An argument ensues about horses, which Shamrayev is currently using to work on Sorin's farm, and which Arkadina wants to use to take her into town. Shamrayev enters, having heard from his wife Polina that Arkadina plans to go into town.

Masha exits, and Dorn and Sorin comment that Masha hasn’t ever found happiness in life.Īrkadina announces that she is bored. Sorin moans that no-one will give him any medical attention – and Dorn tells him sixty (Sorin's age) is too old for medical attention. Masha replies that he’s sick at heart, and then asks Nina to recite some of Konstantin’s play. Medvedenko is pushing Sorin’s wheelchair.Īrkadina asks whether anyone knows what’s wrong with her son, Konstantin. Sorin enters with Nina, whose father and stepmother have gone into town, leaving her free for three days. Arkadina sees the parallel with her relationship with Trigorin, but smoothly announces that their relationship is nothing like that in the book. The extract she reads is about a woman who wants to bed a writer and flatters him to get his attention. The three have been reading aloud from a book, and Dorn now carries on reading, until, characteristically, Arkadina takes over. Arkadina carries on, boasting about how spry she is for her age, and how she never leaves the house without being made up. Arkadina says that she feels young, and Masha that she feels old. Dorn answers, “of course”, that Arkadina looks younger. Arkadina begins the scene by standing Masha up next to her and asking Dorn which of them looks younger. Arkadina, Dorn and Masha sit underneath a tree on one side of the lawn. The curtain rises on a croquet lawn, with Sorin's house to the right and the lake to the left.

The seagull book anton chekhov