Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard
Begin: 03/27/07
End: 03/28/07
Quality: Five Out of Ten.
Reason: Modern Drama.
Genre: Drama. Fiction. Russian Literature.
Original Language: Russian.
Date of Publication: 1904.
Fog Index:7.1/87% are harder.
Flesch Index: 74.4/89% are harder.
Flesch-Kincaid Index: 5.2/89% are harder.
Complex Words: 8%/78% have more complex words.
Number: Once?
Storyline: Here's the basic plotline. Madame Ranevsky is returning from Paris to her estate in Russia. It is going to be sold at auction to try and deal with her debts. She is coming back to try and deal with the situation. She has a couple of choices but doesn't necessarily like any of them. I will leave it at that since I don't want to give anything away.
The Cherry Orchard is considered to be the best of any of Chekov's work. It is also the last play that he ever wrote. He died within six months of its first production. (January 1904 for those keeping track) I read it a few years ago for my Modern Drama class when I was still a young and vibrant student. I remember really liking it then but now I seem to have much more mixed feelings towards it. I had a really difficult time getting into this play. I have been reading my way through the Modern Drama anthology and usually it only takes me an hour or two to get through one of these plays but this took some concentrated effort on my part, which is really uncommon for me. I live for reading. I also had an extremely difficult time connecting to any of the characters. I found them to be very alien and aloof. I can usually find at least one character to connect to but not in this play, at least at this time. And the finally comment that I want to make about my mixed feelings towards this play is in terms of it's genre. I couldn't help but obsessing over whether this was a comedy or a tragedy. The subtitle is "A Comedy in Four Acts" but it reads like a tragedy to me. I view it as a tragedy in many ways although I do find some of the situations funny. And I found myself concentrating too much on which one is was to really appreciate and enjoy it like I probably should have been doing.
I was not sure how much of my own thought was going into the play, but I definitely saw a very strong Marxist ideology shaping different aspects of the story. It wasn't complete Marxist propaganda mind you, but I definitely saw shadings with the ineffectual aristocrats, the former serf being the seeming victor at the end of the play as well as the speeches of the perpetual student, Trofimov. I am not sure how closely this play coincides with the Bolshevik revolution but I found that aspect to be worthy of further study. When it came to the characters, as I mentioned earlier, I had a really hard time relating to them.
Madame Ranevsky is the likely protagonist of this story but she doesn't really ever do anything but run away from things and seemingly avoid reality. She is such a character of pity but I had a hard time feeling that badly for her considering her choices. The play opens with her returning from Paris. She returns not only to try and solve the problem of what to do about the impending sale of her estate but also because her lover in Paris has left her for another women and her lack of available funds. We later discover that she fled to Paris in the first place because she lost both her husband and her son. The play ends with her going back to her unfaithful lover in Paris once her estate is sold.
She also seems incapable of making a decision as what to do about the impending sale of her estate. She has a few possible options but she doesn't really like any of them and seems to trust to fate instead of taking decisive action. Lopahin offers to help her out by converting the massive cherry orchard into rentals for summer tourists. She is horrified by this but ends up doing nothing and it ends happening anyway with Lopahin benefiting instead of her
On the opposite spectrum from the ineffective aristocrat is the effective merchant, Lopahin. I did like him a little bit more. His motivations seemed a little clearer to me but he still wasn't all that sympathetic, mainly due to my environmentalist leanings. (Destroy a Cherry Orchard for tourists!! The capitalistic bastard!!) He is a former serf who has made something out of himself. He has an interesting speech in the beginning of the play where he balances between humiliation in front of the aristocrats and pride because he has made something of himself. He seems to have a very intense love-hate relationship with Ranevsky. I am note sure she is aware of this but he seems preoccupied, much more than any of the aristocrats, with class and power.
I am actually seeing to like it more now that I have been thinking about it and writing about it. Isn't that funny how that works out sometimes?
