Uncle Vanya

is old and always ill, so that I really look after all the work. Yelena I have been told already that you are very fond of forestry. Of course, it may be of the greatest use, but doesn’t it interfere with your real work? You are a doctor. Astrov Only God knows what is one’s real work. Yelena And is it interesting? Astrov Yes, it is interesting work. Voynitsky Ironically. Very much so! Yelena To Astrov. You are still young⁠—you don’t look more than thirty-six or thirty-seven⁠ ⁠… and it cannot be so interesting as you say. Nothing but trees and trees. I should think it must be monotonous. Sonya No, it’s extremely interesting. Mihail Lvovitch plants fresh trees every year, and already they have sent him a bronze medal and a diploma. He tries to prevent the old forests being destroyed. If you listen to him you will agree with him entirely. He says that forests beautify the country, that they teach man to understand what is beautiful and develop a lofty attitude of mind. Forests temper the severity of the climate. In countries where the climate is mild, less energy is wasted on the struggle with nature, and so man is softer and milder. In such countries people are beautiful, supple and sensitive; their language is elegant and their movements are graceful. Art and learning flourish among them, their philosophy is not gloomy, and their attitude to women is full of refined courtesy. Voynitsky Laughing. Bravo, bravo! That’s all charming but not convincing; so to Astrov allow me, my friend, to go on heating my stoves with logs and building my barns of wood. Astrov You can heat your stoves with peat and build your barns of brick. Well, I am ready to let you cut down wood as you need it, but why destroy the forests? The Russian forests are going down under the axe. Millions of trees are perishing, the homes of wild animals and birds are being laid waste, the rivers are dwindling and drying up, wonderful scenery is disappearing never to return; and all because lazy man has not the sense to stoop down and pick up the fuel from the ground. To Yelena Andreyevna. Am I not right, madam? One must be an unreflecting savage to burn this beauty in one’s stove, to destroy what we cannot create. Man is endowed with reason and creative force to increase what has been given him; but hitherto he has not created but destroyed. There are fewer and fewer forests, the rivers are drying up, the wild creatures are becoming extinct, the climate is ruined, and every day the earth is growing poorer and more hideous. To Voynitsky. Here you are looking at me with irony, and all I say seems to you not serious and⁠—perhaps I really am a crank. But when I walk by the peasants’ woods which I have saved from cutting down, or when I hear the rustling of the young copse planted by my own hands, I realise that the climate is to some extent in my power, and that if in a thousand years man is to be happy I too shall have had some small hand in it. When I plant a birch tree and see it growing green and swaying in the wind my soul is filled with pride, and I⁠ ⁠… seeing the Labourer, who has brought a glass of vodka on a tray. However drinks, it’s time for me to go. Probably the truth of the matter is that I am a crank. I have the honour to take my leave! Goes towards the house. Sonya Takes his arm and goes with him. When are you coming to us? Astrov I don’t know. Sonya Not for a month again? Astrov and Sonya go into the house; Marya Vassilyevna and Telyegin remain at the table; Yelena Andreyevna walks towards the verandah. Yelena You have been behaving impossibly again, Ivan Petrovitch. Why need you have irritated Marya Vassilyevna and talked about a writing machine! And at lunch today you quarrelled with Alexandr again. How petty it is! Voynitsky But if I hate him? Yelena There is no reason to hate Alexandr; he is like everyone else. He is no worse than you are. Voynitsky If you could see your face, your movements! You are too indolent to live! Ah, how indolent! Yelena Ach! indolent and bored! Everyone abuses my husband; everyone looks at me with compassion, thinking, “Poor thing! she has got an old husband.” This sympathy for me, oh, how well I understand it! As Astrov said just now, you all recklessly destroy the forests, and soon there will be nothing left on the earth. In just the same way you recklessly destroy human beings, and soon, thanks to you, there will be no fidelity, no purity, no capacity for sacrifice left on earth! Why is it you can never look with indifference at a woman unless she is yours? Because⁠—that doctor is right⁠—there is a devil of destruction in all of you. You have no feeling for the woods, nor the birds, nor for women, nor for one another! Voynitsky I don’t like this moralising. A pause. Yelena That doctor has a weary, sensitive face. An interesting face. Sonya is evidently attracted by him; she is in love with him, and I understand her feeling. He has come three times since I have been here, but I am shy and have not once had a proper talk with him, or been nice to him. He thinks I am disagreeable. Most likely that’s why we are such friends, Ivan Petrovitch, that we are both such tiresome, tedious people. Tiresome! Don’t look at me like that, I don’t like it. Voynitsky How else can I look at you, since I love you? You are my happiness, my life, my youth! I know the chances of your returning my feeling are nil, nonexistent, but I want nothing, only let me look