Uncle Vanya
It is due to Paul that I was introduced to Chekhov, and boy am I glad! I read Uncle Vanya in one sitting the first time around (which means it can't be very long :-). While the play seemed to be very well done, I just did not like it. It reminded me of the house my mom and I stayed at for a while when I was very little (2, 3 or perhaps 4). The house belonged to my great-grandparents and was an old large house from feudal times. I did not like it there at all. The house had a very sinister and melancholic feel to it, specially at night. Being reminded of this must've made me not like the play, I guess. There was a certain je ne sais quoi about Vanya and Sonya that I liked in a "I want to befriend them" type of way. Not enough to like the play, however. It seemed so depressing, just like that old house and so void of deeper meaning. Then, in class, Paul showed the film Vanya on 42nd Street. That changed everything. The movie is fantastic. It has a prerequisite of having read the play (according to me) even though it sticks to it word for word. I was pleasantly surprised by the way Vanya and Sonya were played -- it matched the afromentioned je ne sais quoi. I still don't know what is it exactly, so I'll stick to the french double-dyadic phrase :-).
I read and re-read Uncle Vanya having watched the movie and it was wonderful. I found that there was a lot more to the play than I had originally thought.
My favorite feature is either the sociological commentary or the characters -- both, rather. The characters are so well developed in such a short time and it is easy to identify with facets of all of them. I love how Chekhov is able to tell such long stories about his characters with so few words and events. Every conversation tells you a bit about the characters involved as much as it advances the play. He's got a way with diction and imagery that allows him to paint an intricate picture with just a few strokes (I find this in his other plays, too).
Somehow Vanya's bitterness is both sad and upbringing at the same time and his are such wonderfully executed commentaries about the stasis in late 19th century Russia. Oh I love it! The doctor is also easy to relate to and his interactions paint a protrayal that is upbringing but sad. Dare I call the doctor and Vanya dual characters? For the class I wrote a short paper about this.
It is easy to make the doctor an ideologist from the get-go, but Vanya not so much -- he's always bitter about everything! Furthermore, he is always skeptical about what the doctor says and is not afraid to let him know. But, they get drunk and the reader finds they have more in common than he may originally think. Specially, they share a love for the professor's wife, Yelena. I think Yelena almost serves as a metaphor for ideological change as I argue in the paper.
Finally, the overall feeling that the play leaves one with is bittersweet. Of course, this after one has gotten past unpleasant childhood memories! I place special value on bittersweetness for it seems a lot easier to leave a very dark and unhappy feeling and even more so to leave a happy and cheerful pink one. Bittersweet seems much more real and yet that much harder to accomplish.
I read and re-read Uncle Vanya having watched the movie and it was wonderful. I found that there was a lot more to the play than I had originally thought.
My favorite feature is either the sociological commentary or the characters -- both, rather. The characters are so well developed in such a short time and it is easy to identify with facets of all of them. I love how Chekhov is able to tell such long stories about his characters with so few words and events. Every conversation tells you a bit about the characters involved as much as it advances the play. He's got a way with diction and imagery that allows him to paint an intricate picture with just a few strokes (I find this in his other plays, too).
Somehow Vanya's bitterness is both sad and upbringing at the same time and his are such wonderfully executed commentaries about the stasis in late 19th century Russia. Oh I love it! The doctor is also easy to relate to and his interactions paint a protrayal that is upbringing but sad. Dare I call the doctor and Vanya dual characters? For the class I wrote a short paper about this.
It is easy to make the doctor an ideologist from the get-go, but Vanya not so much -- he's always bitter about everything! Furthermore, he is always skeptical about what the doctor says and is not afraid to let him know. But, they get drunk and the reader finds they have more in common than he may originally think. Specially, they share a love for the professor's wife, Yelena. I think Yelena almost serves as a metaphor for ideological change as I argue in the paper.
Finally, the overall feeling that the play leaves one with is bittersweet. Of course, this after one has gotten past unpleasant childhood memories! I place special value on bittersweetness for it seems a lot easier to leave a very dark and unhappy feeling and even more so to leave a happy and cheerful pink one. Bittersweet seems much more real and yet that much harder to accomplish.
posted by rz at 9:59 PM
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