Take a story's temperature by studying its tone. Is it hopeful? Cynical? Snarky? Playful?
Tender and Ironic
Chekhov views all his characters with a half-smirk—a mixture of compassion and ridicule—and we really have to choice but to do the same. We admire Konstantin's idealism and honesty, but man-oh-man does his whining get on our nerves.
Arkadina is beautiful, charming, and funny, but her powers of manipulation (and her anger) is downright scary… but kind of funny:
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)
Even Nina, the play's most innocent character, elicits a few amused eye rolls with her bumpkinish fawning over Trigorin. She really needs to dial it back a notch.
By combining virtues and flaws in each character, Chekhov achieves an affectionate distance that we in the audience share.