Why Larus vegae?

The comedic play by Anton Chekhov titled The Sea Gull, takes place at the end 19th century on a Russian estate owned by Peter Nikolaevich Sorin who is a retired civil servant of the Russian Army. In the play the characters vacation on Sorin’s estate, each of them discontent with their lives in one way or another. They all unite as characters from different backgrounds and aspirations, but the majority of them are professional or amature writers and actors. While vacationing on Sorin’s estate that resides on the side of a lake, the characters experience unreturned love and from this even further discontent towards their own lives. Towards the ending of the play, Konstantin Treplev (son of Irina Arkadina who is in love with Nina) commits suicide because he is unable to both step out of his mother’s shadow and obtain the love/acceptance the he demands. In order for Anton Pavlovich Chekhov to have events such as this one have a meaningful connection and deeper understanding to the audience/reader, he utilizes the literary device of symbolism by making the seagull a symbol throughout the play.

A symbol is a word, plave, character, or object that means something beyond what it is on a literal level. The first mention of the word “seagull” as an animal in the play is done in Act I by Nina. As Zarechnaya, Nina Mikhailovna arrives to Sorin’s estate after successfully leaving her parents without being caught, she tells Treplev, “My father and his wife won’t let me come here. They say it’s bohemian... they’re afraid I might go on the stage... But I am drawn here to this lake, like a sea gull... My heart is full of you.” (111). Throughout the course of the play, the seagull comes to mean many things. In this instance, for Nina, the seagull...

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...he life of being a writer, when he notices the bird:

TRIGORIN. It’s lovely here! [Seeing the sea gull] And what is this?

NINA. A seagull. konstantin Gavrilovich shot it.

TRIGORIN. A beautiful brd. I really don’t want to go. Try to persuade Nikolayevna to stay. [Makes a not in his book]

NINA. What are you writing?

TRIGORIN. Just making a note . . . An idea occurred to me. [Putting away notebook] Subject for a short story: a young girl like you lives all her life beside a lake; she loves the lake like a sea gull, and, like a sea gull, is happy in free. A man comes along by chance, sees her, and having nothing better to do, destroys her, just like the sea gull here. (137)

Chekhov yet again inforces the idea that Nina is the sea gull.

Work Cited

Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich, and Ann Dunnigan. "The Sea Gull." The Major Plays. New York:

Signet, 1964. N. pag. Print.