[They stand eating by the sideboard.]

ASTROFF. I haven't eaten anything to-day. Your father has a very
difficult nature. [He takes a bottle out of the sideboard] May I?
[He pours himself a glass of vodka] We are alone here, and I can
speak frankly. Do you know, I could not stand living in this
house for even a month? This atmosphere would stifle me. There is
your father, entirely absorbed in his books, and his gout; there
is your Uncle Vanya with his hypochondria, your grandmother, and
finally, your step-mother--

SONIA. What about her?

ASTROFF. A human being should be entirely beautiful: the face,
the clothes, the mind, the thoughts. Your step-mother is, of
course, beautiful to look at, but don't you see? She does nothing
but sleep and eat and walk and bewitch us, and that is all. She
has no responsibilities, everything is done for her--am I not
right? And an idle life can never be a pure one. [A pause]
However, I may be judging her too severely. Like your Uncle
Vanya, I am discontented, and so we are both grumblers.

SONIA. Aren't you satisfied with life?

ASTROFF. I like life as life, but I hate and despise it in a
little Russian country village, and as far as my own personal
life goes, by heaven! there is absolutely no redeeming feature
about it. Haven't you noticed if you are riding through a dark
wood at night and see a little light shining ahead, how you