Manifestation of the author's position in the play The Cherry Orchard. A.P

For the first time A.P. Chekhov announced the start of work on a new play in 1901 in a letter to his wife O.L. Knipper-Chekhov. Work on the play progressed very difficult, this was due to the serious illness of Anton Pavlovich. In 1903, it was completed and presented to the leaders of the Moscow Art Theater. The play premiered in 1904. And from that moment on, the play "The Cherry Orchard" has been analyzed and criticized for over a hundred years.

The play "The Cherry Orchard" became the swan song of A.P. Chekhov. It contains reflections on the future of Russia and its people, accumulated in his thoughts for years. And the very artistic originality of the play became the pinnacle of Chekhov's work as a playwright, showing once again why he is considered an innovator who breathed new life into the entire Russian theater.

Theme of the play

The theme of the play "The Cherry Orchard" was the situation of auctioning the family nest of impoverished nobles. By the early 20th century, such stories were not uncommon. A similar tragedy occurred in Chekhov's life, their house, together with his father's shop, was sold for debts back in the 80s of the nineteenth century, and this left an indelible mark on his memory. And already, being an accomplished writer, Anton Pavlovich tried to understand the psychological state of people who lost their homes.

Characters

When analyzing the play "The Cherry Orchard" by A.P. Chekhov's heroes are traditionally divided into three groups, based on their temporal affiliation. The first group, representing the past, includes the aristocrats Ranevskaya, Gaev and their old footman Firs. The second group is represented by the merchant Lopakhin, who has become a representative of the present. Well, the third group is Petya Trofimov and Anya, they are the future.
The playwright does not have a clear division of heroes into main and secondary ones, as well as into strictly negative or positive ones. It is this representation of characters that is one of the innovations and features of Chekhov's plays.

Conflict and plot development of the play

There is no open conflict in the play, and this is another feature of A.P. Chekhov. And on the surface there is a sale of the estate with a huge cherry orchard. And against the background of this event, one can discern the opposition of a bygone era to new phenomena in society. The ruined nobles stubbornly hold on to their property, unable to take real steps to save it, and the proposal to receive commercial profit by leasing land to summer residents is unacceptable for Ranevskaya and Gaev. Analyzing the work "The Cherry Orchard" by A.P. Chekhov, we can talk about a temporary conflict in which the past collides with the present, and the present with the future. In itself, the conflict of generations is by no means new to Russian literature, but never before has it been revealed at the level of a subconscious premonition of changes in historical time, so clearly felt by Anton Pavlovich. He wanted to make the viewer or reader think about their place and role in this life.

It is very difficult to divide Chekhov's plays into phases of the development of dramatic action, because he tried to bring the unfolding action closer to reality, showing the everyday life of his characters, of which most of life consists.

An exposition can be called a conversation between Lopakhin and Dunyasha, who are awaiting the arrival of Ranevskaya, and almost immediately the plot of the play stands out, which consists in pronouncing the apparent conflict of the play - the sale of the estate at auction for debts. The twists and turns of the play are trying to convince the owners to rent out the land. The climax is the news of the purchase of the estate by Lopakhin, and the denouement is the departure of all the heroes from the empty house.

Composition of the play

The play "The Cherry Orchard" consists of four acts.

In the first act, you get to know all the characters in the play. Analyzing the first action of The Cherry Orchard, it is worth noting that the inner content of the characters is conveyed through their relationship to the old cherry orchard. And here one of the conflicts of the whole play begins - the confrontation between the past and the present. The past is represented by brother and sister Gaev and Ranevskaya. For them, the garden and the old house are a reminder and a living symbol of their former carefree life, in which they were rich aristocrats who owned a huge estate. For Lopakhin, who is opposed to them, owning a garden is, first of all, an opportunity to make a profit. Lopakhin makes an offer to Ranevskaya, by accepting which she can save the estate, and asks the impoverished landowners to think about it.

Analyzing the second act of The Cherry Orchard, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the masters and servants are walking not in a beautiful garden, but in a field. From this we can conclude that the garden is in an absolutely neglected state, and it is simply impossible to walk through it. This action perfectly reveals Petya Trofimov's idea of ​​what the future should be like.

In the third act of the play comes the climax. The estate is sold, and Lopakhin becomes the new owner. Despite being satisfied with the deal, Lopakhin is saddened that he must decide the fate of the garden. This means that the garden will be destroyed.

Fourth act: the family nest is empty, the once united family is falling apart. And just as a garden is cut down to its roots, so this surname remains without roots, without shelter.

Author's position in the play

Despite the seeming tragedy of what is happening, the characters of the author himself did not cause any sympathy. He considered them narrow-minded people, incapable of deep feelings. This play has become more of a philosophical reflection of the playwright about what awaits Russia in the near future.

The genre of the play is very peculiar. Chekhov called The Cherry Orchard a comedy. The first directors saw drama in it. And many critics agreed that The Cherry Orchard is a lyrical comedy.

Artwork test

The Cherry Orchard is the pinnacle of Russian drama at the beginning of the 20th century, a lyrical comedy, a play that marked the beginning of a new era in the development of the Russian theater.

The main theme of the play is autobiographical - a bankrupt family of noblemen is selling their family estate at auction. The author, as a person who has gone through a similar life situation, describes with subtle psychologism the state of mind of people who are forced to leave their homes soon. The novelty of the play is the lack of division of heroes into positive and negative, into main and secondary. All of them fall into three categories:

• people of the past - aristocratic nobles (Ranevskaya, Gaev and their footman Firs);
• people of the present - their bright representative merchant-entrepreneur Lopakhin;
• the people of the future are the progressive youth of that time (Pyotr Trofimov and Anya).

History of creation

Chekhov began work on the play in 1901. Due to serious health problems, the writing process was rather difficult, but nevertheless, in 1903 the work was completed. The first theatrical production of the play took place a year later on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater, becoming the pinnacle of Chekhov's work as a playwright and a textbook classic of the theatrical repertoire.

