MORE ON DEPRESSION Similarily, Serebriakov is angry: .
"After devoting all my life to learning, to esteemed colleagues - to find myself suddenly, for no reason at all, in this crypt, to have to meet stupid people every day, to have to listen to their trivial conversation."(Page 203).
But Chekhov also uses the idea of immensity of space further. Both land, as well as for example, the country house, in which the play takes place, resemble the feeling of unpleasant dimensions. This is intentional; Chekhov creates the feeling of the characters being lost in their own far too large, inaccessible world. .
At one stage of the play, Serebriakov asks: "But where are the others? I don't like this house. It's like a sort of labyrinth. Twenty-six enormous rooms, people wander off in all directions, and there's no finding anyone." (Page 226).
Astrov, the doctor, speaking to Sonia tells her about his feelings in their house. In fact, it seams as if he were summarising the affects that the Russian country takes on human nature. .
"You know, I don't believe I could stick it in your house for a month, I should be suffocated in this atmosphere. Your father, completely absorbed in his gout and his books, Uncle Vanya with his depression, your grandmother and your stepmother".
who does .
"nothing but eat, sleep, go for walks, charm us all by her beauty nothing else." (Page 194).
As in this speech, Chekhov clearly uses Astrov as a neutral observer, able to criticise the everyday provincial Russian life. He describes typical Russian features: .
"The peasants are all too much alike, undeveloped, living in squalor." (Page 211).
But really, such features can be found amongst any peasant community. However, typically Russian, is the way, how people, in fact from a more cultured background will reduce themselves to the primitive levels, having lived in the vastness of the country for long enough. In most cases this naturally leads to a change of personality, like Voinitsky, whose well being gradually deteriorated over the years: .