Uncle Vanya Study Guide

Anton Chekhov was born in Taganrog, Russia in 1860. His early life was troubled due to his abusive father, but his mother was the counterbalance, delighting him and his siblings with stories of her travels. Poverty suddenly struck the family when Chekhov’s father was swindled out of much of his money. Chekhov stayed behind to complete his education, while the rest of the family moved to Moscow. During this time, Chekhov financially supported his struggling family however he could. Among other odd jobs, he made a living writing short satirical works for newspapers. He also eventually became a physician, which he considered to be his main profession. As his writing career gradually grew, he eventually expanded his horizons beyond satirical sketches, emboldened by glowing reviews. After some initial difficulties, Chekhov’s more serious stage plays enjoyed great success. Their focus on realism would come to revolutionize how plays are written and performed. Chekhov married Olga Knipper in 1901. He passed away in 1904 from tuberculosis, which he had struggled with for most of his life.

In the late 19th century, Russia was beginning to experience a massive social upheaval brought about by several factors. These included the recent abolition of serfdom (indentured servitude akin to slavery), a rapidly growing middle class, and increasing industrialization. These dramatic changes led to anxieties about Russia’s upper class losing much of its power. Likewise, Uncle Vanya depicts an older, wealthy family beginning to fall on hard times as the political climate shifts around it. The play also highlights the contrast between country life and city life, as many working class people at the time were moving into urban areas. This was another factor that seemed to threaten old traditions, as the upper class feared they would soon lose their hold on society. Professor Serebryakov embodies these fears, unable to tolerate his new way of life in the country and seeing the hardworking Voynitsky and Sonya’s livelihood as secondary to his plans to sell his country estate. Chekhov’s class consciousness is present in the play’s examination of hard work and idleness, as well. Even if Serebryakov and Yelena don’t directly intend to cause harm, their presence causes chaos in the house, illustrating how the idleness and carelessness of the rich and powerful can hurt working-class people.

Although Uncle Vanya became one of Chekhov’s most famous plays, the work is in fact a heavily revised version of his earlier, less successful play: The Wood Demon. This version features many of the same characters and themes but is much more comedic and melodramatic Uncle Vanya. It also climaxes with a suicide, in contrast to Voynitsky’s failed murder attempt in Uncle Vanya. After the failure of The Wood Demon, Chekhov revised the play and published it eight years later as Uncle Vanya. Other famous plays by Chekhov include Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard, both of which also give realistic and atmospheric depictions of ordinary people’s lives. Leo Tolstoy is another Russian author comparable to Chekhov for his classic works of realist literature. Like Chekhov, Tolstoy steers away from melodrama and farce by depicting life in 19th-century Russia as frankly and realistically as possible, in famous works such as Anna Karenina and The Death of Ivan Ilych. Chekhov would often have Tolstoy as a guest at his home in Yalta.