Play analysis

Description of the artwork

The action takes place in the family estate of the landowner Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya, who returned from France with her young daughter Anya. They are met at the railway station by Gaev (Ranevskaya's brother) and Varya (her adopted daughter).

The financial situation of the Ranevsky family is nearing complete collapse. Entrepreneur Lopakhin offers his own version of the solution to the problem - to divide the land into shares and give them for use to summer residents for a certain fee. The lady is burdened by this proposal, because for this she will have to say goodbye to her beloved cherry orchard, with which many warm memories of her youth are associated. Adding to the tragedy is the fact that her beloved son Grisha died in this garden. Gaev, imbued with the experiences of his sister, reassures her with a promise that their family estate will not be put up for sale.

The action of the second part takes place on the street, in the courtyard of the estate. Lopakhin, with his characteristic pragmatism, continues to insist on his plan to save the estate, but no one pays attention to him. Everyone switches to the appeared teacher Peter Trofimov. He gives an excited speech dedicated to the fate of Russia, its future and touches on the topic of happiness in a philosophical context. The materialist Lopakhin is skeptical about the young teacher, and it turns out that only Anya is able to imbue his lofty ideas.

The third act begins with the fact that Ranevskaya invites an orchestra with the last money and arranges a dance evening. Gaev and Lopakhin are absent at the same time - they left for the city for auction, where the Ranevsky estate should go under the hammer. After a long wait, Lyubov Andreevna finds out that her estate was bought at the auction by Lopakhin, who does not hide his joy from his acquisition. The Ranevsky family is in despair.

The finale is entirely devoted to the departure of the Ranevsky family from their home. The parting scene is shown with all the deep psychologism inherent in Chekhov. The play ends with a remarkably deep monologue by Firs, which the owners in a hurry forgot in the estate. The final chord is the sound of an axe. They cut down the cherry orchard.

main characters

Sentimental person, owner of the estate. Having lived abroad for several years, she has become accustomed to a luxurious life and, by inertia, continues to allow herself a lot that, in the deplorable state of her finances, according to the logic of common sense, should be inaccessible to her. Being a frivolous person, very helpless in everyday matters, Ranevskaya does not want to change anything in herself, while she is fully aware of her weaknesses and shortcomings.

A successful merchant, he owes a lot to the Ranevsky family. His image is ambiguous - it combines diligence, prudence, enterprise and rudeness, a "muzhik" beginning. In the finale of the play, Lopakhin does not share the feelings of Ranevskaya, he is happy that, despite his peasant origin, he was able to afford to buy the estate of the owners of his late father.

Like his sister, he is very sensitive and sentimental. Being an idealist and a romantic, to console Ranevskaya, he comes up with fantastic plans to save the family estate. He is emotional, verbose, but completely inactive.

Petya Trofimov

Eternal student, nihilist, eloquent representative of the Russian intelligentsia, advocating for the development of Russia only in words. In pursuit of the "higher truth", he denies love, considering it a petty and illusory feeling, which greatly upsets his daughter Ranevskaya Anya, who is in love with him.

A romantic 17-year-old young lady who fell under the influence of the populist Peter Trofimov. Recklessly believing in a better life after the sale of her parental estate, Anya is ready for any difficulties for the sake of joint happiness next to her lover.

An 87-year-old man, a footman in the Ranevskys' house. Type of servant of the old time, surrounds with paternal care of his masters. He remained to serve his masters even after the abolition of serfdom.

A young footman, with contempt for Russia, dreaming of going abroad. A cynical and cruel person, rude to old Firs, disrespectful even to his own mother.

The structure of the work

The structure of the play is quite simple - 4 acts without division into separate scenes. The duration of action is several months, from late spring to mid-autumn. In the first act there is an exposition and a plot, in the second - an increase in tension, in the third - a climax (sale of the estate), in the fourth - a denouement. A characteristic feature of the play is the absence of genuine external conflict, dynamism, and unpredictable twists in the storyline. The author's remarks, monologues, pauses and some understatement give the play a unique atmosphere of exquisite lyricism. The artistic realism of the play is achieved through the alternation of dramatic and comic scenes.

(Scene from a contemporary production)

The play is dominated by the development of the emotional and psychological plan, the main engine of action is the inner experiences of the characters. The author expands the artistic space of the work by introducing a large number of characters who never appear on stage. Also, the effect of expanding the spatial boundaries is given by the symmetrically emerging theme of France, which gives arched form to the play.

Final conclusion

Chekhov's last play can be said to be his "swan song". The novelty of her dramatic language is a direct expression of a special Chekhovian life concept, which is characterized by extraordinary attention to small, at first glance, insignificant details, focusing on the inner experiences of the characters.

In the play The Cherry Orchard, the author captured the state of critical disunity of the Russian society of his time, this sad factor is often present in scenes where the characters hear only themselves, creating only the appearance of interaction.

The Cherry Orchard depicts the farewell of the owners, now former, with their family noble nest. This topic was repeatedly covered in Russian literature of the second half of the 19th century, both tragically, dramatically and comically. What are the features of Chekhov's solution to this problem? In many ways, it is determined by the writer's attitude to the nobility that is disappearing into social oblivion and the capital that is coming to replace it, which he expressed in the images of Ranevskaya and Lopakhin, respectively. In both estates and their interaction, Chekhov saw the continuity of the bearers of national culture.

The nest of nobles for Chekhov is primarily a center of culture. Of course, this is also a museum of serfdom, and this is mentioned in the play, but the author sees in the noble estate, first of all, a cultural nest. Ranevskaya is his mistress and the soul of the house. That is why, despite all her frivolity and vices (some theaters even imagine that she became a drug addict in Paris), people are drawn to her. The hostess returned, and the house came to life, and the former inhabitants, who seemed to have left it forever, rushed there.

Lopakhin to match Ranevskaya. He is sensitive to poetry in the broadest sense of the word, he, as Petya Trofimov says, has "thin, tender fingers, like an artist's ... a thin, tender soul." And in Ranevskaya he feels the same kindred spirit.

