ABSTRACT

Turgenev's A Month in the Country is a bittersweet comedy that focuses on the romantic entanglements that disrupt the routine harmony of life on a country estate. Natalya Petrovna, the wife of the estate owner, Islayev, falls in love with her son's young tutor. The affair is complicated by the fact that she thinks she has a rival in Vera, her seventeen-year-old stepdaughter. A family friend, Rakitin, a frequent visitor to the estate, is in love with Natalya, adding another level of complication. All of this is brought to a climax when the tutor reveals that he too loves Natalya and not Vera. The play ends with everyone left heartbroken, but wiser. Natalya's speech is an avalanche of embarrassed and contradictory emotions. She is declaring her love to a younger man and it takes a bit of time to sort it all out into a speech. On different levels she indulges in self-recriminations, confessions and aggressive admissions.