Futility · Chapter
The Narrator's First Intervention explained
After a humiliating exit from the sisters' home, the narrator lies awake planning a grand reorganization of their lives.
What happens
After a humiliating exit from the sisters' home, the narrator lies awake planning a grand reorganization of their lives. He draws up charts and diagrams, assigning marriages and roles to each character, and presents his scheme to Nina. She listens intently but ultimately rejects his plan, leaving him stunned.
Themes in this chapter
Futility and Meaninglessness
The narrator's elaborate reorganization plan is ultimately rejected by Nina, highlighting the futility of his attempts to impose order on chaotic lives.
Family and Dysfunction
The narrator's scheme reveals the tangled dependencies and conflicts among the extended family, including marriages, finances, and hangers-on.
Love and Illusion
The narrator's self-deception about his role as a savior and his romantic pairing of himself with Nina underscore the illusions that drive his actions.
Art vs. Life
The narrator explicitly compares the family to Chekhov characters and himself to an artist-creator, blurring the line between life and literary material.
Characters to notice
- Nikolai Vasilievich
Present on the balcony laughing at the narrator's retreat; later assigned to marry Fanny Ivanovna in the narrator's scheme.
- Fanny Ivanovna
On the balcony laughing; the narrator plans for her to marry Nikolai Vasilievich to secure her position.
- Nina Bursànova
Watches from the balcony; the narrator presents his reorganization plan to her, but she rejects it.
- Sonia
On the balcony laughing; the narrator plans to marry her to Baron Wunderhausen.
- Vera
On the balcony laughing; the narrator plans for her to stay with Fanny and Nikolai.
- Kniaz
On the balcony laughing; the narrator plans for him to live off Nikolai Vasilievich.
- Baron Wunderhausen
On the balcony laughing; the narrator plans to marry him to Sonia.
- Magda Nikolaevna Bursànova
Mentioned in the narrator's plan: she must be allowed to divorce and marry Cecedek.
Key passages
“I’ll write up such a Three Sisters as will knock old Chekhov into a cocked hat. It’s so easy. You just set down the facts.”
The narrator threatens to write a story about the family that would surpass Chekhov, simply by recording their absurd reality.
Highlights the theme of art vs. life and the narrator's arrogance.
“I felt as President Wilson must have felt years later when he was laying down the principles of a future League of Nations.”
The narrator compares his reorganization plan to Wilson's idealistic vision for global peace.
Connects personal meddling to historical political idealism.
“I explained and propounded with something of the insolence of a creator, an artist and a prophet, and she listened to me, all absorbed in my scheme.”
The narrator presents his plan with the arrogance of a creator, believing Nina is fully engaged.
Emphasizes his self-delusion and the theme of illusion.
