Yelena/Helena Serebryakova Character Analysis in Uncle Vanya

Helena Serebryakova (referred to as Yelena) is Professor Serebryakov’s second wife. She and her husband have recently moved into Serebryakov’s estate in the country, where their presence disrupts the lives of the other characters who live there. Yelena is the main catalyst of the play’s conflict, as her presence in the house significantly affects every main character in one way or another, though she doesn’t mean to cause problems and often feels guilty for doing so. But Yelena is caught in the middle of many of the other characters’ issues, and this brings a misery of its own. Voynitsky is desperately in love with her, and even Astrov finds her attractive enough to pursue. This presents additional problems, as Sonya is in love with Astrov, who doesn’t return her affections. Meanwhile, Yelena’s own husband Serebryakov constantly complains about his old age and apologizes to her simply for existing. Considering all of this, it’s likely that Yelena is exposed to more misery than any other character. She has to endure Voynitsky's unwanted flirting, Sonya’s despair over Astrov, the professor’s self-pity, not to mention her own guilt about her temptation to abandon her husband for Astrov. All this becomes too much for her to bear, which eventually leads to her and Serebryakov moving out of the house for good. Yelena doesn’t mean any harm to anyone, but according to Astrov, it’s her idleness that causes so many problems. Yelena may be beautiful and well-meaning, but without a noble purpose to keep her busy, she seems fated to cause chaos in the house. She’s an object of impossible desire for several characters, but she’s also a tragic character in her own right, so doomed is she to a life of idle meaninglessness and secondhand misery.

Yelena/Helena Serebryakova Quotes in Uncle Vanya

The Uncle Vanya quotes below are all either spoken by Yelena/Helena Serebryakova or refer to Yelena/Helena Serebryakova. 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:

I still love her and am faithful to her, I help with what I can and have given up my property for the education of the children she had by the man she loved. I lost my happiness but kept my pride. And what became of her? Her youth has now gone, by the laws of nature her beauty has faded, the man she loved has passed on… What has she left?

Related Characters: Telegin (speaker), Voynitsky (“Uncle Vanya”), Serebryakov, Yelena/Helena Serebryakova

Page Number and Citation: 150

Explanation and Analysis:

I am now forty-seven. Till last year, like you, I deliberately tried to cloud my eyes with your learned talk, so as not to see real life — and I thought I was doing right. And now if you only knew! At nights I don’t sleep from vexation, from anger that I so foolishly lost the time when I could have had everything that my age now denies me!

Related Characters: Voynitsky (“Uncle Vanya”) (speaker), Serebryakov, Yelena/Helena Serebryakova, Mariya Vasilyevna

Related Literary Devices:

Page Number and Citation: 151

Explanation and Analysis:

I work all my life for learning, and I’m used to my study, the lecture hall, the colleagues I esteem — and then, I end up for no good reason in this tomb, see fools here every day, listen to worthless conversations… I want to live, I like success, I like fame, making a noise, and here it’s like being in exile. To pine every minute for the past, to watch the success of others, to be afraid of death… I can’t! I haven’t the strength! And they won’t even excuse me my age here!

Related Characters: Serebryakov (speaker), Yelena/Helena Serebryakova

Related Literary Devices:

Page Number and Citation: 159

Explanation and Analysis:

You have here my life and my love; where am I to put them, what am I to do with them? My feelings are going to waste, like a ray of sunshine falling into a chasm, and I myself am going to waste.

Related Characters: Voynitsky (“Uncle Vanya”) (speaker), Yelena/Helena Serebryakova

Page Number and Citation: 162

Explanation and Analysis:

She is beautiful, no question about that, but… she just eats, sleeps, walks, enchants us all with her beauty — and that’s all. She has no responsibilities, others work for her… It’s true, isn’t it? And an idle life can’t be a virtuous one.

Related Characters: Astrov (speaker), Sonya/Sofia Serebryakova, Yelena/Helena Serebryakova

Page Number and Citation: 166

Explanation and Analysis:

You’re bored, you can’t find a role for yourself, and boredom and inactivity are infectious. Look: Uncle Vanya does nothing and just follows you round like a shadow, I’ve left my work and come running to you to talk. I’ve got lazy, I can’t do it! Doctor Mikhail Lvovich used to visit us very seldom, once a month, it was difficult to persuade him, but now he drives over here every day, he’s left his woods and his practice. You must be a sorceress.

