The analysis of Chekhov plays in terms of the 19th century Russian social structure

The master's thesis titled "The Analysis of Chekhov Plays in terms of the 19th Century Russian Social Structure" studies Russian playwright Anton Pavlovich Chekhov's major plays "Ivanov", "The Seagull", "Uncle Vanya", "The Three Sisters" and "The Cherry Orchard", in terms of the 19th century Russian social structure. 19th century Russian society, which forms the spatial and temporal context of the mentioned plays, was under the influence of the elements of social change, such as, modernisation (or Westernization), which began in 18th century, industrialisation, capitalisation and the Emancipation Reform 1861, which affected the Russian society mainly at the second part of the 19th century. Therefore, mentioned plays should be considered in terms of the 19th century Russian transformation process and its environmental, social and individual effects. The method of the thesis, put forward with this purpose, indicates following: A detailed literature review, forming the conceptual and theoretical framework, research on the historical era and the play analysis in the light of the discovered connections between the mentioned plays and the previous information. Upon the belief in the interdisciplinary contribution benefiting from the literature and theories of social sciences while studying social structure may provide, two social sciences theories were used during the study: the "capital" theory by Pierre Bourdieu and the "anomy" theory by Emile Durkheim. As a result of the study, it has been concluded that the analysis of the 19th the century Russian social structure and the theoretical approach of the thesis has had a profound effect in explaining the repeating plot, atmosphere and character patterns among the plays.