The vulgarity of life comes at the hero from all sides, he acquires the features of a merchant, begins to boast of his democratic origin and flaunt his lack of culture, which was considered fashionable in the then "advanced circles". But he, too, is waiting for Ranevskaya to cleanse himself around her, to reveal the artistic and poetic beginning in himself again. This depiction of capitalism was based on real facts. After all, many Russian merchants and capitalists, who had grown rich by the end of the century, showed interest and concern for culture.

Mamontov, Morozov, Zimin kept theaters, the Tretyakov brothers founded an art gallery, the merchant son Alekseev, who took the stage name Stanislavsky, brought to the Art Theater not only creative ideas, but also his father's wealth, and quite a lot. So Lopakhin is a “non-standard” capitalist. Therefore, his marriage to Varya failed - they are not a couple to each other. The subtle, poetic nature of a wealthy merchant and the mundane, everyday, everyday, adopted daughter of Ranevskaya, who has completely gone into the prose of life.

And now comes another socio-historical turning point in Russian life. The place of the nobility is occupied by the bourgeoisie. How do the owners of the cherry orchard behave in this case? In theory, you need to save yourself and the garden. How? To be reborn socially, also to become a bourgeois, which is what Lopakhin proposes. But for Gaev and Ranevskaya, this means changing themselves, their habits, tastes, ideals, life values. And so they silently reject Lopakhin's proposal and fearlessly go towards their social and life collapse.

In this regard, the figure of a secondary character, Charlotte Ivanovna, carries a deep meaning. At the beginning of the 2nd act, she says about herself: “I don’t have a real passport, I don’t know how old I am ... where I am from and who I am - I don’t know ... Who are my parents, maybe they didn’t get married ... I don’t know. I so want to talk, but not with anyone ... I don’t have anyone. ” Charlotte personifies the future of Ranevskaya - all this will soon await the owner of the estate.

But both Ranevskaya and Charlotte (in different ways, of course) show amazing courage and even maintain good spirits in others, because for all the characters in the play, one life will end with the death of the cherry orchard, and whether there will be another is very guesswork. Former owners and their servants behave ridiculously, and in the light of the social nonexistence approaching them - stupid, unreasonable. They pretend that everything is the same, nothing has changed and will not change. This is deception, and self-deception, and mutual deception. But this is the only way they can resist the inevitability of inevitable fate.

Lopakhin is sincerely grieving, he does not see class enemies in Ranevskaya and even in Gaev, who treats him, for him these are dear, dear people.

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The author's play "The Cherry Orchard" by the famous writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was written in a mixture of two styles. Anton Pavlovich wrote the play, more inclined towards the comedy genre, trying to reveal the theme of family estates, resorting to such a valuable concept as "estate", to develop an idea about the future of the population of his country. However, literary critics note that this work belongs to tragedy and drama. Thanks to such discrepancies in genre, every reader can watch the drama flow into a tragicomedy.

The plot of The Cherry Orchard contains various stories of people who at that time fell into a crisis of their own finances, lost their own family estates.

The central image of the play is actually the cherry orchard. The owner of such a property is Lyubov Ranevskaya, who is persuaded by one of the heroes to sell the family estate. The cherry orchard itself is the leitmotif of all scenes, combining various time plans. For Ranevskaya, the garden is something so reverent from a bright childhood that gives warm memories, this is a place where the soul feeds on positive energy. The plot of the play is built around the fate of the family estate. In the first act, a plan is built to save the mortgaged estate from auctions, in the third, the estate is sold, and the fourth act reveals to the reader the lyrical note of parting with the past.

A characteristic feature of this work is that Chekhov does not divide the heroes into good or bad and main and secondary. He divides them into three groups, highlighting them by time frame. The first group includes representatives of the past generation - this is Lyubov Ranevskaya herself, Gaev, lackey Firs. People of the present time fall into the second group; in the plot of the play, this is the only hero in the person of the enterprising merchant Lopakhin. And, finally, the third group brings together the progressive youth of that time, Peter Trofimov and Anya.

In the center of the plot lies the fate of the cherry orchard, the sale of the family estate, in which the confrontation between the new and the old era unfolds. The culmination of the storyline lurks in the third act of the play, where the family estate is sold and the final denouement is revealed in the final fourth scene. The old habitual nobility of Russia is being replaced by young people and budding entrepreneurs. The main reason for the emergence of conflict is not social confrontation, but the struggle of the characters themselves with the conditions surrounding them. Such a conflict in time is revealed only through the knowledge of future changes in the life of the people.

Chekhov in The Cherry Orchard wanted to encourage his reader to think philosophically about the coming future, about the new era that is reborn around, resorting to introspection.

Option 2

The work is a lyrical comedy, the key theme of which is the author's reflections on the future of the country and its population. The play is based on the story of the forced auction sale of a family estate by an impoverished noble family.

The originality of the work is its genre presentation, which from the point of view of the writer is a comedy, and from the point of view of the literary society and theatergoers, it demonstrates dramatic elements. Thus, alternating dramatic and comic scenes, the writer achieves the artistic reality of the play.

A distinctive feature of the work is the author's innovation, expressed in the absence of a division of the heroes of the play as either negative or positive characters, dividing them into only three categories, the first of which represents people of the past generation in the person of noble aristocrats Ranevskaya, Gaev and lackey Firs, to the second the group includes people of the present time in the vivid presentation of the enterprising merchant Lopakhin, and the third category includes the people of the future in the person of the progressive youth of that period, Peter Trofimov and Anya.

The structural composition of the play consists of four acts that are not divided into independent scenes, while the time span of the work is about six months, starting in spring and ending in mid-autumn. In the first act, the mise-en-scene of the plot line is presented, which increases with tension in the second act, the third act is characterized by the culmination of the plot in the form of the sale of the family name, and the fourth comes the final denouement. The artistic content of the play develops the emotional and psychological background, which consists in describing the inner experiences of the characters.

