How we cite our quotes: (Act.Line)
Quote #4
Konstantin: Is the firepot ready? And the sulfur? When the red eyes start to glow, there has to be a smell of sulfur. (1.59)
Oh dear, oh dear. With effects like this, we can tell Konstantin's in for a bruising, critical reception.
Quote #5
Shamrayev: In Poltava, about twenty-five years ago. She was wonderful! Ravishing! Brilliant acting! And that comic, Chadin, Pavel Chadin? Do you remember him? Best Raspluyev I ever saw; better than Sadovsky, madame, I swear to God. (1.81)
For Shamrayev, name-dropping artists is a way to elevate his status with the gentlefolk.
Quote #6
Arkadina: And now it turns out he's written a masterpiece! Can you believe this? He arranged all this, that foul smell, not as a joke, but as an attack upon me! He wants to teach us how to write and how to act… Did he ever think of what I might like to watch? No, he gives us some sort of Symbolist raving. (1.112)
Ouch, mom. Arkadina feels threatened and insulted by Konstantin's rejection of the traditional theatrical forms to which she's devoted her career. So she lashes out with brutal criticism.