Monologue

Treplieff Monologue from The Sea-Gull

From The Sea-Gull by Anton Chekhov

male · anguished · 1:54 min

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No, but we must have it under a new form. If we can’t do that, let us rather not have it at all. I love my mother, I love her devotedly, but I think she leads a stupid life. She always has this man of letters of hers on her mind, and the newspapers are always frightening her to death, and I am tired of it. Plain, human egoism sometimes speaks in my heart, and I regret that my mother is a famous actress. If she were an ordinary woman I think I should be a happier man. What could be more intolerable and foolish than my position, Uncle, when I find myself the only nonentity among a crowd of her guests, all celebrated authors and artists? I feel that they only endure me because I am her son. Personally I am nothing, nobody. I pulled through my third year at college by the skin of my teeth, as they say. I have neither money nor brains, and on my passport you may read that I am simply a citizen of Kiev. So was my father, but he was a well-known actor. When the celebrities that frequent my mother’s drawing-room deign to notice me at all, I know they only look at me to measure my insignificance; I read their thoughts, and suffer from humiliation.

About this piece

Treplieff expresses his deep feelings of inadequacy and frustration regarding his mother's fame and the societal expectations that come with it, revealing his internal struggle with identity and belonging.

20s · sadness · identity · family · isolation · ambition

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