The purpose of the study is to consider the philosophical and social aspects of the early play by A. P. Chekhov Ivanov, to analyze the relationship between reality and illusion in the semantic dimension of the characters’ lives. We are talking about the “struggle against the struggle for existence”, mentioned by K. A. Timiryazev, about the loss of the key goal in the clash of the heroes’ hopes and the surrounding reality. The categories of “to be” and “to seem” under study play a significant role in the life of the characters.
