Pyotr Nikolaevich Sorin Character Analysis

Arkadina’s brother. A retired government official who now owns a large country estate on the edge of a lake, the elderly and sickly Sorin fears he has let his life pass him by—and is determined, in spite of his age and declining health, to have the experiences he longs for. Sorin is a kind, funny old man whose wistfulness never turns to resentment. He lives vicariously through the young people and artists who flock to his estate over the summer. Though at the beginning of the play he seeks to prolong his remaining years through treatments and medicines, by its end he has relinquished his fear of death and is determined to simply enjoy the time he has left. Sorin, like Trigorin, Treplyov, and Dorn, is one of the play’s characters believed to represent a version of Chekhov himself—Chekhov, too, lived on a large rural estate which attracted many artists, visitors, and admirers, and around the time of The Seagull’s composition, Chekhov was living in the country in an attempt to mitigate the effects of his rapidly-declining health.