Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences
of the Russian Academy of Sciences
LITERATUROVEDCHESKII
ZHURNAL
The Journal of Literary History and Theory
Peer-reviewed Academic Journal

“SUPERFLUOUS” CHARACTERS IN CHEKHOVʼS PLAY THREE SISTERS

Николаева Е.Г.

Abstract

The article analyzes the artistic function of two seemingly insignificant, “unnecessary” characters in the play Three Sisters, almost completing the list of characters – second lieutenants Fedotik and Rode – in interconnection with the poetic (rhythmic) organization of the dramatic material (“resonating space”). The analysis irrefutably shows that these are not just “naturalistic flies” (K.N. Leontiev), designed to increase the level of reliability of the depicted, but characters that rhyme with painful points, nerve nodes of the play (through motifs for the irreversibility of the life stream – the doom of attempts to return the lost paradise, memory-oblivion, meeting-parting).

Keywords

drama; Three Sisters; “accident”; poetic organization; rhythm; “resonant space”.

For citation

Nikolaeva, E.G. “‘Superfluous’ Characters in Chekhovʼs Play Three Sisters”. Literaturovedcheskii zhurnal, no. 3(61), 2023, pp. 71–82. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.31249/litzhur/2023.61.05

DOI: 10.31249/litzhur/2023.61.05

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