The work is also distinguished by the complete absence of pronounced external conflicts, as well as dynamism and unpredictable plot twists, which are emphasized by the author's remarks, monologues, pauses, creating the impression of special understatement and giving the work a unique exquisite lyricism.

Analysis 3

The famous writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov managed to compose not only stories, but also original plays. His play known today is The Cherry Orchard, which was written from 1903 to 1904. Zealous over his creation, Chekhov clearly showed the change in social structures.

Getting acquainted with the work, it becomes clear that the Cherry Orchard itself is in the center of the play. Its owner is Lyubov Ranevskaya, whom Lopakhin persuades to sell the beautiful beauty in order to rent it out and receive a decent amount of income. But what is the problem? The bad luck lies in the fact that for Ranevskaya the garden is, first of all, childhood, these are bright memories that are fanned at the mere idea of ​​the wonderful expanses of their native place. This is joy, this is happiness, this is her soul mate. She can't imagine her own life without him! For the heroine, as well as for her brother, the Cherry Orchard is neither real estate nor a means of subsistence, as Lopakhin thinks. No, it's not. A garden is a house where their heart is, a house where you feel at ease, a house where you are free, the soul receives aesthetic pleasure!

Anton Pavlovich not only analyzed the state of Russian society, its behavior, but also reflected in his heroes an analysis of Russia's past, reflections on its future. Any of Chekhov's characters is associated with the theme of the past, either the theme of the present or the future.

The old owners who manage the garden are responsible for the personification of the past of our country. This is Lyubov Ranevskaya and, accordingly, her brother Leonid Gaev. The main thing that gives them away is their inability to work.

It should be understood that the fate of the characters depends on the fate of the Cherry Orchard. But Ranevskaya's decision leaves much to be desired, because she is selling the garden, which was a spiritual asset, the best cure for adversity. Together with him, the millennial culture of the nobility is leaving. Those who own the Cherry Orchard are indecisive, weak-willed in difficult situations. And because of their cowardice, these people fail, because their time has passed ... It turns out that the place of the heroine Ranevskaya is taken by Lopakhin, this is a new generation, greedy, looking for benefits for themselves in everything. And this is tragic, since the replenishment of the world with such behavioral people negatively affects the lives of others.

While reading Chekhov's book, loneliness is felt, the end blows, a cliff into darkness, from where there is no way out. This shows that the decision that Ranevskaya makes about the garden is erroneous, because along with the Cherry Orchard her childhood, her soul are being sold ...

Therefore, the work of Anton Pavlovich is so striking in its content and unusual. The play posed many problems that Chekhov saw in his time, he took every detail seriously. Thus, he depicted what disturbed and worried him: submission, cowardice of a person before a serious decision. You should never give away what belongs to you, what brings happiness and incredible joy. Don't let this go easy! It is important to stand up for yourself to the end! You need to be strong and courageous, have a strong character, strong willpower, so as not to break down under another problem. Chekhov is amazing in this: he writes so penetratingly that thoughts after reading his stories do not leave him alone! That's how it should be!

Cherry Orchard - analysis for grade 10

The plot of the play by A.P. Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" is based on numerous stories related to the sale of family estates by nobles. At that time, many of them lost their property, suffered serious financial difficulties, and, among other things, were often forced to auction their family nests. It is interesting that a similar situation happened with the author himself, when his father had to sell the shop and the house due to debts. All this greatly influenced Chekhov's life and his future writing activity. In the play The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov considers a similar problem, analyzes the psychological state of people who were destined to lose their own home.

The classical approach to the analysis of Chekhov's play is as follows. The heroes of the work are divided into three groups according to the time criterion. The first of them includes the aristocrats Gaev, Ranevskaya and the lackey Firs - representatives of the old era. The second category of present time is represented by a single character - the merchant Lopakhin. The third group is the people of the future, which include Petya Trofimov and Anya. At the same time, the play lacks the division of heroes into “good” and “bad”, main and secondary. Such a presentation of the plot became a characteristic feature of Chekhov's authorial style, which was later traced in his future plays.

In the center of the plot is the story of the sale of a family estate with a cherry orchard, while there is no open conflict in the play. If there is some kind of opposition here, then it is expressed in a kind of contradiction between two different eras - the new and the old. Ruined nobles categorically do not want to part with their property, while they are also not ready to lease a piece of land and receive commercial profit for it. For them it is too new and incomprehensible. The temporal conflict in the play is revealed through the realization of future changes in the life of society, so clearly felt by the author himself. With his work, Chekhov wanted to show this situation from the outside in order to make the reader think about his place and role in this life.

The author's position here is ambiguous. Despite the tragedy of what is happening, the heroes of the play do not cause pity or sympathy. Chekhov portrayed them as narrow-minded people, incapable of introspection and deep feelings. The work is rather a philosophical discussion of the author about the future, about that new era, which Russian society will soon enter.

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Chekhov as an artist is no longer possible

compare with former Russians

writers - with Turgenev,

Dostoevsky or with me. Chekhov

its own form, like

impressionists. Watch how

like a man without any

parsing smears with paints, which

fall into his hands, and

no relation to each other

these smears do not have. But you will move away

some distance,

look, and in general

it makes an overall impression.

L. Tolstoy

Chekhov's plays seemed unusual to his contemporaries. They differed sharply from the usual dramatic forms. They lacked the seemingly necessary opening, climax, and, strictly speaking, dramatic action as such. Chekhov himself wrote about his plays: “People are only having dinner, wearing jackets, and at this time their destinies are being decided, their lives are being shattered.” There is a subtext in Chekhov's plays, which acquires special artistic significance.

"The Cherry Orchard" is the last work of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, completing his creative biography, his ideological and artistic searches. The new stylistic principles developed by him, new “methods” of plot construction and composition were embodied in this play in such figurative discoveries that elevated the realistic depiction of life to broad symbolic generalizations, to insight into future forms of human relations.

