SOURCE: Strongin, Carol. “Irony and Theatricality in Chekhov's The Sea Gull.” Comparative Drama 15, no. 4 (winter 1981-1982): 366-80.

In the following essay, Strongin contends that Chekhov intended The Seagull to be ironic and included many parodies of contemporary theater within it.

The play's ending suggests melodrama: Nina, the innocent country girl seduced and abandoned by the worldly writer Trigorin, delivers an emotional speech about faith and endurance and bearing her cross before she runs out into the stormy autumn night. Treplev, the sensitive young man who loves her and has lost her as he has also failed in his attempt to become a great writer, tears up his manuscripts, throws them under his desk, and leaves the stage. Now, as Treplev's mother, the actress Irina Nikolayevna Arkadina, and her companions enter and resume their game of lotto, the sound of a gunshot is heard off-stage. Dr. Dorn leaves to...