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The Seagull - Anton Chekhov

A play written by Anton Chekhov as a Comedy, but would have worked better if it was a tragedy. Incidentally the play is also about playwrights, actresses and people close to them. The play has an ensemble cast, but there is one character who slightly gives the impression of a protagonist, Constantine Treplieff, who is the son of a famous actress. He suffers from depression disappointment and clearly lacks some love and validation. But he is going to get none of it and is going to be chagrined for wanting it.

None of the characters in the story are going to get a deserving end, so don't go in with high hopes for any of them. Even the most hateful of them all, Constantine's mother, doesn't gets what she deserves. To be honest I wanted to see her suffer. She was a selfish, narcissistic and unloving mother who not only made Constantine's life miserable but did her best to make her lovers life worse too. Play ends on a note of tragedy.

I couldn't relate much with the characters. Some of them were insufferable and spoiled rich people, who couldn't deal their own fair share of suffering. I know that is very not kind, but yeah, Chekhov really failed to create much sympathy for them. Character which I found enjoyable and relatable was the doctor, Eugene Dorn.

But to give credit where it is you should say that the play explore the many different themes and issues like the cost of brilliance, suffering being a classless phenomenon, unrealistic romantic expectations etc. I want a how much of the brilliant playwright's problems were inspired from Chekhov's own life. Problems elucidated by Chekhov about playwrighting comes into play in real life with the problems he had to face during the launch of this play. His play bombed initially and received lot of criticism. This demoralized Chekhov, he would only think of writing plays again after The Seagull finds success with the hands of another director, who takes the play and presents it as more of a tragedy than comedy. So my initial comment still stands strong.

It had some good humorous moments. There was a lot of romance, but to me none of them had any soul and many of them were extra-marital. Even those which had any soul left me more in irritation than a soft feeling in the belly. Overall an average read, which left me confused.

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