Ivanov

a doctor, and as a doctor I insist on your behaving differently. Your behaviour is killing Anna Petrovna. Ivanov But what am I to do? What? Since you understand me better than I understand myself, tell me definitely, what am I to do? Lvov At least you might keep up appearances. Ivanov Oh, my God! Do you suppose you understand what you are saying? Drinks water. Leave me alone. I am infinitely to blame: I must answer for it to God; but no one has authorised you to torment me every day.⁠ ⁠… Lvov And who has authorised you to outrage my sense of justice? You torture and poison my soul. Before I came into this district I admitted that silly, mad, impulsive people did exist, but I never believed that there were people so criminal as intentionally, consciously, wilfully to choose the path of evil.⁠ ⁠… I loved and respected mankind, but since I have known you⁠ ⁠… Ivanov I have heard about that already. Enter Sasha. Lvov Oh, have you? Seeing Sasha; she is in a riding habit. Now I trust we quite understand each other! Shrugs his shoulders and goes out. Ivanov With alarm. Sasha, is it you? Sasha Yes, it is me. How are you? You did not expect me? Why haven’t you been to see us for so long? Ivanov Sasha, for goodness’ sake, this is unwise! Your coming may have a terrible effect on my wife. Sasha She won’t see me. I came by the back way. I am just going. I am uneasy: are you well? Why is it you haven’t come all this time? Ivanov My wife is distressed as it is; she is almost dying, and you come here. Sasha, Sasha, it’s thoughtless and inhuman! Sasha I couldn’t help it. You haven’t been to see us for a fortnight, you haven’t answered my letters. I was worried to death. I fancied that you were unbearably miserable here, ill, dying. I haven’t had one good night’s sleep. I am just going.⁠ ⁠… Tell me, anyway, are you well? Ivanov No. I torment myself, and people torment me endlessly.⁠ ⁠… It’s simply more than I can bear! And now you on the top of it all! How morbid, how abnormal it all is! How guilty I feel, Sasha⁠—how guilty!⁠ ⁠… Sasha How fond you are of saying dreadful and tragic things! So you are guilty.⁠ ⁠… Yes? Guilty? Tell me then, what of? Ivanov I don’t know, I don’t know.⁠ ⁠… Sasha That’s not an answer. Every sinner ought to know what his sins are. Have you forged notes, or what? Ivanov That’s stupid. Sasha Are you guilty because you have changed to your wife? Perhaps, but man is not master of his feelings, you didn’t want your feelings to change. Are you guilty because she saw me telling you that I love you? No, you did not want her to see.⁠ ⁠… Ivanov Interrupting. And so on, so on.⁠ ⁠… In love, out of love, not master of his feelings⁠—these are commonplaces, stock phrases, which don’t help.⁠ ⁠… Sasha It’s wearisome talking to you looks at a picture. How well that dog is drawn. Is that from life? Ivanov Yes. And all our love story is commonplace and hackneyed: he has lost heart and is plunged in despair, she appears on the scene, full of strength and courage⁠—holds out a helping hand. That’s fine and sounds all right in novels, but in real life.⁠ ⁠… Sasha In real life it’s the same. Ivanov I see, you’ve such a subtle understanding of life! My whining excites your reverent awe, you fancy you have discovered a second Hamlet in me, but to my mind my morbid state with all accessories provides good material for ridicule and nothing else! You ought to laugh at my antics while you cry “Help!” To save me, to do something heroic! Oh, how cross I am with myself today! I feel this nervous strain will make me do something.⁠ ⁠… Either I shall smash something, or⁠ ⁠… Sasha That’s it, that’s it, just what you ought to do. Break something, smash things, or scream. You are angry with me; it was silly of me to think of coming here. Well, be angry, shout at me, stamp! Well? Begin to rage! A pause. Well? Ivanov Ridiculous girl! Sasha Excellent! I believe you are smiling! Be kind and graciously smile again! Ivanov Laughs. I’ve noticed when you begin saving me and giving me good advice your face becomes very, very naive and your eyes as big as though you were looking at a comet. Wait a minute, your shoulder is dusty brushes some dust off her shoulder. A naive man is a fool, but you women have the art of being naive so that it is sweet and natural and warm and not so silly as it seems. But isn’t it a queer trick in all of you⁠—so long as a man is strong and well and cheerful, you take no notice of him, but as soon as he begins running rapidly downhill and sets up a whine, you throw yourselves upon his neck! Is it worse to be the wife of a strong, brave man than to be the nurse of some lachrymose failure? Sasha Yes, it is. Ivanov Why is it? Laughs. Darwin knows nothing about it, or he would give it to you! You are ruining the race. Thanks to you there will soon be none but snivellers and neurotics born into the world! Sasha There is a great deal men don’t understand. Any girl will prefer a man who is a failure to one who is a success, because every woman longs to love actively.⁠ ⁠… Do you understand, actively? A man is absorbed in his work and so love with him is in the background. To talk to his wife, to walk in the garden and spend the time pleasantly with her and weep on her grave⁠—that’s all he wants. While with us love is life. I love you, that means that I am dreaming how I shall heal you of your misery, how I shall go to the