Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Laurence Senelick

Critical Essay by Laurence Senelick

SOURCE: Senelick, Laurence. “The Lake-Shore of Bohemia: The Seagull's Theatrical Context.” Educational Theatre Journal 29, no. 2 (May 1977): 199-213.

In the following essay, Senelick examines the influence of Chekhov's own experiences and relationships on The Seagull.

Of all Chekhov's plays, The Seagull is perhaps the most personal, for it treats the question of the artist's métier. Most modern critics agree that this is a play about art and not, as Stanislavsky thought, a romantic dramatization of Trigorin's “subject for a short story.” The theme of splendors and miseries of artists is plainly struck by Nina Zarechnaya in Act I, when she explains why her parents won't let her come to Sorin's estate: “They say this place is Bohemia.”¹ And the Bohemia of journalists, writers, and actors was familiar turf to Chekhov. Literary biographers have spent much time debating whether it was Potapenko or Avilova or Levitan who suggested one...
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