The End of the Day: Act 2 Voyage: The Coast of Utopia

The second act of Voyage, is still filled with philosophies and conflicts within the family, but there is a slight change in the way that some of the characters discover things about their nature that they didn’t know. They are more passionate and not only are there changes in their love life but in the urge of some of them for revolution.

In the first pages of the second act, a new character called Natalie appears in the story. She is a very desperate girl that is searching for a man, and that tries to seduce Michael various times until she achieves it. This woman is only desperate but she has very low self esteem and when she is rejected she answers in the following way, “Don’t you think I’m pretty?”(76) When she says this, she argues that she has been rejected because she is ugly, making of herself a victim. She’s probably thought she was pretty but then with one rejection she thought the worst. This character is very similar to Sonya, in Uncle Vanya. They are both desperate in their own way, looking to fall in love and after a man. They also suffer a lot with their looks. While Sonya sees herself as simply ugly, Natalie thinks that she is being rejected because she is not pretty enough. The way both of these characters are structured shows a pattern in the way that apparently Russians see women. Both of those plays have a woman that is weak and desperate, especially for men. This may represent the image that some people had during those times about women and their roles in society, or maybe it is just an element used in literature about Russia. It is not very surprising to notice that women were seen as inferior and unable to perform important functions within their intellectual and academic world.

The other topic that appears many times in this act is revolution. Michael is very motivated to make part of a revolution with the help of Belinsky. His ideas are based on the different philosophies that he has been studying and under the influence of his friend. “He’s discovered revolution. Now he knows where he was going wrong.”(114) When Tatiana says the quote above, she is referring to Michael and to his final decision of what he wants to do with his life. After studying so many philosophers and changing his mind on who had the right ideology, he decided to stick to revolution. He had finally knew where he went wrong and was beginning to aim towards a clear goal. As I had said before, this is very contradicting because Michael wants revolution when he is a person that represents a tyrant due to the fact that his family owns so many serfs. The topic of revolution is very constant in these types of plays, especially if they are about Russia, because of the importance that the Russian Revolution had over the rest of the world.

Finally, the ending of the play has a last scene that impacts the reader. Alexander goes blind and he insists to go and “watch” the sunset. This is apparently a scandal, especially for his wife, but as they talk of Michael and how he rebelled and dropped the army, he begins to ask about the sunset. When they are done speaking he says, “I saw it go down.”(119) This may be a metaphor that he is using to express his feelings about what happened with Michael. When he mentions that he did see when it went down, he may be referring to Michael and how he was blind at first when he didn’t see as a father that his son didn’t want to do all those things that were expected of him, but that now he saw how it all fit into place. He realized that Michael was now where he wanted to be, although it was degrading for his family and its dignity. A sunset at the end showed how his hopes faded away and how he did notice it when it happened.

Imperfect Attempts of an Utopia: Voyage Act 1

Voyage, the first play of the Coast of Utopia, is very different from all of the plays that I have read. Its characters are in a way, undeveloped, as they are truly simple and even idiotic. Their conversations are completely egocentric as they do not have any interests beside their own.

The first act of Voyage, introduces to the reader a traditional Russian family that struggles constantly to be perfect, but that in reality is nowhere near perfection. The sisters are all in conflict for they do not think for themselves, and therefore act under the influence of other members of the family, such as their brother Michael. This character is always jealous his sister’s suitors and he ends up destroying all of their relationships at the beginning of the play. Michael is a young man that likes to defy authority, and in a way this is very contradicting because he thinks as a liberal but he lives under the conditions of his father, which includes being part of the army. In his various attempts to try to find his own ideology, Michael changes hi mind about the philosophers he admires very often. This shows his lack of self confidence, because he can’t even choose what to think. “I got led astray by Schelling. He tried to make the Self just another part of the world- But now Fichte shows that the world doesn’t exist except where I meet it-there is nothing but Self. Now I know where I was going wrong.” (33) The quote above shows how Michael changes his mind so drastically about the philosophers he decides to read. Every time he talks about them, he mentions the “Self” which indicates that he is really trying to understand himself and to find his true vocation in life, because he can’t really do it on his own. If you think about it, this is very pathetic. A person that doesn’t have ideas of his own and has to use ideas from others is definitely very sad.

When Michael talks about revolution and change, it is also very hard to believe him because the ideal that he fights for are not exactly his own. This is obvious when he supports the cause of his friend that fights for the servant population and their rights. When doing this, he is clearly contradicting himself. His father owns hundreds of servants and Michael also controls them as he is the son and therefore future heir. Belinsky is Michael’s friend and he has a lot of liberal ideas, His influence over Michael is great because he manages to convince him to supporting his causes. “He wrote a play against serfdom, that’s why.”(43) Belinsky writes articles and plays about serfdom and stats that there is no literature in their country. The fact that Michael supports his friend in this ideologies is very hypocritical of his part because by trying to create this Utopia out of his life with philosophy and the rights of slaves, he is contradicting himself because he still own hundreds of “souls” and he does use them for his personal benefits.

This play addresses many topics that are very common with other works related to Russia, such as Uncle Vanya. The constant attempts for revolution and change in the Russian society show in this literary works are actually an effort to reach a Utopia. In Uncle Vanya, the family wants to have an equal distribution of land and to receive what they deserve for their hard work. In Voyage, the characters want to fight for the rights of the serfs and for what corresponds for them to have. It is possible to think that this theme of Utopia is common in a country such as Russia because in a way, its various political, economical and social movements have led to revolutions and therefore to systems such as communism, which is a way of saying Utopia, as it tries to have a perfect or equalitarian society.