# Irina Arkadina — The Seagull character guide

> Irina Arkadina in The Seagull by Anton Chekhov.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Madame Arkadin, Arkadina, Irina Nikolayevna

**First appearance:** 0001-the-seagull

## Snapshot

A celebrated actress who reads Maupassant aloud, keeps seventy thousand roubles in Odessa, and cannot bear to be upstaged by her own son.

## Who they are

Arkadina holds court at her brother's estate, charming guests and needling her son, whose play she resents because Nina, not she, will triumph in it. She is generous with kisses and stingy with money, superstitious about three candles, and terrified of the age her grown son makes visible. Her jealousy of Treplev's art and her grip on Trigorin drive the household's central conflicts.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_seagull_se/characters/irina_nikolayevna_arkadina
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_seagull_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_seagull_se/characters