Sonya: “We shall rest” (Sonya’s last speech)

What is happening, what every line means, how to perform it, and how to use it in an audition, with the full text.

The Offbook team

Oct 8, 2026

What is happening

This is the very end of Uncle Vanya, in Constance Garnett’s translation. For years Vanya and his niece Sonya have run the family estate and sent its income to Sonya’s father, Professor Serebryakov. This summer the retired Professor came to live there with his beautiful young second wife, Yelena, and everything fell apart.

Sonya has loved the local doctor, Astrov, for six years, and has just learned that he will not return her love. Earlier today the Professor announced that he wanted to sell the estate, which belongs to Sonya and which Vanya has worked for twenty-five years to keep going. Vanya fired two shots at him and missed. Afterward the household hid his pistol and searched the garden for him, afraid he would kill himself, and it turned out he had stolen a bottle of morphia from the doctor’s bag. Sonya begged him to give it back, and he did.

Now everyone has gone. The Professor and Yelena have left for Harkov. Astrov has said goodbye and will not be back before next summer; Sonya has just seen him out with a candle. Vanya and Sonya sit down to the estate accounts as if nothing has happened, while Telyegin tunes his guitar and the old nurse yawns. Vanya strokes her hair and says, “My child, how my heart aches!” This is Sonya’s answer. After the last line, Telyegin plays softly and Sonya goes on (“We shall rest! We shall hear the angels”) until the curtain falls.

Lines: 7
Words: 145
At 150 wpm: 1.0 min
Form: Prose

The speech, beat by beat

The full text in 4 beats. Under each beat: what it means in plain English, and a note for playing it.

Lines 1–3 · We must go on

1There is nothing for it.
We must go on living!
We shall go on living, Uncle Vanya!

In plain English There is no way out of it. We have to go on living! We will go on living, Uncle Vanya!

Acting note Line 1 is flat acceptance. Chekhov marks a pause after line 2, and in that pause she finds the strength to turn a fact into a promise. Line 3 is the first time she speaks his name.

Lines 4–4 · The long chain of days

4We shall live through a long, long chain of days and weary evenings; we shall patiently bear the trials which fate sends us; we shall work for others, both now and in our old age, and have no rest; and when our time comes we shall die without a murmur, and there beyond the grave we shall say that we have suffered, that we have wept, that life has been bitter to us, and God will have pity on us, and you and I, uncle, dear uncle, shall see a life that is bright, lovely, beautiful.

In plain English We will live through a long, long chain of days and tired evenings. We will patiently bear whatever fate sends us. We will work for other people, now and when we are old, with no rest. And when our time comes we will die without complaining, and beyond the grave we will say that we suffered, that we wept, that life was bitter for us, and God will take pity on us, and you and I, uncle, dear uncle, will see a life that is bright, lovely, beautiful.

Acting note One enormous sentence that travels from this earth to the next. The first half is honest about how hard their lives will be; she does not pretend. The turn is “and God will have pity on us.” “Uncle, dear uncle” is the moment she looks at his face.

Lines 5–6 · The promise

5We shall rejoice and look back at these troubles of ours with tenderness, with a smile—and we shall rest.
I have faith, uncle; I have fervent, passionate faith.

In plain English We will be glad, and look back on these troubles of ours with tenderness, with a smile, and we will rest. I have faith, uncle; I believe it with all my heart.

Acting note “I have faith” is said twice, the second time more strongly. Ask whether she says it because she is sure, or because one of them has to be.

Lines 7–7 · We shall rest

7We shall rest!

In plain English We shall rest!

Acting note Chekhov’s direction: she slips to her knees before him, lays her head on his hands, and says it “in a weary voice.” It is not a triumphant last word. She is exhausted.

Hard words

Word	Line	Meaning
There is nothing for it	1	there is no other way; it can’t be helped
the trials which fate sends us	4	the hardships life throws at us
without a murmur	4	without complaining
beyond the grave	4	after death
fervent	6	intense, burning

How to perform it

Play the objective. Sonya needs to keep Vanya alive. This morning he tried to kill a man, and he may still try to kill himself. The speech is a lifeline she throws him, and she has to believe in it herself as she throws it.
Her heart is breaking too. The man she has loved for six years has just driven away, perhaps for good, and she was the one who saw him out. Don’t play her as a calm comforter with nothing to lose. The faith is something she holds onto, not something she simply has.
Use the repetition. “We shall … we shall … we shall” is how she keeps going, one step at a time. Each one should land a little further on. In line 4, breathe at the semicolons and let the list grow from the hardships of this life toward the next.
Keep it close and still. They are at the accounts table in Vanya’s room, with pens and counting beads, on an autumn evening. She is near enough to touch him, and by the end she is kneeling with her head on his hands. In an audition, play to an imagined Vanya seated just below your eye line.
Remember what happens after. In the play the speech does not end at line 7: Telyegin plays the guitar and she goes on to the angels and the heavens. Knowing that she has more to say helps keep the last line open rather than final.
Common mistakes: a big, ringing finish (Chekhov asks for a weary voice); preaching, as if this were a sermon; and sentimentality. The power is in how quiet and ordinary the setting is.

Using it in an audition

A short, quiet piece, about a minute at a conversational pace, which makes it a good one-minute choice but too short for two minutes on its own. If you have a little more time, run straight on into the rest of Sonya’s last speech, which follows after the guitar (“We shall rest! We shall hear the angels”); together they come to about a minute and a half. Sonya is a young woman of marriageable age who thinks of herself as plain, so it suits actors from their late teens to around thirty. Because it is so still, pair it with something active or comic, such as the Gaoler’s Daughter’s “Why should I love this gentleman?” or Rosalind’s “And why, I pray you?” Other translations of Chekhov word this speech differently; this page uses Garnett’s public domain version, so check which text your panel expects.

Sonya, Uncle Vanya, Act 4. Anton Chekhov. Public domain text.

How long it runs

Pace	Words a minute	Run time
Deliberate	130	1.1 minutes
Conversational	150	1.0 minutes
Brisk	170	54 seconds

These are speech times before pauses. To time your own run, paste the text into the monologue timer.

Practice it: first-letter version

Each word is cut to its first letter. Say the whole line from the letters, then check the text. Make cues from any script with the first-letter memorizer.

T i n f i.

W m g o l!

W s g o l, U V!

W s l t a l, l c o d a w e; w s p b t t w f s u; w s w f o, b n a i o o a, a h n r; a w o t c w s d w a m, a t b t g w s s t w h s, t w h w, t l h b b t u, a G w h p o u, a y a I, u, d u, s s a l t i b, l, b.

W s r a l b a t t o o w t, w a s—a w s r.

I h f, u; I h f, p f.

W s r!

More lists: Monologues for women, Dramatic monologues, Short monologues, one minute or less, Monologues from modern classics.

Sources

Questions actors ask

How long is Sonya’s We shall rest (Sonya’s last speech) speech?

7 lines and 145 words. At 150 words a minute it runs about 1.0 minutes; a slower, more deliberate delivery at 130 takes about 1.1 minutes. Pauses add time, so time a full run out loud.

Is it a good audition monologue?

What is the fastest way to memorize it?

Learn it in sense units, not line by line: say each thought out loud until you can do it without looking, then add the next. The first-letter version below keeps the shape of every line in view while you test yourself.