Anton Chekhov's The Seagull

From the theater group Bedlam's production of The Seagull.

Chekhov's The Seagull is a play that follows multiple characters during the year 1895 living in the Russian countryside who are struggling with unrequited love, existential crisis, and the desire of fame. These characters are wealthy and privileged, but are plagued by their desires of wanting more. I really enjoyed reading this as I tend to find more interest in pieces of literature that have a sense of realism to them. I liked Chekhov's style of not including grand speeches and crazy action in the play as it made the characters feel more human. I found the character of Treplev sad. He goes his whole life trying to prove himself to the people around him, but nothing works out for him in the end. This made me think of the questions posed with the theme of the destructive nature of obsession. Throughout the play, Treplev was either dedicating his life to his writing or his obsession with Nina. He focused all of his energy on two things that in the end, did not work out for him. This made him feel like the life he was living was not worthwhile, ultimately probably being a cause of his suicide. To me, this shows the importance of branching out in life and not relying on one thing to work out and cause happiness. Find joy and purpose in many things in life and that way you always have something to turn to if things don't work out. 

This genre of this play is described as a comedy. I fail to see this as so. Personally, I find the lives of each character and how they live their lives to be very sad. They fail to have meaningful and lasting connections with each other. In class, it was said that it could be seen as a comedy because of the problems the characters complain about despite being wealthy. They are able to live lavish lives of travel and have jobs in the arts, but still act as though they are the ones "suffering". I am only able to see it as a comedy under this reasoning, otherwise I feel like it better fits as a drama.