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Theme Of Unrequited Love In The Sea Gull

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La douleur exquise : (n.) the heart-wrenching pain of wanting affection from someone unattainable. Within the Sea Gull there is a strong motif of unrequited love within the lives of the characters. Ironically, unrequited love is the structural glue that sticks most of the characters in The Seagull together. Medvedenko loves Masha, but Masha loves Treplev. Treplev does not love Masha back, he loves Nina. Nina loves Treplev briefly but then falls madly in love with Trigorin. Arkadina loves Trigorin but loses his affections and falls for Nina. Polina loves Dorn though she is married to Shamrayev. Dorn sometimes shares an affection for Polina, but his emotions toward her appears to have begun before the play started and continues to …show more content…

In this event there is only one quote that i feel would be just and that is, “Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate! O any thing, of nothing first create! O heavy lightness, serious vanity, Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms, Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! This love feel I, that feel no love in this.” ( William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet). This perfectly embodies the emotions expressed in this tragic event and everything that could be described by Treplev.
On a counter note there is Masha and her undeniable affections for Treplev. Masha adores him and looks for any reason just to have a glance at him, “You should see him whenever he recites something he wrote: his eyes burn, his face gets very pale and intense. He has such a beautiful, sad voice! You can tell he's a real poet. (Chekhov), she burns with affection that will never be reciprocated because of Treplev’s blindness due to his empowering love for Nina. Masha is torn between fighting for her real true love or giving up and deciding that waiting is too much of a burden, it’s been said that “to burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can bring on ourselves. (Federico García Lorca, Blood Wedding), and i do believe this is fitting for Masha. The

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