Olga Prozorov Character Analysis

OLGA: […] Every day I teach at the Gymnasium and afterwards I give lessons until evening, and so I’ve got a constant headache and my thoughts are those of an old woman. And indeed, during these four years I’ve been teaching at the Gymnasium, I’ve felt my strength and my youth draining from me every day, drop by drop. And one single thought grows stronger and stronger…

IRINA: To leave for Moscow. To sell the house, finish with everything here and—to Moscow…

OLGA: Yes! To Moscow, soon.

OLGA: Darling, I tell you as a sister, as a friend, if you want my advice, marry the Baron!

[IRINA is crying quietly.]

I know you respect him and think highly of him… True, he’s not good-looking, but he’s so decent and honest… After all, we marry not for love but just to do our duty. At any rate that’s what I think, and I would marry without being in love. I would accept whoever proposed, provided only he was a decent man. I would even marry someone old…

IRINA: I’ve been waiting. We were going to move to Moscow and there I would meet my true love, I dreamed of him, I loved him… But all that’s turned out to be nonsense, all nonsense…

ANFISA: […] Life is good, my little girl, life is good! In a school apartment in the Gymnasium with Olyushka, my darling—God has granted me this in my old age. I haven’t lived like this in all my born days, sinner that I am… A big apartment, nothing to pay, and I have a little room all to myself and a bed. All free. I wake up at night - and O Lord, Mother of God, there is no human being happier than me!

VERSHININ: What else can I say to you as a goodbye? What bit of philosophy?… [Laughs.] Life is a heavy load. Many of us find it blank, hopeless, but still one has to admit it is becoming brighter and easier every day, and one can see the time is not far off when it will be filled with light. [Looking at his watch.] I must go, I must! Once humanity was occupied with wars, filling the whole of its existence with campaigns, invasions, victories, all that has now had its day, and left behind a huge empty space, which for the time being there is nothing to fill; humanity is passionately seeking that and of course will find it. Oh, if only it could be quick about it!

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!

OLGA: […] Every day I teach at the Gymnasium and afterwards I give lessons until evening, and so I’ve got a constant headache and my thoughts are those of an old woman. And indeed, during these four years I’ve been teaching at the Gymnasium, I’ve felt my strength and my youth draining from me every day, drop by drop. And one single thought grows stronger and stronger…

IRINA: To leave for Moscow. To sell the house, finish with everything here and—to Moscow…

OLGA: Yes! To Moscow, soon.

OLGA: Darling, I tell you as a sister, as a friend, if you want my advice, marry the Baron!

[IRINA is crying quietly.]

I know you respect him and think highly of him… True, he’s not good-looking, but he’s so decent and honest… After all, we marry not for love but just to do our duty. At any rate that’s what I think, and I would marry without being in love. I would accept whoever proposed, provided only he was a decent man. I would even marry someone old…

IRINA: I’ve been waiting. We were going to move to Moscow and there I would meet my true love, I dreamed of him, I loved him… But all that’s turned out to be nonsense, all nonsense…

ANFISA: […] Life is good, my little girl, life is good! In a school apartment in the Gymnasium with Olyushka, my darling—God has granted me this in my old age. I haven’t lived like this in all my born days, sinner that I am… A big apartment, nothing to pay, and I have a little room all to myself and a bed. All free. I wake up at night - and O Lord, Mother of God, there is no human being happier than me!

VERSHININ: What else can I say to you as a goodbye? What bit of philosophy?… [Laughs.] Life is a heavy load. Many of us find it blank, hopeless, but still one has to admit it is becoming brighter and easier every day, and one can see the time is not far off when it will be filled with light. [Looking at his watch.] I must go, I must! Once humanity was occupied with wars, filling the whole of its existence with campaigns, invasions, victories, all that has now had its day, and left behind a huge empty space, which for the time being there is nothing to fill; humanity is passionately seeking that and of course will find it. Oh, if only it could be quick about it!

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!