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How curious to see a famous actress crying, especially over such a tiny thing! And isn't this curious, too? - a famous writer, the darling of the public, someone they write about in all the papers, someone they sell pictures of, someone who's translated into foreign languages - and he spends the whole day fishing. Konstantin's play, it might be said, does indeed go down the "picturesque path" - all effects, and no clear aims. The Seagull is a play obsessed with writing and with writers, and Dorn's is only one of several opinions about how writing might best be accomplished.

Act Oneĭorn's lines closely echo sentiments that Chekhov himself expressed in a letter. If you don't, if you go down the picturesque path that has no definite goal at the end of it, then you'll lose your way and your talent will destroy you. In anything you write there must be a clear and definite thought. In short, it fails to be a "new form" with a clear aim in the way its author desired.ĭORN. Though there is a real difficulty with the genre of the pla, it's a muddle of pseudo-Maeterlinck and Decadent school writing. It's difficult to pin down precisely how Chekhov wants us to respond to Konstantin as a writer: Is his play laughable or moving? Arkadina laughs at it and Dorn is moved by it. These are lines written by Konstantin and spoken by Nina as part of the abortive performance of Konstantin's play. All, all, all do I remember, and every life I live again in my own self. In me the consciousness of human beings has merged with the instincts of animals. In me are the souls of Alexander the Great, of Caesar, of Shakespeare, of Napoleon, and of the least of leeches. You might also see in the function of Masha's "costume" a reflection of the play's fascination with acting and theater.

Masha's sardonic, indifferent reply focuses on her own unrequited passion for Konstantin.

Medvedenko's fascination with Masha's clothes point clearly to his love for her, which he declares later in the same scene. These opening lines to the play establish several of its key concerns.