Fírs
Fonvízin
Fyódor
Fyódorovich
Fyódorovna
Gáev
Gavríla
Gavrílych
Gavrúsha
Gerásim
Gerásya
Glagólyev
Glínka
Gógol
Grékova
Grendilévsky
Grigóry
Grísha
Grokhólsky
Grúzdev
Gúsev
Hánsen
Ignátyevich
Ilyá
Ilyích
Irína
Iván
Ivánov
Ivánovich
Ivánovka
Ivánovna
Izmáilov
Izmáilovka
Kanítelin
Kardámonov
Kárlovich
Kárp
Kashalótov
Kashkinázi
Kátya
Khamónyev
Kharlámov
Kharlámpy
Khárkov
Khírin
Khrápov
Khrushchóv
Kíev
Kiríllych
Kirpichyóv
Kirsánovsky
Kocháne
Kokóshkina
Kólya
Kolotílin
Konstantín
Konstantínovich
Korchágin
Korólkov
Kóstya
Kosykh
Kotélnikov
Kozoédov
Kózyrev
Krasnúshkina
Krylóv
Kubán
Kulygin
Kúritsyn
Kuzmá
Kuznetsóv
Lébedev
Ledentsóv
Lénochka
Lénsky
Lentóvsky
Leoníd
Lérmontov
Lezgínka
Líka
Lomonósov
Lómov
Lopákhin
Luká
Lukích
Lukínishna
Lvóvich
Lyónya
Lyóv
Lyúba
Lyubóv
Lyubvín
Lyudmíla
Máikov
Mákar
Málitskoe
Mamashyóchkina
Mánka
Marína
Maríya
Márkel
Márko
Máshenka
Másha
Máshenka
Matryóna
Matvéev
Matvéevich
Matvéich
Matvéy
Mazútov
Medvedénko
Mérik
Merchútkina
Mikhaíl
Mikhaílo
Mikhaílovich
Mikhaílovna
Mikíshkin
Mirónov
Mísha
Míshenka
Molchánovka
Moskóvsky
Mozgovóy
Múehlbach
Muráshkin
Murométs
Múshkino
Nastásya
Natáliya
Natásha
Nazárka
Nazárovna
Nekrásov
Nemétskaya
Nikíta
Nikítych
Nikodímovich
Nikoláevich
Nikolásha
Nikoláy
Nikólka
Níl
Nílovich
Nína
Nóvo-Dévichy
Nóvo-Petróvskoe
Nyúkhin
Nyúnin
Odéssa
Olénin
Olénina
Ólenka
Ólga
Ólya
Onégin
Orlóvsky
Ósip
Ostróvsky
Ovsyánov
Panteléich
Pásha
Páshenka
Patrónnikov
Páva
Pável
Pávlovich
Pávlovna
Pávochka
Pelagéya
Pétrin
Petrúshka
Pétya
Pirogóv
Pisaryóv
Platónov
Platónovka
Plátoshka
Plésniki
Polikárpov
Polína
Potápych
Poltáva
Pólya
Popóva
Porfíry
Pravdolyubóv
Protopópov
Prózorov
Púshkin
Pyzhikov
Ragúlin
Raísa
Ranévskaya
Rasplyúev
Répina
Revunóv-Karaúlov
Rossítsky
Rozhdéstvennoe
Ryblovo
Sabínin
Sadóvsky
Samára
Samovár
Sánichka
Sarátov
Sárra
Sásha
Sáshenka
Sáshurka
Sashúrochka
Sávishna
Sávva
Schrífter
Semyón
Semyónovich
Semyónovna
Sénya
Serebryakóv
Sergéy
Sergéevich
Sergéevna
Seryózha
Seryózhenka
Seryózhka
Sevastópol
Shabélsky
Shamráev
Shcherbúk
Shekhtél
Sherventsóv
Shimánsky
Shipúchin
Shipúnov
Shúra
Shúrka
Shúrochka
Simeónov-Píshchik
Skvortsóv
Smirnóv
Solomónovich
Solyóny
Sónnenstein
Sófya
Sónechka
Sónya
Sórin
Soúsov
Spártakov
Spiridónovich
Sprút
Stanisláv
Stepán
Suvórin
Súzdaltsev
Svetlovídov
Svobódin
Talié
Tamára
Tamárin
Tarantúlov
Tarnóvsky
Tatyána
Telégin
Telibéev
Téstov
Tíkhon
Tolkachóv
Tolstóy
Treplyóv
Trífon
Trigórin
Trilétsky
Trófim
Trofímov
Tsytsykár
Túla
Turgénev
Túsenbach
Upryámov
Valentínovich
Válts
Ványa
Varsonófev
Varvára
Várya
Vasíl
Vasílych
Vasíly
Vasílyevich
Vasílyevna
Vengeróvich
Véra
Vershínin
Víkhrin
Vladímir
Vladímirovich
Vlásin
Vlásov
Voinítsev
Voinítseva
Voinítsevka
Voinítsky
Vólga
Vólgin
Volódya
Yaroshévich
Yaroslávl
Yásha
Yáshnevo
Yefímovna
Yéfim
Yefímushka
Yegór
Yegórka
Yegórov
Yegórovna
Yegórushka
Yeléna
Yeléts
Yelizavetgrád
Yepikhódov
Yermoláy
Yevdokím
Yevgény
Yevstignéev
Yevstignéy
Yúlechka
Yúlya
Yusnóvka
Zaimíshche
Záitsev
Zákhar
Zaréchnaya
Zárev
Zarévsky
Zásyp
Zheltúkhin
Zhigálov
Zhílkovo
Zína
Zinaída
Zínochka
Zipunóv
Zmeyúkina
Znóikin
Zyúzyushka
INTRODUCTION
Anton Chekhov’s plays occupy a unique place in the history of drama. They derived from no obvious forerunners and produced no successful imitators. Despite his obvious influence on any number of important playwrights, there is no school of Chekhovian playwriting. Yet somehow, within the space of a few years, Chekhov managed to bring together elements that created, to paraphrase Maksim Gorky, a new kind of drama, which heightened reality to the point at which it turned into a profoundly inspired symbol.
Chekhov himself approached the theater and playwriting with a deep distrust, a fear that the demands of the stage would coarsen or distort his carefully wrought perceptions. As a boy in Taganrog, he delighted in the melodramas and operettas performed at the local playhouse, but as a young journalist in Moscow in the 1880s he poured vials of scorn on what he saw to be the ingrained mediocrity of professional theater practitioners. According to his friend Ivan Bunin, he regarded most actors as “vulgarians, thoroughly steeped in vanity.”1 Still, his attraction to the theater persisted. The backstage world appeared in many of his stories, and, significantly, his first published collection was called Fairy Tales of Melpomene (1884), comic anecdotes dedicated to the Muse of Tragedy.
Chekhov’s early plays, written with an eye to stage production, clearly display his sense of the conflict between the pedestrian demands of the theater and the need to express his own concerns dramatically. His farces are extremely stageworthy, but differ from the run of most curtain-raisers only in their shrewd observation of human foibles. Chekhov’s discomfort with having to use traditional dramatic conventions is more apparent in the disjointed and contrived nature of Ivanov (1887; revised 1888) and The Wood Goblin (1889). They emerge from a period in his life when he was striving to perfect his skill as a short-story writer, to increase the subtlety of the techniques available to him, to depict states of unfulfilled desires, misconstrued ambitions, and futile endeavor. Transferring these concerns to writing for the stage, aware as he was of its fondness for platitudes and cheap effects, drove him to agonies of frustration.