1. "The Cherry Orchard" in the life of A.P. Chekhov. The history of the creation of the play

Encouraged by the excellent productions at the Art Theater of "The Seagulls", "Uncle Vanya", "Three Sisters", as well as the huge success of these plays and vaudevilles in the capital and provincial theaters, Chekhov plans to create a new "funny play, where the devil walks like a yoke". “...For a moment, a strong desire comes over me to write a 4-act vaudeville or a comedy for the Art Theater. And I will write, if no one interferes, only I will give it to the theater not earlier than the end of 1903.

The news about the concept of a new Chekhov play, having reached the artists and directors of the Art Theater, caused a great upsurge and a desire to speed up the work of the author. “I said in the troupe,” says O. L. Knipper, “everyone picked it up, clamored and thirsty.” Letter from O.L. Knipper to A.P. Chekhov dated 23 December. 1901 Correspondence of A.P. Chekhov and O.L. Knnpper.

Director V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, who, according to Chekhov, “demands a play,” wrote to Anton Pavlovich: “I remain firmly convinced that you must write plays. I go very far: to give up fiction for the sake of plays. You have never deployed as much as on stage. "O. L. whispered to me that you are resolutely taking up a comedy ... The sooner your play is done, the better. There will be more time for negotiations and elimination of various mistakes ... In a word ... write plays! Write plays! Letters from V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko to A. P. Chekhov dated April and December 1901. But Chekhov was in no hurry, nurtured, “experienced in himself” the plan, did not share it with anyone until the time, pondered the “magnificent” (according to him words) plot, not yet finding forms of artistic embodiment that satisfy it. The play “slightly dawned in my brain, like the earliest dawn, and I still don’t understand myself what it is, what will come of it, and it changes every day.”

Chekhov entered some particulars into his notebook, many of which were later used by him in The Cherry Orchard: “For a play: a liberal old woman dresses like a young woman, smokes, cannot live without society, is pretty.” This entry, although in a transformed form, was included in Ranevskaya's characterization. "The character smells like fish, everyone tells him about it." This will be used for the image of Yasha and Gaev's attitude towards him. Found and inscribed in a notebook, the word "stupid" will become the leitmotif of the play. Some of the facts written in the book will be reproduced with changes in the comedy in connection with the image of Gaev and the off-stage character - the second husband of Ranevskaya: “The cabinet has been standing in the presence of a hundred years, as can be seen from the papers; officials are seriously celebrating his anniversary”, “The gentleman owns a villa near Menton, which he bought with the money he received from the sale of the estate in the Tula province. I saw him in Kharkov, where he came on business, lost a villa, then served on the railway, then died.

On March 1, 1903, Chekhov told his wife: "For the play, I have already laid out the paper on the table and wrote the title." But the process of writing was hampered, hindered by many circumstances: Chekhov's serious illness, the fear that his method was "already outdated" and that he would not be able to successfully process the "difficult plot."

K. S. Stanislavsky, “languished” by Chekhov’s play, informs Chekhov about the loss of any taste for other plays (“Pillars of Society”, “Julius Caesar”) and about the director’s preparation for the future play he began “gradually”: “Keep in mind that, just in case, I recorded the shepherd's flute in the phonograph. It comes out great." Letters from K. S. Stanislavsky to A. P. Chekhov dated February 21. and June 22, 1903

O. L. Knipper, like all the other artists of the troupe, who “waited with hellish impatience” for the play, also dispels his doubts and fears in her letters to Chekhov: “You, as a writer, are needed, terribly needed ... Each of your phrases is needed, and ahead you are needed even more... Get rid of unnecessary thoughts... Write and love every word, every thought, every soul that you nurse, and know that all this is necessary for people. There is no and no such writer as you... Your plays are waiting like manna from heaven.” Letter from O. L. Knipper to A. P. Chekhov dated 24 September. 1903

In the process of creating the play, Chekhov shared with his friends - the figures of the Art Theater - not only doubts, difficulties, but also further plans, changes and successes. They learn from him that he is having difficulty with “one main character”, it is still “not thought out enough and interferes”, that he reduces the number of actors (“it’s more intimate”), that the role of Stanislavsky - Lopakhin - “came out nothing himself”, the role of Kachalov - Trofimov - “good”, the end of the role of Knipper - Ranevskaya - “not bad”, and Lilina with her role of Varya “will be satisfied”, that the IV act, “sparse, but effective in content, is written easily, as if coherently”, and in the whole play, “no matter how boring it is, there is something new”, and, finally, that its genre qualities are both original and completely determined: “The whole play is cheerful, frivolous”. Chekhov also expressed fears that some places would not be "marked by censorship."

At the end of September 1903, Chekhov finished a rough draft of the play and set to work on its correspondence. His attitude to The Cherry Orchard fluctuates at this time, he is satisfied, the characters seem to him “living people”, then he reports that he has lost all appetite for the play, he “does not like” roles, except for the governess. The rewriting of the play proceeded slowly, Chekhov had to remake, rethink, rewrite some passages that especially did not satisfy him.

On October 14, the play was sent to the theatre. After the first emotional reaction to the play (excitement, “awe and delight”), intense creative work began in the theater: “fitting” roles, choosing the best performers, searching for a common tone, thinking about the artistic design of the performance. They exchanged views with the author, first in letters, and then in personal conversations and at rehearsals: Chekhov arrived in Moscow at the end of November 1903. This creative communication did not, however, give complete, unconditional unanimity, it was more difficult. In some respects, the author and theatrical figures came, without any "deals with conscience" to a common opinion, something caused doubt or rejection of one of the "sides", but one of them, which did not consider the issue of principle for itself, made concessions; there were some differences.

Having sent the play away, Chekhov did not consider his work on it finished; on the contrary, fully trusting the artistic intuition of the theater directors and artists, he was ready to make “all the alterations that would be required to maintain the stage,” and asked for critical remarks to be sent to him: “I will correct it; it's not too late, you can still redo the whole act. In turn, he was ready to help directors and actors who turned to him with requests to find the right ways to stage the play, and therefore rushed to Moscow for rehearsals, and Knipper asked her not to “learn her role” before his arrival and not I would order dresses for Ranevskaya before consulting with him.

