ABSTRACT
There is an interval of several days between the first and the second acts. This becomes clear from the remark Arkadina makes to Nina about Konstantin who has been spending ‘whole days’ at the lake so that she hardly sees him. During that short time a marked change has come over many of the characters. As for Nina, the change that has come over her after her first meeting with Trigorin can no longer be disguised, even if Nina, whose infatuation with the popular novelist is now apparent to everybody, cared to disguise it or, indeed, was able to disguise it. Arkadina had drawn up her plan of action before the second act. It was the gap between the ages of herself and Nina that worried Arkadina most. Considering that Masha was the last woman in the world Konstantin would have read anything to, it can be safely assumed that she had made it all up.
