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Personification
Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:
All of the action of Uncle Vanya unfolds at an estate in rural Russia. The first act takes place in the garden, and the remaining acts take place in various rooms inside the house: the dining room, the drawing room, and Voynitsky's room. Because the estate originally belonged to his late first wife and technically belongs to Sonya, the estate's full-time residents are Serebryakov's in-laws through his first marriage. Voynitsky is his brother-in-law, and Mariya is his mother-in-law. Sonya is Serebryakov's daughter by his first wife. The arrival of Serebryakov and Yelena from the city disrupts the routines and order of these full-time residents, as well as of the housekeeper Marina. According to Voynitsky, the only reason Serebryakov and Yelena appear is that they can't afford to live in the city.
Although none of the play's action takes place beyond the bounds of the estate, the city looms in the background as a sort of antithetical setting. The disruptive effect that Serebryakov and Yelena have is connected to their urban lifestyle. Very open about his preference for "the bosom of nature" over cities, Astrov speaks negatively about urban development, lamenting that it encroaches on the countryside without bringing any benefits to the people who live there. His map-making activities give the audience an idea of the geography of the local area and the way it has changed as a result of the 19th century's industrial development and urbanization.
Temporally, the play is set in the same period it was written in: the turn of the 20th. Published in 1897, with a premiere two years later, the play picks up on sentiments and tensions that prevailed as Russia approached the 20th century. Industrial development brought changes to the natural landscape, urban areas, and class makeup. At the same time, poverty, hunger, and bad working conditions spurred discontent in both urban and rural areas. The working and middle classes were growing in cities, which brought changes to the political atmosphere.
Keeping in mind the genre, one can often glean extra tidbits about a play's setting from the stage directions that appear at the beginning of each act. Chekhov gives the first and fourth acts the most substantial opening stage directions. At the start of the fourth act, these directions include a detail about a map of Africa hanging on the wall, playfully adding that it is "obviously not needed by anyone here." As a result of this detail, the city is no longer the only alternative geographical setting that exists in the background of the play. This map serves as an antithesis to Astrov's hyper-local map. Concerned with their own lives and the local area, the characters reveal a relatively provincial frame of reference in their dialogue and actions. Hanging on the wall in the background of the final act, in which everything returns to normal and no one does anything to change their miserable outlook, the African map serves as a reminder of the world beyond the estate and Russia that no one seems aware of.
Whereas stage directions tend only to include the most important details and are therefore delivered with straightforward diction and a neutral tone, Chekhov's own voice shines through in this sentence. He simultaneously widens the otherwise narrow perspective of the play and pokes fun at his characters for their navel-gazing.
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