Three Sisters

In a play about longing and dissatisfaction, the central symbol and object of yearning throughout the text is Moscow. In Act I, it has been 11 years since General Prozorov moved his three daughters and their brother from Moscow to a small-town district in the country on relocation orders from the army. In the late 19th century, Tsar Nicholas II decided to divide Russia’s enormous empire into 50 smaller provinces, instituting a system of governance made up of 14 ranks of local administrators to run each province. This is illustrated in the play through the district council, led by Protopopov, whom the Prozorovs disdain despite his local authority. The provinces are considered slow and boring, uncultured and uneducated, while Moscow is growing and becoming more modern through industrialization and advancing technology. The four Prozorov siblings have been carefully educated at their father’s insistence, learning multiple languages, musical instruments, and other skills that are appreciated by their fellow aristocrats. For this reason, they long to return to the city to be among others who share and appreciate their talents. However, a year has passed since their father’s death, and although they have no reason or obligation to stay in the small town they hate, they have not taken any action toward making the move.

Throughout the first act, their longing for Moscow is desperate and urgent. They speak as if their departure is imminent, and they ridicule the locals—particularly Natasha, whom the sisters are dismayed to realize is in a romantic relationship with their brother. The only people in town deemed worthy of their company are the military officers who are stationed there, and even that crowd of guests in their home has dwindled since their father’s death. They speak about Moscow as if it is the place where their lives will begin. They believe that they won’t mind the bitter winter cold there, and Irina is sure that she will finally find love in Moscow. In Act I, their dreams of Moscow gain particular prominence in the narrative, but as each act progresses, their dream becomes more distant as they lose hope and enmesh themselves further in the town. None of them address the unspoken question that hangs over the play, and no explanation is given for why they do not return to the city of their dreams.

Despite their frequently expressed desire to return to Moscow, the city is no longer really their home. They have lived most of their formative years in this small town. The Moscow they imagine no longer exists--if it ever did. They left as children, which suggests that they would have had a limited vision of reality. Their memories are also obscured by their increasing idealism, and they fail to realize that without any friends or social connections in the city, they would be forced to start from nothing to find their way there. Moscow is more useful as an unattainable goal to yearn for. It gives them hope that despite their current unhappiness, Moscow is always waiting and represents the promise that they can still achieve contentment. In Act II, when Masha waxes poetic about Moscow, Vershinin supplies a critique of her mindset by telling her about an incarcerated French diplomat who wrote at length about the birds he could see through his cell window but lost all interest in the birds once he was free to see them at his leisure. His story implies that any object of such intense longing rarely lives up to one’s expectations.