Christopher Booker is a scholar who wrote that every story falls into one of seven basic plot structures: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, the Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. Shmoop explores which of these structures fits this story like Cinderella’s slipper.
Plot Type : Tragedy
Anticipation Stage + Dream Stage (that's right, they're combined)
It's Irina's birthday. The sisters are dying to go to Moscow.
For these sibs, anticipation and dreaming are one in the same: Moscow, the symbol of fulfillment for the Prozorov sisters, still seems like a possibility. As part of the hopeful vibe, Irina's excitedly making plans to work; Masha meets Vershinin, who invigorates her dormant intellectual curiosity; Andrey is thrilled by his love for Natasha. Olga just hangs out—we can tell she doesn't love being a schoolmarm, but hey, even she's got something to anticipate.
Frustration Stage
Everyone gathers for a carnival party, but Natasha cuts it short because she's a tiger mom and doesn't want her baby hearing anything fun.
In a nutshell, all of the dreams from Act I are fizzling out. Irina's work exhausts her; Olga is even more beaten down; Masha carries on an affair with Vershinin; Andrey's marriage is a failure. Pretty much everything is going downhill and ending in frustration. The characters are starting to rub each other the wrong way.
Nightmare Stage
The Prozorov family responds to the fire across town.
You better believe that when there's a fire—even when it's offstage—it represents some internal flames for Chekhov's characters. The conflicts that were just a spark in Act II now explode as the family overloads on stress. Olga and Natasha have a knock-down-drag-out brawl over Anfisa, the faithful old servant who can't do too much in the realm of useful work anymore. Pathetic Kulygin runs around looking for Masha, who is blatantly hiding from him now so she can have her affair. And Andrey acknowledges his own wife's affair and the fact that he mortgaged his house. Fuego!
Destruction Stage
The baron is killed, the soldiers head out, and the Prozorovs leave the house.
All of the dreams and expectations that started the play have been vanquished. Nobody's going to Moscow. Irina, who had already lowered her standards to say "yes" to the baron, loses even him. She'll end up a spinster like her older sister. Masha returns to a boring life with her boring husband, and Olga becomes what she never wanted to become—the headmistress. Poor Andrey is stuck pushing around a baby carriage while his wife entertains her lover in their parlor. The best the sisters can manage is just to keep on living.