How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Act.Line). Every time a character talks counts as one line, even if what they say turns into a long monologue. We used Julius West's translation.
Quote #1
ANYA. We went to Paris; it's cold there and snowing. I talk French perfectly horribly. My mother lives on the fifth floor. I go to her, and find her there with various Frenchmen, women, an old abbé with a book, and everything in tobacco smoke and with no comfort at all. (1.48)
Anya reacts negatively to the foreignness of Paris: the living quarters, the language, the people, the religion, and the habits. She wants to save her mother from this alien world.
Quote #2
LUBOV. But suppose I'm dreaming! God knows I love my own country, I love it deeply; I couldn't look out of the railway carriage, I cried so much. (1.96)
Lubov's overwhelming emotional response upon returning home creates high stakes for the loss of that home. It also increases our frustration when Lubov does nothing to save it.
Quote #3
LUBOV. Last year, when they had sold the villa to pay my debts, I went away to Paris, and there he robbed me of all I had and threw me over and went off with another woman. I tried to poison myself. ... It was so silly, so shameful. ... And suddenly I longed to be back in Russia, my own land, with my little girl. (2.59)
For Lubov, escaping to Russia becomes the solution to the problems in Paris. When the problems in Russia become insurmountable, she'll return to Paris.