Uncle Vanya

by

Anton Chekhov

Yelena/Helena Serebryakova Character Analysis

Helena Serebryakova (referred to as Yelena) is Professor Serebryakov’s second wife. She and her husband have recently moved into Serebryakov’s estate in the country, where their presence disrupts the lives of the other characters who live there. Yelena is the main catalyst of the play’s conflict, as her presence in the house significantly affects every main character in one way or another, though she doesn’t mean to cause problems and often feels guilty for doing so. But Yelena is caught in the middle of many of the other characters’ issues, and this brings a misery of its own. Voynitsky is desperately in love with her, and even Astrov finds her attractive enough to pursue. This presents additional problems, as Sonya is in love with Astrov, who doesn’t return her affections. Meanwhile, Yelena’s own husband Serebryakov constantly complains about his old age and apologizes to her simply for existing. Considering all of this, it’s likely that Yelena is exposed to more misery than any other character. She has to endure Voynitsky's unwanted flirting, Sonya’s despair over Astrov, the professor’s self-pity, not to mention her own guilt about her temptation to abandon her husband for Astrov. All this becomes too much for her to bear, which eventually leads to her and Serebryakov moving out of the house for good. Yelena doesn’t mean any harm to anyone, but according to Astrov, it’s her idleness that causes so many problems. Yelena may be beautiful and well-meaning, but without a noble purpose to keep her busy, she seems fated to cause chaos in the house. She’s an object of impossible desire for several characters, but she’s also a tragic character in her own right, so doomed is she to a life of idle meaninglessness and secondhand misery.

Yelena/Helena Serebryakova Quotes in Uncle Vanya

The Uncle Vanya quotes below are all either spoken by Yelena/Helena Serebryakova or refer to Yelena/Helena Serebryakova. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Old Age and Regret Theme Icon
).
Act 1 Quotes

I still love her and am faithful to her, I help with what I can and have given up my property for the education of the children she had by the man she loved. I lost my happiness but kept my pride. And what became of her? Her youth has now gone, by the laws of nature her beauty has faded, the man she loved has passed on… What has she left?

Related Characters: Telegin (speaker), Voynitsky (“Uncle Vanya”), Serebryakov, Yelena/Helena Serebryakova
Page Number: 150
Explanation and Analysis:

I am now forty-seven. Till last year, like you, I deliberately tried to cloud my eyes with your learned talk, so as not to see real life — and I thought I was doing right. And now if you only knew! At nights I don’t sleep from vexation, from anger that I so foolishly lost the time when I could have had everything that my age now denies me!

Related Characters: Voynitsky (“Uncle Vanya”) (speaker), Serebryakov, Yelena/Helena Serebryakova, Mariya Vasilyevna
Page Number: 151
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2 Quotes

I work all my life for learning, and I’m used to my study, the lecture hall, the colleagues I esteem — and then, I end up for no good reason in this tomb, see fools here every day, listen to worthless conversations… I want to live, I like success, I like fame, making a noise, and here it’s like being in exile. To pine every minute for the past, to watch the success of others, to be afraid of death… I can’t! I haven’t the strength! And they won’t even excuse me my age here!

Related Characters: Serebryakov (speaker), Yelena/Helena Serebryakova
Page Number: 159
Explanation and Analysis:

You have here my life and my love; where am I to put them, what am I to do with them? My feelings are going to waste, like a ray of sunshine falling into a chasm, and I myself am going to waste.

Related Characters: Voynitsky (“Uncle Vanya”) (speaker), Yelena/Helena Serebryakova
Page Number: 162
Explanation and Analysis:

She is beautiful, no question about that, but… she just eats, sleeps, walks, enchants us all with her beauty — and that’s all. She has no responsibilities, others work for her… It’s true, isn’t it? And an idle life can’t be a virtuous one.

Related Characters: Astrov (speaker), Sonya/Sofia Serebryakova, Yelena/Helena Serebryakova
Page Number: 166
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3 Quotes

You’re bored, you can’t find a role for yourself, and boredom and inactivity are infectious. Look: Uncle Vanya does nothing and just follows you round like a shadow, I’ve left my work and come running to you to talk. I’ve got lazy, I can’t do it! Doctor Mikhail Lvovich used to visit us very seldom, once a month, it was difficult to persuade him, but now he drives over here every day, he’s left his woods and his practice. You must be a sorceress.

Related Characters: Sonya/Sofia Serebryakova (speaker), Voynitsky (“Uncle Vanya”), Sonya/Sofia Serebryakova, Serebryakov, Yelena/Helena Serebryakova, Astrov
Page Number: 174
Explanation and Analysis:

No, uncertainty is better… There’s still hope…

Related Characters: Sonya/Sofia Serebryakova (speaker), Yelena/Helena Serebryakova, Astrov
Page Number: 176
Explanation and Analysis:

We have here a decline which is the consequence of an impossible struggle for existence; a degeneration arising from stagnation, ignorance, a total lack of self-awareness, when a frozen, hungry, sick man, in order to preserve the remnants of life, to protect his children, instinctively, unconsciously grasps at anything to relieve his hunger and get warm, and destroys everything around without a thought for tomorrow. Now almost everything is destroyed, but nothing has yet been created to take its place.

