REACTION/ANALYSIS:
The most striking aspect of Chekhov's Three Sisters, is the complete lack of
action by any of the characters. They complain, they wish, they dream about a better life, but they never do anything to alter their future. This should explain the lack of dramatic elements as noted above. The major dramatic elements, with the exception of the denouement, are all crises. A dramatic crisis is defined as a point in the action where a decision is made that could take the action in one direction or another, and is also a point of no return beyond which one can no longer take the alternate provided at the moment of decision. In The Three Sisters, none of the characters ever make such a life-changing decision. They talk about them, they discuss them, they complain, cry, and wish for a life-changing event, but they never set forth the effort to cause such an event. Therefore, the "action" stagnates, and the play goes nowhere, ending as it began, with no progress or change in the characters.
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