Brian Yan All was good and well. The house was trouble free. There were no conflicts. This was prior to the Professor’s visit. In a couple of days, huge fights occur. Shots go off in the house and suicide almost committed. It was a completely different environment. This can all be attributed to the Professor. The professor is extremely selfish and it is this selfishness that is the source of all misery within the estate. For many years, Vanya and his niece Sonya, have been looking over the estate that belonged to Vanya’s sister, Maria who is also the first wife of the Professor. Meanwhile, the Professor and his young wife, Elena are living in city off the earnings of the estate. Retired with no job, he is simply a mooching cradle robber who needs constant care by Elena or Sonya. In the play, it is clear that he is no longer the brilliant man that he was once was. Naturally, the Professor is selfish because he has become extremely dependent on others due to his old age. He requires a lot from those around him and gives nothing back. Simply he is a burden as demonstrated in his own words to Elena “You are quite right, of course. I am not an idiot; I can understand you. You are young and healthy and beautiful, and longing for life, and I am an old dotard, almost a dead man already. Don't I know it? Of course I see that it is foolish for me to live so long, but wait! I shall soon set you all free. My life cannot drag on much longer. (Chekhov)” This does not only apply to Elena but also to Sonya and Vanya. Throughout the years, they looked after the Estate and contributed to the wellbeing of the Professor for nothing. Uncle Vayna said it perfectly “For twenty-five years I have managed this place, and have sent you the returns from it like the most honest of servants, and you have never given me one single word of thanks for my work, not one--neither in my youth nor now”. He feels used and unappreciated for what he has done for him. But the ultimate demonstration of selfishness is when the Professor tells everyone that he decides to sell the estate so that he can write a paper to make money and hopefully buy a villa in Finland for him and Elena. In this proposition, there was no mention of his daughter, or Vanya. It was because of Vanya and Sonya that such an option was possible in the first place. For someone of that age, I wonder how he can be so selfish. There is not much left for him in his life and he wants to buy a villa for himself? Meanwhile, Sonya and Vanya are living hopeless lives with potentially no place to live if the estate is indeed sold. In addition, the estate is not the Professor’s to sell to begin with! Vanya ridicules the Professor in the following quote “I have never had a grain of sense in my head. I have always been stupid enough to think that the estate belonged to Sonia. My father bought it as a wedding present for my sister, and I foolishly imagined that as our laws were made for Russians and not Turks, my sister's estate would come down to her child.” The professor had the audacity to sell someone else’s property for his own benefit. Truly, the professor is selfish.