Related Characters: Astrov (speaker), Voynitsky (“Uncle Vanya”), Sonya/Sofia Serebryakova, Yelena/Helena Serebryakova
Related Symbols: Forestry, Maps
Page Number: 178
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 4 Quotes

I think you are a good, sincere person but there’s also something strange in your whole being. You came here with your husband and everyone who was busily working here and creating something had to drop what they were doing and devote the whole summer to looking after your husband’s gout and you yourself. Both of you — he and you — infected all of us with your idleness… I’m joking of course, but still… it’s strange, and I’m convinced that if you had stayed, the devastation would have been enormous.

Related Characters: Astrov (speaker), Serebryakov, Yelena/Helena Serebryakova
Page Number: 195
Explanation and Analysis:

…But let an old man include just one observation in his farewell greetings: my friends, one must do a job of work! One must do a job of work!

Related Characters: Serebryakov (speaker), Yelena/Helena Serebryakova
Page Number: 196
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Uncle Vanya LitChart as a printable PDF.
Uncle Vanya PDF

Yelena/Helena Serebryakova Quotes in Uncle Vanya

The Uncle Vanya quotes below are all either spoken by Yelena/Helena Serebryakova or refer to Yelena/Helena Serebryakova. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Old Age and Regret Theme Icon
).
Act 1 Quotes

I still love her and am faithful to her, I help with what I can and have given up my property for the education of the children she had by the man she loved. I lost my happiness but kept my pride. And what became of her? Her youth has now gone, by the laws of nature her beauty has faded, the man she loved has passed on… What has she left?

Related Characters: Telegin (speaker), Voynitsky (“Uncle Vanya”), Serebryakov, Yelena/Helena Serebryakova
Page Number: 150
Explanation and Analysis:

I am now forty-seven. Till last year, like you, I deliberately tried to cloud my eyes with your learned talk, so as not to see real life — and I thought I was doing right. And now if you only knew! At nights I don’t sleep from vexation, from anger that I so foolishly lost the time when I could have had everything that my age now denies me!

Related Characters: Voynitsky (“Uncle Vanya”) (speaker), Serebryakov, Yelena/Helena Serebryakova, Mariya Vasilyevna
Page Number: 151
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2 Quotes

I work all my life for learning, and I’m used to my study, the lecture hall, the colleagues I esteem — and then, I end up for no good reason in this tomb, see fools here every day, listen to worthless conversations… I want to live, I like success, I like fame, making a noise, and here it’s like being in exile. To pine every minute for the past, to watch the success of others, to be afraid of death… I can’t! I haven’t the strength! And they won’t even excuse me my age here!

Related Characters: Serebryakov (speaker), Yelena/Helena Serebryakova
Page Number: 159
Explanation and Analysis:

You have here my life and my love; where am I to put them, what am I to do with them? My feelings are going to waste, like a ray of sunshine falling into a chasm, and I myself am going to waste.

Related Characters: Voynitsky (“Uncle Vanya”) (speaker), Yelena/Helena Serebryakova
Page Number: 162
Explanation and Analysis:

She is beautiful, no question about that, but… she just eats, sleeps, walks, enchants us all with her beauty — and that’s all. She has no responsibilities, others work for her… It’s true, isn’t it? And an idle life can’t be a virtuous one.

Related Characters: Astrov (speaker), Sonya/Sofia Serebryakova, Yelena/Helena Serebryakova
Page Number: 166
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3 Quotes

You’re bored, you can’t find a role for yourself, and boredom and inactivity are infectious. Look: Uncle Vanya does nothing and just follows you round like a shadow, I’ve left my work and come running to you to talk. I’ve got lazy, I can’t do it! Doctor Mikhail Lvovich used to visit us very seldom, once a month, it was difficult to persuade him, but now he drives over here every day, he’s left his woods and his practice. You must be a sorceress.

Related Characters: Sonya/Sofia Serebryakova (speaker), Voynitsky (“Uncle Vanya”), Sonya/Sofia Serebryakova, Serebryakov, Yelena/Helena Serebryakova, Astrov
Page Number: 174
Explanation and Analysis:

No, uncertainty is better… There’s still hope…

Related Characters: Sonya/Sofia Serebryakova (speaker), Yelena/Helena Serebryakova, Astrov
Page Number: 176
Explanation and Analysis:

We have here a decline which is the consequence of an impossible struggle for existence; a degeneration arising from stagnation, ignorance, a total lack of self-awareness, when a frozen, hungry, sick man, in order to preserve the remnants of life, to protect his children, instinctively, unconsciously grasps at anything to relieve his hunger and get warm, and destroys everything around without a thought for tomorrow. Now almost everything is destroyed, but nothing has yet been created to take its place.

Related Characters: Astrov (speaker), Voynitsky (“Uncle Vanya”), Sonya/Sofia Serebryakova, Yelena/Helena Serebryakova
Related Symbols: Forestry, Maps
Page Number: 178
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 4 Quotes

I think you are a good, sincere person but there’s also something strange in your whole being. You came here with your husband and everyone who was busily working here and creating something had to drop what they were doing and devote the whole summer to looking after your husband’s gout and you yourself. Both of you — he and you — infected all of us with your idleness… I’m joking of course, but still… it’s strange, and I’m convinced that if you had stayed, the devastation would have been enormous.

Related Characters: Astrov (speaker), Serebryakov, Yelena/Helena Serebryakova
Page Number: 195
Explanation and Analysis:

…But let an old man include just one observation in his farewell greetings: my friends, one must do a job of work! One must do a job of work!

Related Characters: Serebryakov (speaker), Yelena/Helena Serebryakova
Page Number: 196
Explanation and Analysis: