Mikhail Lvovich Astrov

A country doctor and passionate, self-described "crank" on the subject of forestry and conservation, worn down by overwork, provincial isolation, and a self-diagnosed emotional numbness ("I love no one"). His long monologues over hand-drawn maps of the district's shrinking forests (Act One, Act Three) articulate the play's ecological and idealistic register. He does not return Sonya's six-year devotion, telling Yelena plainly that he does not love her as a woman, but is drawn into a mutual, near-consummated attraction with Yelena herself, kissing her in Act Three moments before Voinitsky walks in with a bouquet meant for her. In Act Four he discovers Voinitsky has taken a vial of morphine from his medicine case and, suspecting a suicide attempt, insists on its return -- both to prevent the act and to avoid being implicated in it himself. He departs the estate at the play's end, as does Yelena, leaving Sonya and Voinitsky to their routine.