![]() Of course we won’t take part in that life, but we are living for it now, working, yes, suffering, we are creating that life-and in this alone lies the goal of our existence and, if you like, our happiness.” In other words, progress is an inevitable force, and it’s one’s responsibility to participate in it through one’s actions now, even if one can’t foresee the fruits of his or her work. When Vershinin discusses the nature of change with fellow officer Tuzenbakh, he argues that present concerns are only relative: “In two or three hundred or even a thousand years-the point isn’t in the precise period-a new, happy life will dawn. Throughout the play, Vershinin repeatedly looks at suffering, change, and life’s meaning in an abstract, albeit optimistic, way. By presenting these individuals’ extreme interpretations of what the meaning of life could be, and concluding the play with the sisters’ own inability to find an answer to this question, Chekov argues that it’s impossible to know the meaning of life, yet people must face this uncertainty with as much courage as they can. ![]() Whereas Vershinin takes an abstract, progressive approach to the meaning of life, Chebutykin despairs over his personal failures, and the sisters finally reject both of these approaches, yet they cannot assign any definite meaning to their own suffering. The year after their father’s death, they befriend Vershinin, an intellectually inclined army officer, whose optimism contrasts with the resignation of Chebutykin, a lifelong family friend and failed physician. In The Three Sisters, Russian sisters Olga, Masha, and Irina Prozorov wrestle with the meaning of change and suffering in human life. ![]()
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