Contradicting Uncle: Uncle Vanya

The first act of Uncle Vanya is a perfect demonstration of what Russia’s rural society was during that period in history. The characters of this play are very well defined, and each one completely different from the rest.

The first image that is presented to the reader is that of the countryside and the family having tea in the garden. The “social pyramid” of the house is shown at the beginning when they introduce characters such as the old nurse, the doctor, the professor and his young wife, Sonia their daughter, Maria who is the professor’s former mother in law, and Vanya his son, and therefore Sonia’s Uncle. This pyramid is based more on the influence that the members of the household have on others, than on the power or money they may have. Although it is not logical, Uncle Vanya, who is supposed to be somewhat important, is actually the victim. He is never taken into account, and when he is, he second doubts himself, throwing away the opportunities that the family gives him to stand up for himself. When he speaks of society and its problems, he speaks as if he wasn’t part of it, trying to avoid by all means any social or political responsibility. He is constantly criticizing and his comments are very pessimistic. “...twenty-five years lecturing and writing about what intelligent people already know, and stupid people aren’t interested in- which means twenty-five years of milling the wind.”(168) In these lines, Vanya attacks the professor’s accomplishments and talks about how his lessons were completely worthless. These comments are full of envy and hate, which shows that Vanya actually wants to be like the rest of the people that surround him, but that instead he tries to make them feel useless, so that he appears to be stronger. I believe that what the author meant to teach us when creating Uncle Vanya, was that part of our human nature involves having an Uncle Vanya inside us. At the end of the day we are all pessimists, envious of others and judges of society. Chekhov shows us that humans are not positive and that characters such as Candide and Felicity don’t really convey the nature of humanity.

Further on in the first act, Vanya makes the following statement, “Oh, yes! An enlightened personality who never enlightened anybody.”(171) This paradox is actually a making a criticism on Vanya himself. His mother tells him that he used to be an “enlightened personality” and he responds with that sarcastic paradox. It is really sad how this man hates life so much that he even despites his own accomplishments. He doesn’t grant others or himself any merits.

Another character that was very interesting and to some point completely different from Vanya was the doctor. In a short monologue he talks about the barbarian behavior of people and how those acts of selfishness have destroyed nature. “When I hear the rustling of young trees which I have planted with my own hands, I realize that the climate is somewhat in my power, and that if, a thousand years from now, mankind is happy, I shall be responsible for that too, in a small way.” (174) The social and environmental responsibility that the doctor has is definitely impressive for that period of time. Today there is more conscience about those topics because we humans are living the effects that this is bringing to the planet. Chekhov, as an author was really ahead of his time and he did have a futuristic vision when creating a character such as the doctor. It is weird to think that Russians would have those ideologies, as they saw that the destruction of some natural resources would be beneficial for the overall development and growth of their Empire, which involved the construction of railroads and great cities. The main idea of this part of the play is to show how Russians think and how they act accordingly to their thoughts, therefore reveling a little of Uncle Vanya’s essence.