Uncle Vanya book club questions

The reading plan

Meeting 1: Act 1

1. How does gathering for tea change the way you read the household's resentment?
2. When routines are disrupted, what makes resentment understandable, and what might make it unfair?
3. How might exhaustion change the way people respond to frustrated desires?
4. What responsibilities, if any, does someone have toward a person whose love they do not want?
5. Which seems harder for this household to bear: disrupted routines or frustrated desires? Why?

Meeting 2: Acts 2 to 3

6. What makes Sonia and Helena's peace seem hopeful or fragile amid the household's strain?
7. How does the restless night shape your understanding of the household's unhappy lives?
8. How should illness affect what people can fairly expect from one another in this household?
9. How does drinking complicate your judgment of the household's difficulties?
10. What does violence sparked by a proposed sale suggest about the stakes of change?

Meeting 3: Act 4

11. Does the return to routine feel more like relief or defeat? Why?
12. What does Sonia's persuasion of her uncle suggest about her way of helping?
13. How does surrendering the stolen morphine affect your judgment of Sonia's uncle?
14. How do you understand Sonia's choice to comfort her uncle after persuading him to surrender the morphine?
15. What might returning to work offer that comfort alone cannot?

Themes to talk about

Tips for the host

1. Open each meeting with one question everyone can answer, then go deeper.
2. Anyone who fell behind can catch up with the 15-minute summary.