When authors refer to other great works, people, and events, it’s usually not accidental. Put on your super-sleuth hat and figure out why.
Literary and Philosophical References
- Eleanora Duse (1.25) – super famous Italian actress who would have been Arkadina's contemporary.
- Camille (1.25) – 1852 melodrama by Alexandre Dumas, fils ("fils" meaning, son of Alexandre Dumas, père – of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers fame)
- The Fumes of Life (1.25) – a melodrama by Boleslav Markevich. Chekhov didn't like it and proposed parodying it.
- Guy de Maupassant (1.28, 2.15) – nineteenth-century French writer (1850-1893), one of the fathers of the modern short story. People often compared Chekhov to him. In Act 2, Arkadina chooses to omit the following from Maupassant's short novel Sur L'eau: "Like drop upon drop of water… praise falls word upon word into the susceptible heart of a writer. Then as soon as she sees him touched, weakened, softened by her constant flattery, she cuts him off… little by little she gets him used to staying with her, to like staying with her, to yield up his mind to her." (Schmidt. Notes to The Seagull.)
The songs Dorn hums or sings establish him as a worldly and educated man, and often comment on the action:
- Schumann's "Beiden Grenadieren" (1.41) – Robert Schumann, 1810-1856, German composer
- Prigozhy's song "The Heavy Cross" (1.70) – Yakov Prigozhy, 1840-1920
- Krasov's song "Stanzas" (1.76)
- "Faites-lui mes aveux, portez mes voeux" from Gounod's Faust (2.5), Charles Gounod, 1818-1893, French composer. This line is from an aria in Faust right before Faust seduces the innocent Marguerite. It means something like "Make my confession to her; carry my wishes."
- Shilovsky's serenade "The Tiger Cub" (4.50): Konstantin Shilovsky (1849-1893) Russian composer
- "De gustibus aut bene aut nihil." (1.85) In his effort to impress, Shamrayev mixes up two sayings: "De gustibus non est disputandum," ("There's no disputing about taste"); and "De mortuis aut bene aut nihil," ("If you can't speak well of the dead, say nothing"). (Schmidt. Notes to The Seagull)
- Hamlet (1.88, 2.87): Chekhov makes a number of references to the Shakespearean play Hamlet. Check out "Symbols" to find out more about why.
- Symbolism (1.114, 3.74): Symbolism was a nineteenth-century movement in the arts. Beginning with French writers, Symbolists rejected realism and expressed themselves through highly stylized language. Arkadina uses the term as an insult.
- Don Juan (1.122): Legendary loverboy. Many artists have explored his story, including Moliere and Mozart.
- Tolstoy (2.102): as in, Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist, 1828-1910. He wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
- Turgenev (2.102, 4.164): Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, Russian novelist and playwright, 1818-1883. Fathers and Sons is his most famous novel.
- Agamemnon (2.106): A general in Greek mythology. He brought the young girl Cassandra home from the Trojan war, and both of them were killed by his wife Clytemnestra.
- Oedipus (3.51): You have to pay attention to get this one. The riddle that Medvedenko quotes is from Oedipus the King by Sophocles. Relevant because of the Hamlet reasons. (See "Symbols.")
- Pushkin (4.76): Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, 1799-1837. The Shakespeare of Russia.