The distribution of roles, which was the subject of passionate discussion in the theater, was also very exciting for Chekhov. He proposed his distribution option: Ranevskaya - Knipper, Gaev - Vishnevsky, Lopakhin - Stanislavsky, Varya - Lilina, Anya - a young actress, Trofimov - Kachalov, Dunyasha - Khalyutina, Yasha - Moskvin, a passerby - Gromov, Firs - Artem, Pishchik - Gribunin, Epikhodov - Luga. His choice in many cases coincided with the desire of the artists and the theater management: for Kachalov, Knipper, Artem, Gribunin, Gromov, Khalyutina, after the “fitting”, the roles intended for them by Chekhov were established. But the theater far from blindly followed Chekhov's instructions, put forward its own "projects", and some of them were willingly accepted by the author. The proposal to replace Luzhsky with Moskvin in the role of Epikhodov, and Alexandrov in the role of Yasha Moskvin evoked Chekhov's full approval: "Well, this is very good, the play will only benefit from this." "Moskvin will come out magnificent Epikhodov."

With less willingness, but still Chekhov agrees to a rearrangement of the performers of two female roles: Lilina is not Varya, but Anya; Varya - Andreeva. Chekhov does not insist on his desire to see Vishnevsky in the role of Gaev, since he is quite convinced that Stanislavsky will be “a very good and original Gaev”, but he parted with pain with the thought that Lopakhin would not be played by Stanislavsky: “When I wrote Lopakhin, then I thought it was your role” (vol. XX, p. 170). Stanislavsky, carried away by this image, as, indeed, by other characters in the play, only then finally decides to transfer the role to Leonidov, when, after searching, “with redoubled energy in himself for Lopakhin,” he does not find a tone and pattern that satisfies him. Letters from K. S. Stanislavsky to A. P. Chekhov dated October 20, 31, November 3, 1903. Muratova in the role of Charlotte also does not arouse Chekhov’s delight: “she may be good,” he says, “but not funny ”, But, however, in the theater, opinions about her, as well as about the performers of Varya, diverged, there was no firm conviction that Muratova would succeed in this role.

Issues of artistic design were subjected to a lively discussion with the author. Although Chekhov wrote to Stanislavsky that he completely relies on the theater for this (“Please, do not be shy about the scenery, I obey you, I am amazed and usually sit in your theater with my mouth open”, but still both Stanislavsky and the artist Somov called Chekhov to in the process of their creative search for an exchange of views, clarified some of the author's remarks, and offered their projects.

But Chekhov tried to shift all the attention of the viewer to the inner content of the play, to the social conflict, so he was afraid of being carried away by the setting part, the detailing of life, sound effects: “I reduced the setting part in the play to a minimum, no special scenery is required.”

The disagreement between the author and the director was caused by the second act. While still working on the play, Chekhov wrote to Nemirovich-Danchenko that in the second act he “replaced the river with an old chapel and a well. It's quieter that way. Only ... You will give me a real green field and a road, and an extraordinary distance for the stage. Stanislavsky, on the other hand, added to the scenery of Act II a ravine, an abandoned cemetery, a railway bridge, a river in the distance, a hayfield in the forefront, and a small mop on which a walking company is having a conversation. “Allow me,” he wrote to Chekhov, “to let a train with a smoke pass during one of the pauses,” and said that at the end of the act there would be “a frog concert and a corncrake.” Letter from K. S. Stanislavsky to A. P. Chekhov dated November 19, 1903. In this act, Chekhov only wanted to create the impression of space, he was not going to clutter up the viewer’s mind with extraneous impressions, so his reaction to Stanislavsky’s plans was negative. After the performance, he even called the scenery for Act II "terrible"; at the same time that the theater is preparing the play, Knipper writes that Stanislavsky "needs to be kept" from "the train, frogs and crake", and in letters to Stanislavsky himself in a delicate form expresses his disapproval: "Haymaking usually happens on June 20-25, at this time, the corncrake, it seems, no longer screams, the frogs are also already silent by this time ... There is no cemetery, it was a very long time ago. Two or three slabs lying randomly, that's all that's left. The bridge is very good. If the train can be shown without noise, without a single sound, then go ahead.

The most fundamental discrepancy between the theater and the author was revealed in the understanding of the genre of the play. While still working on The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov called the play a "comedy". In the theater, it was understood as "true drama." “I hear you say: “Excuse me, but this is a farce,” Stanislavsky begins an argument with Chekhov ... No, for a simple person this is a tragedy. Letter from K. S. Stanislavsky to A. P. Chekhov dated 20 October. 1903

The theater directors' understanding of the genre of the play, which was at odds with the author's understanding, determined many significant and particular moments of the stage interpretation of The Cherry Orchard.

2. The meaning of the title of the play "The Cherry Orchard"

Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky in his memoirs about A.P. Chekhov wrote: “Listen, I found a wonderful title for the play. Wonderful!” he announced, looking straight at me. "What?" - I got excited. “Vimshnovy Orchard” (with an emphasis on the letter “and”) - and he rolled into a joyful laugh. I did not understand the reason for his joy and did not find anything special in the title. However, in order not to upset Anton Pavlovich, I had to pretend that his discovery made an impression on me ... Instead of explaining, Anton Pavlovich began to repeat in different ways, with all sorts of intonations and sound coloring: “Chimish garden. Look, it's a wonderful name! Cherry garden. Cherry blossoms!” Several days or a week passed after this meeting... Once, during a performance, he came into my dressing room and sat down at my table with a solemn smile. “Listen, not the Cherry Tree, but the Cherry Orchard,” he announced and burst into laughter. At first I didn’t even understand what it was about, but Anton Pavlovich continued to savor the title of the play, emphasizing the gentle sound ё in the word “cherry”, as if trying with its help to caress the former beautiful, but now unnecessary life, which he with tears destroyed in his play. This time I understood the subtlety: The Cherry Orchard is a business, commercial, income-generating garden. Such a garden is needed now. But the "Cherry Orchard" does not bring income, it keeps in itself and in its blooming whiteness the poetry of the former aristocratic life. Such a garden grows and blooms for a whim, for the eyes of spoiled aesthetes. It is a pity to destroy it, but it is necessary, since the process of the country's economic development requires it.

