Chekhov / Culture Shock

As we move into pre-tech week run throughs, we're considering differences between our characters' culture (Russia, 1890's), and our own culture (America, 2011). 

One general difference between American and Russian cultures is the locus of action for what happens in our lives. Americans tend to locate action inside the individual; Russians tend to locate it outside of the individual. 

• Americans say, "I am sad," whereas Russians say, "it is sad to me" or "it is sad on me."
• Americans say, "I like" something, whereas Russians say something "pleases me." 
• An American says, "I dreamed about" something, whereas Russians say something "dreamed itself to me"
• Americans default to the idea of free will, whereas Russians default to the idea of fate.

Generally, in America, a person happens to the world, whereas in Russia, the world happens to a person. This difference runs deep, but it doesn't create mental blind spots. Russians know courage, self-reliance and individuality, just as Americans know compassion, hard luck and the collective good. 

As we've seen, Chekhov often judges harshly those who are self-absorbed or self-indulgent. But he also often puts his characters in overwhelming circumstances. In UNCLE VANYA one such circumstance is the fundamentally sucky process of degradation - both for people and for the environment. Your characters all deal with entropic decline (mind, body, environment).

Unrequited love, growing old, financial destitution. Why might a comic writer deal focus so much on cruel fates?