42 pages • 1 hour read
The Seagull
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Consequences of Disillusionment
One of the main themes of The Seagull is the consequences of disillusionment, which is something many of the characters struggle with throughout the play, especially the protagonists. Whether it is Arkadina refusing to believe that she is aging, Nina believing a life of fame on the stage will bring her joy, or Konstantin believing he will reinvent the form of theater, the primary source of conflict between the characters is their own perspective of the world clouding out the reality of themselves and the reality of others, thereby robbing themselves of the chance to achieve true fulfillment.
Arkadina is still clinging on to the youth and beauty that launched her success years ago. This refusal to accept her age is one of the main reasons she has a strained relationship with Konstantin. Konstantin tells Sorin, “My mother doesn’t love me […] she wants to live and love and dress like a girl, and there I am, twenty-five years old, a constant reminder that she’s not as young as she thinks” (5). Indeed, Arkadina spends most of her time away from the countryside, preferring to stay in town where she can continue pretending she has not aged. She brags about her youthful spirit, saying, “I refuse to be a frump or let myself go like some people…Look!—you see? Frisky as a fifteen-year-old—I could still play one any day” (23). When Nina, who is much younger than her, threatens to shatter the illusion she has created, Arkadina acts quickly to bring Trigorin back to her and away from the younger actress. Instead of confronting the realities of her age and waning career, Arkadina prefers to continue perpetuating her illusions.
Nina, too, has ideas about life as a famous actress or writer that are much more glamorous than what her reality becomes. Trigorin actually attempts to tell her that the life of a famous writer is not what she thinks. He says:
[H]ere you are talking about fame and fortune and some interesting, brilliant life I’m supposed to be having, but I’m afraid these sweet thoughts mean no more to me than sweet cakes, which I never eat. You’re young and you mean well (32).
Nina brushes off his comment and clings to the fantasy she has of the joy fame will bring her. She foreshadows her own hardships, telling Trigorin that if it meant she could have that wonderful feeling of fame as a writer or actress, she would “put up with family and friends turning against [her. She’d] endure poverty and disappointment” (35). In the end, Nina does have to endure poverty and disappointment, and the tradeoff is not nearly as rewarding as she once hoped. Her disillusionment causes her to idolize Trigorin, who ends up being the person who destroys her, just as he foreshadows in his story about the seagull. Nina’s idolization of Arkadina, and wanting to be like her, also only brings disappointment.
Finally, Konstantin also dreams of a certain life only to be disappointed by it. After struggling to assert himself as a writer, he achieves a degree of success only to continue to struggle with finding his true voice as an artist. When Nina leaves him yet again at the play’s end, his death by suicide signals his inability to confront and overcome disillusionment as Nina has done. While the other characters condemn themselves to a living death by refusing to face reality, Konstantin embodies their plight by undergoing a literal death. In this way, the play ends with suggesting that clinging to disillusionment is self-defeating and the surest way to regret.
Living in the Shadow of a Renowned Parent
Throughout the play, Konstantin battles with a feeling of inferior to his mother, a respected artist. Though Sorin encourages his art and Nina performs his work even though she does not always find it easy to connect with, the person Konstantin wants to impress more than anyone is his mother. He tells his uncle, “[I]t’s also simple egotism on my part—not wanting a famous actress for a mother, thinking I’d be happier if she were just” (6, emphasis added). The pressure to live up to her name is increased because Arkadina frequently brings home other accomplished writers, and Konstantin feels insignificant in their presence. In this way, the play explores the complicated dynamics when a son tries to define himself apart from a parent’s success.
Konstantin’s quest to change the form of theater is partially fueled by a need to impress Arkadina, but also by the need to enact revenge on her for feeling superior. After Arkadina disrupts his performance, Konstantin stops the show and addresses his mother directly. He says, “I must apologize. I quite forgot that writing and acting in plays is only for the chosen few. I have defied the monopoly!” (14). From that moment, the two of them are constantly fighting over generational differences in artistic expression. Konstantin wants to usher out his mother’s ideas about art (much like Anton Chekhov was ushering out the previous generation’s idea of theater), but Arkadina is not quick to let go. When threatened, she is not above insulting her son to his face, saying things like, “You can’t even write a wretched little comic sketch! Go back to Kiev and open a shop! Parasite!” (45). These tensions between mother and son ruin their chances at finding common ground and treating one another with genuine, sustained affection.