The name of A.P. Chekhov's play "The Cherry Orchard" seems quite natural. The action takes place in an old noble estate. The house is surrounded by a large cherry orchard. Moreover, the development of the plot of the play is connected with this image - the estate is being sold for debts. However, the moment of the transfer of the estate to the new owner is preceded by a period of stupid trampling in the place of the former owners, who do not want to deal with their property in a businesslike manner, who do not even really understand why this is necessary, how to do it, despite the detailed explanations of Lopakhin, a successful representative of the emerging bourgeois class.

But the cherry orchard in the play also has a symbolic meaning. Thanks to the way the characters of the play relate to the garden, their sense of time, their perception of life is revealed. For Lyubov Ranevskaya, the garden is her past, happy childhood and the bitter memory of her drowned son, whose death she perceives as a punishment for her reckless passion. All thoughts and feelings of Ranevskaya are connected with the past. She just can't understand that she needs to change her habits, since the circumstances are now different. She is not a rich lady, a landowner, but a ruined madcap who will soon have neither a family nest nor a cherry orchard if she does not take any decisive action.

For Lopakhin, a garden is, first of all, land, that is, an object that can be put into circulation. In other words, Lopakhin argues from the point of view of the priorities of the present time. A descendant of serfs, who has made his way into the people, argues sensibly and logically. The need to independently pave his own way in life taught this person to evaluate the practical usefulness of things: “Your estate is only twenty miles from the city, a railway passed nearby, and if the cherry orchard and the land along the river are divided into summer cottages and then rented out for summer cottages then you will have at least twenty-five thousand a year income. The sentimental arguments of Ranevskaya and Gaev about the vulgarity of dachas, that the cherry orchard is a landmark of the province, irritate Lopakhin. In fact, everything they say has no practical value in the present, does not play a role in solving a specific problem - if no action is taken, the garden will be sold, Ranevskaya and Gaev will lose all rights to their family estate, and dispose of it will have other owners. Of course, Lopakhin's past is also connected with the cherry orchard. But what is the past? Here his “grandfather and father were slaves”, here he himself, “beaten, illiterate”, “ran barefoot in winter”. Not too bright memories are associated with a successful business person with a cherry orchard! Maybe that's why Lopakhin is so jubilant, having become the owner of the estate, why he talks with such joy about how he "grabs the cherry orchard with an ax"? Yes, according to the past, in which he was a nobody, he meant nothing in his own eyes and in the opinion of others, probably, any person would be happy to grab an ax just like that ...

“... I no longer like the cherry orchard,” says Anya, Ranevskaya's daughter. But for Anya, as well as for her mother, childhood memories are connected with the garden. Anya loved the cherry orchard, despite the fact that her childhood impressions are far from being as cloudless as those of Ranevskaya. Anya was eleven years old when her father died, her mother became interested in another man, and soon her little brother Grisha drowned, after which Ranevskaya went abroad. Where did Anya live at that time? Ranevskaya says she was drawn to her daughter. From the conversation between Anya and Varya, it becomes clear that Anya only at the age of seventeen went to her mother in France, from where both returned to Russia together. It can be assumed that Anya lived in her native estate, with Varya. Despite the fact that Anya's entire past is connected with the cherry orchard, she parted with him without much longing or regret. Anya's dreams are directed to the future: "We will plant a new garden, more luxurious than this ...".

But one more semantic parallel can be found in Chekhov's play: the cherry orchard is Russia. “The whole of Russia is our garden,” Petya Trofimov says optimistically. The obsolete life of the nobility and the tenacity of business people - after all, these two poles of the worldview are not just a special case. This is indeed a feature of Russia at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. In the society of that time, many projects were hovering over how to equip the country: someone recalled the past with a sigh, someone smartly and businesslike suggested “clean up, clean up”, that is, to carry out reforms that would put Russia on a par with the leading powers peace. But, as in the story with the cherry orchard, at the turn of the era in Russia there was no real force capable of positively influencing the fate of the country. However, the old cherry orchard was already doomed... .

Thus, it can be seen that the image of the cherry orchard has quite a symbolic meaning. He is one of the central images of the work. Each hero relates to the garden in his own way: for some it is reminiscent of childhood, for some it is just a place to relax, and for some it is a means to earn money.

3. The originality of the play "The Cherry Orchard"

3.1 Ideological features

A.P. Chekhov sought to force the reader and viewer of The Cherry Orchard to recognize the logical inevitability of the ongoing historical “change” of social forces: the death of the nobility, the temporary domination of the bourgeoisie, the triumph in the near future of the democratic part of society. The playwright more clearly expressed in his work the belief in "free Russia", the dream of it.

The democrat Chekhov had sharp accusatory words that he threw to the inhabitants of the "noble nests." Therefore, choosing subjectively not bad people from the nobility for the image in The Cherry Orchard and abandoning burning satire, Chekhov laughed at their emptiness, idleness, but did not completely refuse them in the right to sympathy, and thereby somewhat softened the satire.

