THE THREE SISTERS
A monologue from the
play by Anton
Chekhov
|
NOTE: This monologue is reprinted
from The Moscow Arts Theatre Series of Plays. Ed. Oliver
M. Sayler. New York: Brentanos, 1922. |
|
|
TCHEBUTIKIN: [Morosely] Devil take them all
. . . take them all . . . They think I'm a doctor and can cure
everything, and I know absolutely nothing, I've forgotten all
I ever knew, I remember nothing, absolutely nothing. Devil take
it. Last Wednesday I attended a woman in Zosip -- and she died,
and it's my fault she died. Yes . . . I used to know a certain
amount twenty-five years go, but I don't remember anything now.
Nothing. Perhaps I'm not really a man, and am only pretending
that I have arms and legs and a head; perhaps I don't exist at
all, and only imagine that I walk, and eat, and sleep. [Cries]
Oh, if only I didn't exist! [Stops crying; morosely] The
devil only knows . . . Day before yesterday they were talking
at the club; they mentioned Shakespeare, Voltaire . . . I've
never read, never read at all, and I made believe as if I had.
So did the others. Oh, how beastly! How petty! And then I remembered
the woman whom I attended and who died on Wednesday . . . and
I couldn't get her out of my thoughts, and everything in my soul
turned crooked, nasty, wretched . . . So I drank to forget.
MORE
MONOLOGUES BY ANTON CHEKHOV |
