The Use Of Plot In The Play Uncle Vanya

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The use of plot in Uncle Vanya

In every play there is a plot, the plot acts a sort of box that holds all the other elements in it. The plot helps to hold together the characters, the spectacle and the language of the play. There are three main types of plots, climatic, episodic and absurd. In his play Uncle Vanya, Chekhov chooses to combine the climatic and episodic plot types together to tell his story.
There are many characteristics of a climactic plot in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. One of the most important is that Unlce Vanya has a late point of attack, meaning that in order to understand the more significant parts of the play the audience needs a little background information early on. In the opening act of Uncle Vanya we learn about Astrov’s connection to the family, that life on the Serebryakov estate has been “topsy-turvy” ever since the arrival of the professor and his wife and most importantly about Vonitsky’s feelings of contempt and “envy” toward the professor.
Without this information the audience may not have understood many of the conflicts taking place during the play. For example, the background information helps to explain the shaky relationship between the professor and the doctor. We can assume that Astrov was also the doctor to the professor’s late wife, and that the professor may blame the doctor for her death. Voinitsky’s speech in the opening act about the professor’s waste of twenty five years helps the audience realize why he has no love lost for the professor and that is why he tries to kill him later on in the play.
A climactic plot is usually also a linear plot. Meaning that each of the scenes in the play only move forward in time. There are no instances in Uncle Vanya where we are taken back to relive first hand any experiences from any of the charaters pasts. The climatic play typically only covers a short amount of time. Although some parts of the character’s pasts are revealed ...