Unrequited Love Analysis

The theme of unrequited love and the passing of time become apparent in the play. As earlier mentioned the play starts off with all the characters loving someone but the person they love have another love interest and they show no commitment, it's like a vicious circle. Masha really loves Konstantin but he does not return her love so she believes that her love for him will eventually pass with time or if she waits long enough he come to his senses and love her back. But this never happens and by the time (of act 3) she changes her mind and decides upon Medviedenko's love which he has had for her from the beginning: “By marrying Medviedenko...” When Trigorin threatens to leave Arkadina (who is an ageing actress holding on fiercely to her status) she begs him to stay with her: “Am I then so old and ugly that you can talk to me like this without any shame about another woman... I could never endure it should you desert me.” As time goes by Sorin becomes more ill. As time passes in the play their desires and love for certain things or people grow stronger which ultimately leaves them hopeless, this brings us to the second theme. Alienation and loneliness come to all the characters at some point in the play. The character that is clearly the most isolated is Konstantin. Once again as we have established numerous times, this is because the character cannot reach the person he or she loves. Konstantin is isolated because of his strange artistic style that he tries to create and because Arkadina, his mother, rejects him while all the other characters look up to her. To put the cherry on the cake for this poor man, when he turns to Nina for comfort she denies him and therefore he becomes even lonelier. He truly feels that he receives no understanding and that he wants to be left alone: “And for heaven's sake, all of you leave me alone! Go away.” In the same way Sorin feels very lonely and he has never had the love he wanted: “Women never liked me.” He wants to leave the country but everybody is so absorbed in their own lives that no one ever listens to the poor man when he speaks. Towards the end of the play Nina becomes lonely in her own sense when she is rejected by Trigorin, she lost her baby and her parents don't want her. We clearly see her disorientation: “I have been wandering about on the shores of the lake ever since I came back. I have often been near your house, but I have never had the courage to come in.” When one becomes lonely you start to judge your life automatically trying to find the source of your alienation. This then brings us to the third theme of self evaluation that includes self awareness or self consciousness. The characters in the play have more than enough time to do this, seeing that the main idea in Chekhov's work is internal action. Sorin speaks of how he is actually more suited for the …show more content…
Whenever he has an idea or hears something he likes he writes it down and he sometimes gets lost in a fantasy world. He is drawn to the lake where he could fish the whole time as there is nothing that he finds more pleasing and this is seen when he says: “There must be a lot of fish in this lake.” He is however rather modest when he replies to Nina's question on his fame: “Either you exaggerate my fame, or else, if it exists, all I can say is that one simply doesn't feel fame in any way.” One could say that he is a follower, when Arkadina wants them to leave he puts up a half hearted fight and then leaves. When the opportunity arises for him to have an affair with Nina he grabs it but then leaves her again. He does not see himself as a good writer but merely as someone doing his duty: “Here lies Trigorin a clever writer, but he was not as good as Turgenev.” He is admired by all the characters in the play and he is Arkadina's lover. He never gets into any real conflict with anyone. They all see him as a great artist for whom thy have great