So in the end, I guess, I really should re-read this play and not concentrate so much on trying to pigeon hole it but really get into the characters and the plotlines. It is considered to be Chekvo's best work and it was the last play that he wrote. Maybe in a couple of months.
Anyway, here are some quotes that I culled from the play that I felt were either important or interesting.
I.E. "Humanity progresses, perfecting its powers. Everything that is beyond its ken now will one day become familiar and comprehensible; only we must work….Here among us in Russia the workers are few in number as yet. The vast majority of intellectual people I know, seek nothing, do nothing, are not fit as of yet for work of any kind." (Act II)
Then last year, when the villa had to be sold to pay my debts, I left for Paris where he robbed me, deserted me and took up with another woman. I tried to poison myself. It was also stupid and humiliating. Then I suddenly longed to be back in Russia, back in my own country with my little girl. [ Dries her eyes.] Lord, lord, be merciful, forgive me my sins. Don't punish me any more." Madame Ranevsky
"Now the cherry Orchard's mine! Mine!... Don't laugh at me. If my father and grandfather could only rise from their graves and see what happened, see how their Yermolay- Yermolay who was always being beaten, who could hardly write his name and ran round barefoot in the winter-how this same Yermolay bought this estate, the most beautiful estate in the world" Lopahin
"She brought me over to the wash-stand here in this very room, the nursery as it was. 'Don't cry, little peasant,' she said. "You'll soon be as right as rain." Little peasant. It's true my father was a peasant, but here am I in my white waistcoat and brown boots, barging in like a bull in a china shop. The only thing is, I am rich." -Lopahin
"What truth? You see where the truth lies, but I seem to have lost my sight "Now the cherry Orchard's mine! Mine!... Don't laugh at me. If my father and grandfather could only rise from their graves and see what happened, see how their Yermolay- Yermolay who was always being beaten, who could hardly write his name and ran round barefoot in the winter-how this same Yermolay bought this estate, the most beautiful estate in the world." Madame Ranevsky
Begin: 03/27/07
End: 03/28/07
Quality: Five Out of Ten.
Reason: Modern Drama.
Genre: Drama. Fiction. Russian Literature.
Original Language: Russian.
Date of Publication: 1904.
Fog Index:7.1/87% are harder.
Flesch Index: 74.4/89% are harder.
Flesch-Kincaid Index: 5.2/89% are harder.
Complex Words: 8%/78% have more complex words.
Number: Once?
Storyline: Here's the basic plotline. Madame Ranevsky is returning from Paris to her estate in Russia. It is going to be sold at auction to try and deal with her debts. She is coming back to try and deal with the situation. She has a couple of choices but doesn't necessarily like any of them. I will leave it at that since I don't want to give anything away.
The Cherry Orchard is considered to be the best of any of Chekov's work. It is also the last play that he ever wrote. He died within six months of its first production. (January 1904 for those keeping track) I read it a few years ago for my Modern Drama class when I was still a young and vibrant student. I remember really liking it then but now I seem to have much more mixed feelings towards it. I had a really difficult time getting into this play. I have been reading my way through the Modern Drama anthology and usually it only takes me an hour or two to get through one of these plays but this took some concentrated effort on my part, which is really uncommon for me. I live for reading. I also had an extremely difficult time connecting to any of the characters. I found them to be very alien and aloof. I can usually find at least one character to connect to but not in this play, at least at this time. And the finally comment that I want to make about my mixed feelings towards this play is in terms of it's genre. I couldn't help but obsessing over whether this was a comedy or a tragedy. The subtitle is "A Comedy in Four Acts" but it reads like a tragedy to me. I view it as a tragedy in many ways although I do find some of the situations funny. And I found myself concentrating too much on which one is was to really appreciate and enjoy it like I probably should have been doing.