Two years later, Konstantin finally finds success. Polina congratulates him on this, saying, “Who’d have thought there was a proper writer in you?—and now, thank the Lord, you’re starting to get some money from the magazines. And you’ve got so handsome” (54). At last, he has gained the respect as a writer that he so desperately craved for so long. The one person who still has not acknowledged this, however, is Arkadina. In Act IV, when the group is playing games at Sorin’s estate, Arkadina brings a copy of one of Konstantin’s stories to him. Later, she admits, “Can you imagine, I still haven’t read anything of his—there’s never the time!” (64).
Thus, after everything, his mother still refuses to accept her son’s growing celebrity and instead insists on talking about her own accomplishments. In his final scene with Nina, Konstantin reveals that he still feels aimless in life, even after achieving the thing he sought after most. Tragically, Konstantin dies without ever having the chance to fully find his voice outside of what he thinks will please his mother, while Arkadina loses her son through her unbreakable selfishness. Their mother-son relationship is thus a permanently lost opportunity, depriving both of them of the emotional connection they could otherwise have had.
The Purpose of Art
The Seagull gives many perspectives on the purpose of art, creating an important thematic thread in the play. The beginning of the play demonstrates an example of the bonding power of art. As the audience is preparing to watch Nina in Konstantin’s play, he says, “They’re in love and today their two souls will merge into one in an effort to create a single work of art” (2, emphasis added). Even though Nina does not always find Konstantin’s works easy to act in, she is willing to give her all to bring them to life. It is this kind of collaboration that makes it so hard for Konstantin to let go of Nina’s love, as it enables art to function as a means of unity between them. By contrast, it is this kind of mutual appreciation for his art that he longs to share with Arkadina, only to discover an ever-deepening rift and rivalry between them because of it. The play thus explores the highs and lows of artistic experience, suggesting that it can either sustain relationships or destroy them.
Konstantin has a strong opinion on Arkadina’s art, too, suggesting broader generational tensions rooted in what art should or should not be. He sees the modern theater, which Arkadina worships, as “a narrow-minded and predictable ragbag of worn-out routines” (5). He tries to share his new ideas about the theater with his mother, but ultimately she refuses to listen. Sorin, however, sees the motive behind Konstantin’s creativity, and does what he can to build the bridge between his sister and nephew. In the end, however, the two of them are too different to ever agree, and the wedge between them becomes impenetrable.
Dorn, who is almost always a voice of practicality in the midst of dreamers, confesses that he too has envied the feeling of creation that artists experience. When Konstantin asks Dorn if he should continue writing, Dorn replies affirmatively, adding that if he had ever felt the “transcendent feeling” induced by artistic inspiration, “[He] believe[s] [he] would have had nothing but contempt for [his] physical life and everything that goes with it and [he’d] have left the earth behind [him] and soared away into the skies” (19-20). Additionally, Dorn encourages Konstantin’s exploration of the form. After his play flops in front of the audience, Dorn is the one to stay behind and give him a reassuring word about continuing his art.
One thing all of the characters can agree on is the intoxicating feeling of making art—whether the result is incredible or mediocre. They persevere even when they fail, whether they are doing it for fame or to start a movement in the art world. Art, the thing that can be the most divisive between these characters, is also the thing that bonds them all together. Ultimately, the play suggests, whether the effects of art are positive or poisonous for the characters’ lives and relationships, it is a force that is impossible to ignore.
Unlock all 42 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Anton Chekhov
Featured Collections
Appearance Versus Reality
View Collection
Art
View Collection
Comedies & Satirical Plays
View Collection
Daughters & Sons
View Collection
Dramatic Plays
View Collection
The Power & Perils of Fame
View Collection
Tragic Plays
View Collection
Valentine's Day Reads: The Theme of Love
View Collection