PLATONOV. There’s no need to turn pale, Sofya . . . I mean Sofya Yegorovna!84
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. You’re worming out of it?
PLATONOV. Looks like it . . .
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. You bastard! (Weeps.)
PLATONOV. I know . . . I’ve heard it a thousand times . . . We should talk about it later and . . . in private.
SOFYA YEGOROVNA sobs.
You should go to your room! The most pointless thing about unhappiness is tears . . . It was meant to happen and it happened . . . Nature has her laws, and our life . . . has its logic . . . It happened quite logically . . .
Pause.
SOFYA YEGOROVNA (sobs). What’s this got to do with me? What does it matter to me, to my life, which you took from me, that you lost interest? What’s this got to do with me? Don’t you love me any more?
PLATONOV. You’ll console yourself somehow . . . At least, for instance, won’t you let this affair be a lesson to you for the future?
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. Not a lesson, but a ruination! You dare to say this? It’s despicable!
PLATONOV. What are you crying for? I find this all so . . . revolting! (Shouts.) I’m sick!
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. He swore, he begged, he began it first, and now he’s come here! I disgust you? You only wanted me for two weeks? I hate you! I can’t look at you! Get out of here! (Sobs more violently.)
ANNA PETROVNA. Platonov!
PLATONOV. Huh?
ANNA PETROVNA. Get out of here!
PLATONOV gets up and slowly goes to the door.
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. Wait . . . Don’t leave! Do you . . . mean it? Maybe, you’re not sober . . . Sit down a while and think it over! (Clutches him by the shoulder.)
PLATONOV. I’ve already sat and thought. Wash your hands of me, Sofya Yegorovna! I’m not the man for you! I’ve been rotting for so long, my soul’s turned into a skeleton so long ago there’s no rebirth possible for me! Better bury me at a distance, so I won’t pollute the air! Believe me one last time!
SOFYA YEGOROVNA (wrings her hands). What am I to do now? What am I to do? Teach me! After all, I’m dying! I won’t survive this vileness! I won’t survive another five minutes! I’ll kill myself . . . (Sits in an armchair that stands in a corner.) What are you doing to me? (Goes into hysterics.)
VOINITSEV (walks over to Sofya Yegorovna). Sophie!
ANNA PETROVNA. God knows what’s going on! Calm down, Sophie! Get her some water, Sergey!
VOINITSEV. Sophie! Don’t kill yourself . . . Stop it! (To Platonov.) What are you waiting around here for, Mikhail Vasilich? Get going, for heaven’s sake!
ANNA PETROVNA. That’ll do, Sophie, that’ll do! That’s enough!
PLATONOV (walks over to Sofya Yegorovna). What’s this for? Dear, dear . . . (Quickly walks away.) Idiocy!
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. Get away from me! All of you! I don’t need your help! (to Anna Petrovna.) Get away! I hate you! I know who I can thank for all of this! You won’t get away with it!
ANNA PETROVNA. Ssh . . . It’s not right to start name calling.
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. If it hadn’t been for your corrupting influence over him, he wouldn’t have destroyed me! (Sobs.) Get away! (to Voinitsev.) And you . . . you go away too!
VOINITSEV walks away, sits at the desk, and puts his head in his hands.
ANNA PETROVNA (to Platonov). Go away from here, I tell you! You’re being wonderfully idiotic today! What more do you want?
PLATONOV (covers his ears). Where am I to go? I’m frozen stiff . . . (Goes to the door.) The sooner I go to hell the better . . .
Enter TRILETSKY.
SCENE IX
The same and TRILETSKY.
TRILETSKY (in the doorway). I’ll give you such an announcing your own mother won’t recognize you!
YAKOV’S VOICE. The master ordered it . . .
TRILETSKY. Go and kiss your master you-know-where! He’s as big a blockhead as you are! (Enters.) Don’t tell me he’s not here? (Falls on to the sofa.) Dreadful! This . . . this . . . this . . . (Jumps up.) Ugh! (to Platonov.) The tragedy is reaching its climax, tragedian! Its climax, sir!
PLATONOV. Whad’you want?
TRILETSKY. What are you doing around here? Where have you been hanging out, wretch? Aren’t you ashamed, how could you? Spouting philosophy here? Delivering sermons?
PLATONOV. Talk like a human being, Nikolay! Whad’you want?
TRILETSKY. It’s inhuman! (Sits and hides his face in his hands.) A disaster, what a disaster! Who would have expected it?
PLATONOV. What’s happened?
TRILETSKY. What’s happened? You really don’t know? Do you care at all? Have you got the time?
ANNA PETROVNA. Nikolay Ivanych!
PLATONOV. Is it Sasha or what? Speak, Nikolay! That’s all I need! What’s wrong with her?
TRILETSKY. She poisoned herself with sulphur matches!
PLATONOV. What are you saying?
TRILETSKY (shouts). She poisoned herself with sulphur matches!85 (Jumps up.) Here, read! Read! (Puts a note in front of his face.) Read, philosopher!
PLATONOV (reads). “It’s a sin to pray for suicides, but pray for me. I’ve taken my life because I’m ill. Misha, love Kolya and my brother, the way I love you. Take care of father. Live according to the law. Kolya, God bless you, as I bless you with a mother’s blessing. Forgive a sinful woman. The key to Misha’s chest of drawers is in my wool dress” . . . My precious! A sinful woman! Her a sinful woman! That’s all I needed! (Clutches his head.) She took poison . . .
Pause.
She took poison . . . Where is she? Listen! I’ll go to her! (Tears off his sling.) I . . . I’ll revive her!
TRILETSKY (lies face down on the sofa). Before reviving her, you shouldn’t have killed her!
PLATONOV. Killed . . . Why, you lunatic, did you say . . . that word? Do you think I killed her? Do you . . . do you think I wanted her death? (Weeps.) She took poison . . . That’s all I needed, to be crushed beneath a wheel, like a dog! If this is a punishment, then . . . (shakes his fist) it’s a cruel, immoral punishment! No, this is more than I can handle! Much more! What’s it for? Let’s say I’m a sinner, a miserable wretch . . . but all the same I’m still alive!
Pause.
Look at me now, all of you! Look! Do you like what you see?
TRILETSKY (leaps up). Yes, yes, yes . . . Now let’s have a good cry . . . By the way, your eyes are in a perpetual state of damp . . . You should get a good hiding! Put on your cap! Let’s go! Husband! Loving husband! Destroyed a woman for no reason at all, no reason at all! Brought her to that point! And these folks are entertaining him here! They like him! An eccentric fellow, an interesting subject, with an expression of mournful nobility in his face! And traces of former good looks! Let’s get going! You’ll see what you’ve done, conversation piece, eccentric!