Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain descriptions of death, gun violence, and attempted suicide.

Throughout the play, the dialogue continually returns to the question of whether life has meaning and what that meaning might be. The characters’ philosophizing about the subject arises during moments of idle conversation, particularly among those who are the most educated and discontented. These musings are a luxury of both the upper class and the unencumbered soldiers who are occupying the town during peacetime, for they all have the privilege of education and the copious free time to converse idly while they wait for the working class to serve them lunch or bring them tea. However, these conversations also carry a tone of urgency as the characters are keenly aware of birthdays, death, and other marks of time’s passage. In particular, the three sisters are rudderless: stuck in the ennui of having no purpose in life. They worry about aging and about the vanishing opportunities to define themselves and find meaning in their own lives. The sisters and Andrey are a cache of idle talent and skills, for although they speak several languages and play musical instruments, they do not have the grand lives that such tools and skills are meant to facilitate, and their small-town lifestyle does not allow them to fully experience the aristocratic pursuits that they have been trained to embrace and enjoy.