SASHA. I can’t take it! Let me go! I’m ruined! You’re joking, while I’m ruined! (Tears herself away.) Don’t you realize that this is no joke? Good-bye! I cannot live with you! Now everyone will regard you as a despicable person! How will that make me feel?! (Sobs.)
PLATONOV. Have it your own way! (Kisses her on the head and lies on the sofa.) I understand . . .
SASHA. You wrecked our family . . . We had a happy, peaceful life . . . There was no one in the world happier than me . . . (Sits down.) What have you done, Misha? (Gets up.) What have you done? There’s no turning back now . . . I am ruined . . . (Sobs.)
PLATONOV. Then go already!
SASHA. Good-bye! You won’t see me again! Don’t come to see us . . . Father will bring Kolya to visit you . . . God will forgive you, as I forgive you! You’ve destroyed our life!
PLATONOV. You gone yet?
SASHA. I’m gone . . . Fine . . . (Looks at Platonov for a moment and leaves.)
SCENE IX
PLATONOV (alone) and then VOINITSEV
PLATONOV. And here’s the man who’s starting a new life! It hurts!! I’m losing everyone . . . I’m going crazy! My God! Sasha, a little mosquito, a bedbug—and she dares, even she . . . the might of something holy gives her the right to throw stones at me! Damned circumstances! (Lies on the sofa.)
VOINITSEV enters and stops in the doorway.
(After a pause.) Is this the epilogue or only another farce?
(On seeing Voinitsev, closes his eyes and snores softly.)
VOINITSEV (walks over to Platonov). Platonov!
Pause.
You’re not asleep . . . I can see it in your face . . . (Sits beside him.) I wouldn’t have thought . . . it was possible to sleep . . .
PLATONOV sits up.
(Rises and looks out the window.) You’ve killed me . . . Did you know that?
Pause.
Thank you . . . What about me? Never mind . . . Let it be. In other words, this is how it’s supposed to be . . . (Weeps.)
PLATONOV rises and slowly goes to another corner of the room.
Just once fate conferred a gift on me and . . . it’s been taken away! They weren’t enough for him, his brains, his good looks, his big heart . . . He had to have my happiness as well! He took it away . . . How about me? What about me? I’m nothing . . . That’s it . . . A morbid, dim-witted mind, effeminate, sentimental, not overly talented . . . With a tendency to idleness, mysticism, superstition . . . You’ve polished off a friend!
PLATONOV. Get out of here!
VOINITSEV. Right away . . . I came to challenge you to a duel, but now that I’m here I start whining . . . I’m going.
Pause.
So I’ve lost her once and for all?
PLATONOV. Yes.
VOINITSEV (whistles). That’s it . . . Stands to reason . . .
PLATONOV. Get out of here! I’m begging you! Get out!
VOINITSEV. Right away . . . What’s there for me to do here? (Goes to the door.) There’s nothing for me to do here . . .
Pause.
Give her back to me, Platonov! Have a heart! After all, she’s mine! Platonov! You’re so happy! Save me, dear fellow! How about it? Give her back! (Sobs.) After all, she’s mine! Mine! You understand?
PLATONOV (goes to the sofa). Go away . . . I’ll shoot myself . . . I swear on my honor!
VOINITSEV. You don’t have to . . . Never mind! (Waves his hand in dismissal and exits.)
PLATONOV (clutches his head). Oh wretched, pitiful man! My God! Damn this god-forsaken head of mine! (Sobs.) Stay away from people, you rat! I’ve been a jinx for people, people have been a jinx for me! Stay away from people! They beat you up and beat you up, and can’t manage to beat you down! Under every chair, under every splinter lurks a murderer, who stares you in the face, and wants to kill you! Beat me to death! (Beats himself on the chest.) Beat me, before I beat myself to death! (Runs to the door.) Don’t beat me on the chest! My chest is already ripped wide open! (Shouts.) Sasha! Sasha, for the love of God! (Opens the door.)
Enter GLAGOLYEV SR.
SCENE X
PLATONOV, GLAGOLYEV SR., and then GLAGOLYEV JR.
GLAGOLYEV SR. (enters muffled up with a crutch). You home, Mikhail Vasilich? Pleased to see you . . . I’ve disturbed you . . . But I won’t keep you, I’ll go at once . . . We’ll put just one question to you. You answer it, and I’ll go. What’s wrong with you, Mikhail Vasilich? You’re pale, shaky, trembling . . . What’s come over you?
PLATONOV. What’s come over me? Ah? I’m drunk, I suppose, or . . . I’m going out of my mind! I’m drunk . . . drunk . . . My head’s spinning . . .
GLAGOLYEV SR. (aside). I’ll ask. “What a sober fellow keeps inside, a drunken one will never hide.” (to him.) The question is an odd one, perhaps even a stupid one, but, for heaven’s sake, answer me, Mikhail Vasilich! My question is for me one of life and death! I shall accept your answer, because I know you to be the most honorable of men . . . Even if my questions strike you as odd, absurd, silly, and even, perhaps, insulting, for heaven’s sake . . . make me an answer! I find myself in a peculiar situation! A lady we both know . . . You know her well . . . I considered her the peak of human perfection . . . Anna Petrovna Voinitseva . . . (Supports Platonov.) Don’t fall down, for heaven’s sake!
PLATONOV. Go away! I always considered you . . . sir, to be an old fool!
GLAGOLYEV SR. You’re her friend, you know her like the palm of your hand . . . Either people have defamed her to me, or else . . . they’ve opened my eyes . . . Is she an honest woman, Mikhail Vasilich? She . . . she . . . Does she have the right to be the wife of an honest man?
Pause.
I don’t know how to formulate my question . . . Understand me, for heaven’s sake! They told me that she . . .
PLATONOV. Everything’s vulgar, vile, filthy on this earth! Everything’s . . . vulgar . . . vile . . . (Falls senseless on to Glagolyev and tumbles to the floor.)
GLAGOLYEV JR. (enters). What are you hanging around here for? I don’t intend to wait!
GLAGOLYEV SR. Everything’s vulgar, filthy, vile . . . Everything, which means, including her . . .
GLAGOLYEV JR. (looks at Platonov). Father, what’s going on with Platonov?
GLAGOLYEV SR. Revoltingly drunk . . . Yes, vulgar, filthy . . . A profound, inexorable, stinging truth!
Pause.
Let’s go to Paris!
GLAGOLYEV JR. What? To Pa . . . To Paris? Why should you go to Paris? (Bursts out laughing.)