Related Characters: Sonya/Sofia Serebryakova (speaker), Voynitsky (“Uncle Vanya”), Sonya/Sofia Serebryakova, Serebryakov, Yelena/Helena Serebryakova, Astrov

Related Literary Devices:

Page Number and Citation: 174

Explanation and Analysis:

No, uncertainty is better… There’s still hope…

Related Characters: Sonya/Sofia Serebryakova (speaker), Yelena/Helena Serebryakova, Astrov

Page Number and Citation: 176

Explanation and Analysis:

We have here a decline which is the consequence of an impossible struggle for existence; a degeneration arising from stagnation, ignorance, a total lack of self-awareness, when a frozen, hungry, sick man, in order to preserve the remnants of life, to protect his children, instinctively, unconsciously grasps at anything to relieve his hunger and get warm, and destroys everything around without a thought for tomorrow. Now almost everything is destroyed, but nothing has yet been created to take its place.

Related Characters: Astrov (speaker), Voynitsky (“Uncle Vanya”), Sonya/Sofia Serebryakova, Yelena/Helena Serebryakova

Related Symbols: Forestry, Maps

Related Literary Devices:

Page Number and Citation: 178

Explanation and Analysis:

I think you are a good, sincere person but there’s also something strange in your whole being. You came here with your husband and everyone who was busily working here and creating something had to drop what they were doing and devote the whole summer to looking after your husband’s gout and you yourself. Both of you — he and you — infected all of us with your idleness… I’m joking of course, but still… it’s strange, and I’m convinced that if you had stayed, the devastation would have been enormous.

Related Characters: Astrov (speaker), Serebryakov, Yelena/Helena Serebryakova

Page Number and Citation: 195

Explanation and Analysis:

…But let an old man include just one observation in his farewell greetings: my friends, one must do a job of work! One must do a job of work!

Related Characters: Serebryakov (speaker), Yelena/Helena Serebryakova

Page Number and Citation: 196

Explanation and Analysis:

Yelena/Helena Serebryakova Character Timeline in Uncle Vanya

The timeline below shows where the character Yelena/Helena Serebryakova appears in Uncle Vanya. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...his life schedule has been thrown off track ever since Professor Serebryakov and his wife Yelena moved into the house. Before the couple moved in, Voynitsky and his niece Sonya used... (full context)

Professor Serebryakov, Yelena, Sonya, and Ilya Telegin (a poor landowner who also lives on the property) enter the... (full context)

...that Voynitsky is probably jealous of the professor, and Voynitsky admits to this. Voynitsky wishes Yelena could love him instead of the professor and wonders what she sees in such an... (full context)

Astrov asks if Yelena is faithful to Serebryakov. Voynitsky confirms that she is, but he considers this a misfortune.... (full context)

Sonya, Yelena, and Mariya Vasilyevna (Voynitsky’s mother) emerge from the house. Sonya quickly tells Marina (the housemaid)... (full context)

...Professor Serebryakov (whom Mariya admires), and Sonya begs the two of them to stop fighting. Yelena fills an uncomfortable pause by mentioning how nice the weather is, only for Voynitsky to... (full context)

...Astrov figures he’ll be back too late for that. On his way out, he invites Yelena and Sonya to visit the nearby garden and tree nursery that he manages. Yelena wonders... (full context)

Voynitsky and Yelena converse as they walk toward the garden’s terrace. Yelena berates Voynitsky for his teasing and... (full context)

That night, in the house’s dining room, Professor Serebryakov and Yelena sit in chairs and doze in front of an open window. The professor wakes from... (full context)

...respected. It’s driving him crazy to watch others succeed while he rots in this place. Yelena tells him to be patient, as she’ll be old as well in a few years’... (full context)

...a nightgown and carrying a candle. He warns them of a storm brewing and tells Yelena and Sonya to go to bed—he’ll take care of Serebryakov for the rest of the... (full context)

