Mihail Lvovitch Astrov

Astrov is the doctor who has served this district for over a decade, aging visibly under the strain of endless calls and epidemics. He tells Marina how spotted typhus once left him working all day without food, then a patient died under chloroform and he was conscience-stricken as if he'd killed him on purpose. He wonders whether future generations will remember the road he and others are beating out for them, and Marina answers that God will. His weariness and his stubborn idealism make him the play's most clear-eyed figure.