The Seagull Themes

Love comes up every five seconds in The Seagull. Almost all of the characters are in love, typically with characters who don't love them back. The farm manager's daughter loves the young writer who...

Art is second only to love as the major theme of The Seagull. (Take a look at the laundry list of literary and cultural references in "Shout Outs" to see just how major.) A great battle between exp...

The two main male characters in The Seagull are writers. Writing is a compulsion they can't stop themselves from serving; the need to observe and to record life regularly interrupts the living of i...

The characters in The Seagull are crippled by that green-eyed monster, jealousy. They envy their romantic rivals and want sole ownership of their lovers' hearts. When anyone praises one writer or a...

Chekhovian characters are famous for their unhappiness. Unlucky in love, unsuccessful in their careers—or successful yet still unfulfilled—they don't shy away from voicing their dissatisfaction...

Okay, so, early in The Seagull, these characters have some hopes and dreams. They even achieve some of them. For example, Nina becomes an actress. Huzzah! But she also loses her family, loses her b...

Not all of the characters in The Seagull are obsessed with money, but those who are tend to get the sharper end of Chekhov's ridicule stick. The schoolteacher Medvedenko gossips insufferably about...

Time. It's unstoppable in The Seagull, just like everywhere else. When the characters try to fight the repercussions of old age, Doctor Dorin says, in effect, "What do you expect?" Everyone fears a...