Yelena and Voynitsky are left alone together. Yelena complains that the professor wears her out, while... (full context)

...speech about how he’s wasted his life on nonsense. He feels that his love for Yelena is likewise going to waste, and he asks her what he’s supposed to do with... (full context)

...about the missed opportunities in his life. He wishes he had fallen in love with Yelena years ago, so that they’d still be married today. He wishes she would try to... (full context)

Astrov mentions that the storm woke him up and that he heard Yelena’s voice. He asks Voynitsky why he seems so glum today and asks whether Voynitsky is... (full context)

...this house. He thinks he’d be suffocated by the professor’s illness, Voynitsky’s depression, and even Yelena. Sonya asks what’s wrong with Yelena, and Astrov explains that a woman should be beautiful... (full context)

...to reflect on his old age and his dried-up feelings. He still appreciates beauty, including Yelena’s beauty, but he doesn’t consider that to be real love, even if something could happen... (full context)

Yelena enters the room and opens the window, mentioning that the storm has passed. After a... (full context)

Sonya asks Yelena if she’s happy, and Yelena admits that she isn’t. Then Sonya asks if Yelena finds... (full context)

In a drawing room the next day, Voynitsky and Sonya sit in chairs while Yelena paces and thinks to herself. Voynitsky mentions that Professor Serebryakov has requested that everyone assemble... (full context)

Sonya insists that Yelena’s boredom and idleness are infectious. Voynitsky jumps on this idea to ask for Yelena’s affection... (full context)

...that she’s glad Voynitsky is no longer in the room, as she wanted to ask Yelena something about Doctor Astrov. She lays her head on Yelena’s breast and admits she hates... (full context)

...as she’d still have hope that way. While she waits alone for Astrov to arrive, Yelena talks to herself. She observes Astrov clearly doesn’t have feelings for Sonya but wonders why... (full context)

Astrov enters the room with a map, and Yelena asks if he’s free to show it to her. As he spreads out the map... (full context)

At the end of his speech, Astrov suddenly and coldly notes that Yelena isn’t really paying attention to what he’s saying. Yelena claims to not understand most of... (full context)

...stand, he doesn’t feel capable of pretending to love someone. Suddenly, he becomes suspicious of Yelena, accusing her of asking him about Sonya as a way of indirectly asking him about... (full context)

...enters the room, holding his promised bouquet of roses. Voynitsky sees Astrov trying to kiss Yelena, who pushes away from him again. Voynitsky sets the bouquet down and mutters that it... (full context)

...labyrinth. As he asks for everyone else to be brought into the room, Sonya approaches Yelena and eagerly asks what Astrov said. Yelena wants to discuss this later, but Sonya can... (full context)

...end. Serebryakov says that he simply can’t continue living in the country, as he and his wife just weren’t made for it. He proposes selling the country house, investing the money, and... (full context)

...he can no longer live under the same roof as Voynitsky, who’s apparently gone mad. Yelena agrees and tells her husband that the two of them must leave this house today.... (full context)

A gunshot rings out from the next room, and Yelena cries out in surprise. Serebryakov runs back into the drawing room, horrified but uninjured. He... (full context)

...Both wind wool for knitting stockings in the quiet room. Telegin mentions that Serebryakov and Yelena are leaving for Kharkov immediately, and Marina remarks that they’ll be better off there. The... (full context)

As Voynitsky continues to stew in his anger, he says that he saw Astrov kissing Yelena. Astrov doesn’t deny it, but he thumbs his nose at Voynitsky without showing a hint... (full context)

...the couple leaves. As Astrov packs up the morphine jar and gets ready to leave, Yelena enters and tells Voynitsky that Serebryakov wants a word with him. Sonya leads Voynitsky by... (full context)

Yelena puts her hand on Astrov and tells him goodbye. Astrov tells her that he’s leaving... (full context)

Astrov observes that there’s something strange about Yelena: it’s possible that her idle way of life infected everyone around her, and that maybe... (full context)

...group with one last observation: “one must do a job of work!” Voynitsky apologizes to Yelena and says that he’ll never see her again. She kisses his forehead as she wishes... (full context)