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Imagery in The Seagull

Seagull as an image:
Every character in the play identifies with the seagull in some way or the other. Seagull for Treplev signifies Nina’s cold and harsh treatment towards him; he tries to explain how and why he symbolizes himself with the Seagull while she tries to explain she doesn’t understand it. It foreshadows the end of the play by showing how Treplev will actually commit suicide.

For Nina, it shows how she will always be in the future, when Trigorin discovers the gull he says: “A young girl… loves the lake the way a seagull does, and she's happy and free as a seagull. Then a man comes along, sees her, and ruins her life because he has nothing better to do. Destroys her like this seagull here.” It represents how she will be forgotten about in the future by him and how her life is ruined by the man she loved. Towards the end of the play she is completely forgotten about like the gull Trigorin asked to stuff.

Lake as an image:
The lake at the beginning of the play is obscured to show the uncertainty towards everything that is going to happen in the play. It shows uncertainty towards both Nina’s and Treplev’s careers, for Akradina it’s seen as a constant reminder of her youth and how she wishes to keep holding on to it. Trigorin sees it purely as a materialistic material meant to satisfy his needs for a “muse” as well as his need to fish and conquer.

Weather and changes in ambience:
The constant changes in the weather are used subtly to show the passion of discomfort between the characters in the play. The constant change helps us to understand the psyche of the characters and their subconscious feelings.

Hence, these are the imageries used in this text.

-An assignment by Saumya Jain and group (TYBA-LIT)

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