I was not sure how much of my own thought was going into the play, but I definitely saw a very strong Marxist ideology shaping different aspects of the story. It wasn't complete Marxist propaganda mind you, but I definitely saw shadings with the ineffectual aristocrats, the former serf being the seeming victor at the end of the play as well as the speeches of the perpetual student, Trofimov. I am not sure how closely this play coincides with the Bolshevik revolution but I found that aspect to be worthy of further study. When it came to the characters, as I mentioned earlier, I had a really hard time relating to them.
Madame Ranevsky is the likely protagonist of this story but she doesn't really ever do anything but run away from things and seemingly avoid reality. She is such a character of pity but I had a hard time feeling that badly for her considering her choices. The play opens with her returning from Paris. She returns not only to try and solve the problem of what to do about the impending sale of her estate but also because her lover in Paris has left her for another women and her lack of available funds. We later discover that she fled to Paris in the first place because she lost both her husband and her son. The play ends with her going back to her unfaithful lover in Paris once her estate is sold.
She also seems incapable of making a decision as what to do about the impending sale of her estate. She has a few possible options but she doesn't really like any of them and seems to trust to fate instead of taking decisive action. Lopahin offers to help her out by converting the massive cherry orchard into rentals for summer tourists. She is horrified by this but ends up doing nothing and it ends happening anyway with Lopahin benefiting instead of her
On the opposite spectrum from the ineffective aristocrat is the effective merchant, Lopahin. I did like him a little bit more. His motivations seemed a little clearer to me but he still wasn't all that sympathetic, mainly due to my environmentalist leanings. (Destroy a Cherry Orchard for tourists!! The capitalistic bastard!!) He is a former serf who has made something out of himself. He has an interesting speech in the beginning of the play where he balances between humiliation in front of the aristocrats and pride because he has made something of himself. He seems to have a very intense love-hate relationship with Ranevsky. I am note sure she is aware of this but he seems preoccupied, much more than any of the aristocrats, with class and power.
I am actually seeing to like it more now that I have been thinking about it and writing about it. Isn't that funny how that works out sometimes?
So in the end, I guess, I really should re-read this play and not concentrate so much on trying to pigeon hole it but really get into the characters and the plotlines. It is considered to be Chekvo's best work and it was the last play that he wrote. Maybe in a couple of months.
Anyway, here are some quotes that I culled from the play that I felt were either important or interesting.
I.E. "Humanity progresses, perfecting its powers. Everything that is beyond its ken now will one day become familiar and comprehensible; only we must work….Here among us in Russia the workers are few in number as yet. The vast majority of intellectual people I know, seek nothing, do nothing, are not fit as of yet for work of any kind." (Act II)
Then last year, when the villa had to be sold to pay my debts, I left for Paris where he robbed me, deserted me and took up with another woman. I tried to poison myself. It was also stupid and humiliating. Then I suddenly longed to be back in Russia, back in my own country with my little girl. [ Dries her eyes.] Lord, lord, be merciful, forgive me my sins. Don't punish me any more." Madame Ranevsky
"Now the cherry Orchard's mine! Mine!... Don't laugh at me. If my father and grandfather could only rise from their graves and see what happened, see how their Yermolay- Yermolay who was always being beaten, who could hardly write his name and ran round barefoot in the winter-how this same Yermolay bought this estate, the most beautiful estate in the world" Lopahin
"She brought me over to the wash-stand here in this very room, the nursery as it was. 'Don't cry, little peasant,' she said. "You'll soon be as right as rain." Little peasant. It's true my father was a peasant, but here am I in my white waistcoat and brown boots, barging in like a bull in a china shop. The only thing is, I am rich." -Lopahin
"What truth? You see where the truth lies, but I seem to have lost my sight "Now the cherry Orchard's mine! Mine!... Don't laugh at me. If my father and grandfather could only rise from their graves and see what happened, see how their Yermolay- Yermolay who was always being beaten, who could hardly write his name and ran round barefoot in the winter-how this same Yermolay bought this estate, the most beautiful estate in the world." Madame Ranevsky
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