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Uncle Vanya

 Anton Chekhov
 

Key Facts

 
full title ·  Uncle Vanya: Scenes from Country Life in Four Acts
 
author · Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
 
type of work · Drama
 
genre · Tragicomedy; Chekhov was known for his blending of tragic and comic genres
 
language · Russian
 
time and place written · Written in 1895–1897; Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the south of Russia
 
date of first publication · 1897; first produced in Moscow at the Moscow Art Theater, October twenty-six, 1899
 
publisher · Platonov
 
narrator · None
 
climax · Voynitsky fails to murder Serebryakov.
 
protagonists · Voynitsky, Astrov, Sonya
 
setting (time) · turn-of-the-century Russia
 
setting (place) · Serebryakov's country estate
 
point of view · Point of view is not located as there is no narrator figure
 
falling action · Chekhov does not make use of the classical Aristotelian plot line, in which rising and falling action comprise an immediately recognizable climax, catastrophe, and denouement
 
tense · The play unfolds in the time of the present
 
tone · Tragi-comedic
 
themes · The wasted life; impossible love
 
motifs · Indirect action; estrangement; the pseudo-climax; the land
 
symbols · Uncle Vanya does not particularly make use of symbols.
 
foreshadowing · Again, because Chekhov makes use of such an unconventional plot structure, often driven by indirect action, there is little foreshadowing.
 
 
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