How we cite our quotes: (Act.Line)
Quote #4
VOYNITSKY: Because that 'fidelity' is false from start to finish. It's full of rhetoric but has no logic. To betray your old husband whom you can't stand—is immoral; but to try and stifle in yourself your wretched youth and your living feeling—is not. (1.153-56)
Vanya is trying to change the rules of society here by asking to whom one must be faithful in a marriage. The answer, traditionally, of course, is to your spouse. But he is proposing that, by being faithful to her spouse, Yelena is being untrue to herself because she is young and beautiful and should therefore have an equally young and beautiful husband. He wants to invent a new morality where being faithful to yourself is the most moral thing to do.
Quote #5
MARINA: [...] Vera Petrovna, your late wife, little Sonya's mother, used not to sleep at nights, she used to worry… She loved you very much… (2.114-16)
Poor, wittle Professor; he's got the entire house, his daughter, wife, brother-in-law, and the nyanya up with him since he can't sleep through his sickness, and even that doesn't satisfy him. Marina's comment about his first wife is obviously comparing her to his second wife, Yelena, who is technically up with him but doesn't seem too worried. And since Marina seems to equate worry with love, this is a jab at the new, worry-free wife.
Quote #6
YELENA ANDREYEVNA: When you speak to me of your love, I somehow go numb and don't know what to say. I'm sorry, I can't say anything to you. [Moves towards door.] Good night. (2.158-60)
Wow. Hope you have better luck when you ask your crush out to the prom! Because numbness is not usually what you're hoping for when you declare your love for someone. Yelena is numb, and that's her problem. She doesn't seem to be in touch with her feelings at all, and she lets herself be carried along by what her husband wants without recognizing what she herself wants. Sounds a lot like most of the characters in the play, right?