If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don’t put it there
Anton Chekhov, from Gurlyand’s “Reminiscences of A. P. Chekhov”, in Teatr i iskusstvo 1904, No. 28, 11 July, p. 521
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One reply on “Chekhov’s Gun”
That quote has a hold on the American imagination… I remember watching a film in Spain and the Spanish film teacher was astonished that all of our papers predicted the little boy would have an accident with the gun he’d found in his father’s office. Nope… it was just a scene to establish no one was taking proper care of him.