belief systems

Since most of the play deals with death (3 sister's father, Tuzenbach,
their dreamy lives in Moscow). A few things on what they believe(d) in
the world that is Russian Orthodoxy.

-Souls do not leave the body until after three days, then they travel
to the Judge
-Hell was "destroyed" by Christ. It still exists but is supposedly
"sentenced to death." (‘Today Hell groans and cries aloud: It had been
better for me, had I not accepted Mary’s Son, for He has come to me
and destroyed my power; He has shattered the gates of brass, and as
God He has raised up the souls that once I held’... In the words of St
John Chrysostom, ‘Hell was embittered when it met Thee face to face
below. It was embittered, for it was rendered void. It was embittered,
for it was mocked. It was embittered, for it was slain. It was
embittered, for it was despoiled. It was embittered, for it was
fettered’.)
-Paradise or Heaven is not a concrete place, but a "state of the
soul". ("Just as Hell is a suffering on account of the impossibility
to love, Paradise is bliss that derives from the abundance of love and
light. He who has been united to Christ participates completely and
integrally in Paradise.")

-Other aspects & dogmas of Eastern Orthodoxy can be found on this
Online Catechism: http://orthodoxeurope.org/page/10/1.aspx


Some words from Chekhov on his beliefs:

“I am afraid of those who look for a tendency between the lines and
who insist on seeing me as necessarily either a liberal or
conservative. I am not a liberal, not a conservative, not an
evolutionist, nor a monk, nor indifferent to the world. I should like
to be a free artist and nothing more, and I regret that God has not
given me the power to be one…Pharisaism, stupidity and tyranny reign
not in shopkeepers’ houses and in lock-ups alone; I see them in
science, in literature, in the younger generation…I regard trademarks
and labels as a kind of prejudice. My holy of holies is the human
body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love and absolute
freedom – freedom from violence and falsehood no matter how the last
two manifest themselves. This is the program I would follow if I were
a great artist.”
“What an unhappy lot we are! Other boys may run, play, visit their
friends. We can only go to church.”
“I am an unbeliever, but of all the faiths, I esteem the faith of L.
Tolstoy the nearest to my heart and most suited to me.”
"What is unfortunate is not that we hate our enemies who are few but
that we do not love enough our neighbor who is infinitely numerous.”


St. Gregory of Nyssa is a well revered saint in Eastern Orthodoxy. A
few quotes on his teachings of the faith:

"When he who beholds that Divine and limitless Beauty, [and] sees the
things discovered at every step to be so altogether new and
unexpectedly marvelous in comparison to what he saw previously, he is
overcome with awe by what unfolds before his eyes at every step. His
desire to see [God] never subsides, because what he anticipates is far
more magnificent and divine than anything he has yet seen”
"While we carry on our present life in many different ways, there are
many things in which we participate, such as time, air, place, food
and drink, clothing, sun, lamplight, and many other necessities of
life, of which none is God. The blessedness which we await, however,
does not need any of these, but the divine Nature will become
everything for us and will replace everything, distributing itself
appropriately for every need of that life..."