think in a little while we too will know why we live, why we suffer… If we only knew, if we only knew!
CHEBUTYKIN: […] What can it matter! What can it matter!
OLGA: If we only knew, if we only knew!
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
