Chekov's Three Sisters - Part II

From Rebecca -- one last word about Chekov



two friends,... the duel comes later....

 We never meet the married man’s children, but the wife keeps trying to kill herself every two or three years. The husband of the second sister loves his wife, is obsessed by her, knows about the trysts and at some point, the general leaves the community for they are going to be regarrisoned and that is going to be the end of the lover’s relationships.

This couple have never been willing to hide their happiness with each other. Now they have to part for the last time, but everyone is around, including her husband and the group of friends who have to pull her off of the lover. The husband is pulling her off of her lover, trying to comfort her, and their sisters are telling her stop, this is shameful. The husband is on her side and telling them, don’t be unkind to her, she needs help, we will never speak of this again.

Her lover who was bearded is leaving, the husband is clean shaven, and he pulls out of his pocket, a fake set of whiskers, puts them on and tries to comfort her.

Just painful.

I think about this as a play out of the 19th century, but the themes are so current: dreams are broken, marriages fail ... history.