Although there is no open sharp satire on the nobles in The Cherry Orchard, there is undoubtedly a (hidden) denunciation of them. Raznochinets democrat Chekhov had no illusions, he considered it impossible to revive the nobles. Having posed in the play "The Cherry Orchard" a theme that bothered Gogol in his time (the historical fate of the nobility), Chekhov, in a true depiction of the life of the nobles, turned out to be the heir to the great writer. The ruin, lack of money, idleness of the owners of noble estates - Ranevskaya, Gaev, Simeonov-Pishchik - remind us of the pictures of impoverishment, the idle existence of noble characters in the first and second volumes of Dead Souls. A ball during the auction, the calculation of the Yaroslavl aunt or some other random favorable circumstance, luxury in clothes, champagne for elementary needs in the house - all this is close to Gogol's descriptions and even to individual Gogol's eloquent realistic details, which, as time itself showed, general meaning. “Everything was based,” Gogol wrote about Khlobuev, “on the need to suddenly get one hundred or two hundred thousand from somewhere,” they counted on the “three millionth aunt.” In Khlobuev's house, "there is no piece of bread, but there is champagne," and "children are taught to dance." “Everything seems to have lived, all around in debt, no money from anywhere, but sets dinner.”

However, the author of The Cherry Orchard is far from Gogol's final conclusions. On the verge of two centuries, historical reality itself and the democratic consciousness of the writer suggested to him more clearly that it was impossible to revive the Khlobuevs, Manilovs and others. Chekhov also understood that the future did not belong to entrepreneurs like Kostonzhoglo and not to the virtuous tax-farmers Murazovs.

In the most general form, Chekhov guessed that the future belongs to the democrats, the working people. And he appealed to them in his play. The peculiarity of the position of the author of The Cherry Orchard lies in the fact that he, as it were, went a historical distance from the inhabitants of noble nests and, having made his allies the spectators, people of a different - working - environment, people of the future, together with them from the "historical distance" laughed at the absurdity, injustice, emptiness of people who had passed away, and no longer dangerous, from his point of view, people. Chekhov found this peculiar angle of view, an individual creative method of depiction, perhaps not without reflection on the works of his predecessors, in particular, Gogol, Shchedrin. “Don't get bogged down in the details of the present,” Saltykov-Shchedrin urged. “But cultivate in yourselves the ideals of the future; for these are a kind of sunbeams... Look often and intently at the luminous dots that flicker in the perspective of the future” (“Poshekhonskaya antiquity”).

Although Chekhov consciously did not arrive at either a revolutionary-democratic or a social-democratic program, life itself, the strength of the liberation movement, the influence of the progressive ideas of the time made him need to prompt the viewer the need for social transformations, the proximity of a new life, i.e. forced not not only to catch “luminous dots that flicker in the perspective of the future”, but also to illuminate the present with them.

Hence the peculiar combination in the play "The Cherry Orchard" of lyrical and accusatory beginnings. To critically show contemporary reality and at the same time express patriotic love for Russia, faith in its future, in the great possibilities of the Russian people - such was the task of the author of The Cherry Orchard. The wide expanses of their native country (“gave”), giant people who “would be so to face” them, free, working, fair, creative life that they will create in the future (“new luxurious gardens”) - this is the lyrical the beginning that organizes the play "The Cherry Orchard", that author's norm, which is opposed to the "norms" of the modern ugly unfair life of dwarf people, "stupid". This combination of lyrical and accusatory elements in The Cherry Orchard constitutes the specifics of the genre of the play, accurately and subtly called by M. Gorky "lyrical comedy".

3.2 Genre features

The Cherry Orchard is a lyrical comedy. In it, the author conveyed his lyrical attitude to Russian nature and indignation at the plunder of her wealth “Forests crack under an axe”, rivers become shallow and dry, magnificent gardens are destroyed, luxurious steppes perish.

The “gentle, beautiful” cherry orchard, which they could only contemplate admiring, is dying, but which the Ranevskys and Gaevs could not save, whose “wonderful trees” were rudely “grabbed with an ax by Yermolai Lopakhin”. In the lyrical comedy, Chekhov sang, as in The Steppe, a hymn to Russian nature, the “beautiful homeland”, expressed the dream of creators, people of labor and inspiration, who think not so much about their own well-being as about the happiness of others, about future generations. “A person is gifted with reason and creative power in order to increase what is given to him, but so far he has not created, but destroyed” - these words are spoken in the play “Uncle Vanya”, but the thought expressed in them is close to thoughts author of The Cherry Orchard.

Outside of this dream of a man-creator, outside of the generalized poetic image of a cherry orchard, one cannot understand Chekhov's play, just as one cannot truly feel Ostrovsky's The Thunderstorm, The Dowry, if one remains immune to the Volga landscapes in these plays, to Russian open spaces, alien "cruel morals" of the "dark kingdom".

Chekhov's lyrical attitude to the motherland, to its nature, the pain for the destruction of its beauty and wealth constitute, as it were, the "undercurrent" of the play. This lyrical attitude is expressed either in the subtext or in the author's remarks. For example, in the second act, the expanses of Russia are mentioned in the remark: a field, a cherry orchard in the distance, a road to the estate, a city on the horizon. Chekhov specifically directed the filming of the directors of the Moscow Art Theater to this remark: "In the second act, you will give me a real green field and a road, and an extraordinary distance for the stage."

The remarks related to the cherry orchard are full of lyricism (“it's already May, the cherry trees are blooming”); sad notes sound in remarks marking the approaching death of the cherry orchard or this death itself: “the sound of a broken string, fading, sad”, “the dull thud of an ax on a tree, sounding lonely and sad.” Chekhov was very jealous of these remarks, he was worried that the directors would not quite accurately fulfill his plan: “The sound in the 2nd and 4th acts of The Cherry Orchard should be shorter, much shorter, and be felt from quite afar ...”.

Expressing his lyrical attitude to the Motherland in the play, Chekhov condemned everything that hindered her life and development: idleness, frivolity, narrow-mindedness. “But he,” as V. E. Khalizev rightly noted, “was far from a nihilistic attitude to the former poetry of noble nests, to noble culture,” he was afraid of losing such values ​​as cordiality, goodwill, gentleness in human relations, without enthusiasm stated the coming dominance of the dry efficiency of the Lopakhins.

"The Cherry Orchard" was conceived as a comedy, as "a funny play, wherever the devil walks like a yoke." “The whole play is cheerful, frivolous,” the author informed friends at the time of work on it in 1903.

This definition of the genre of the comedy play was deeply principled for Chekhov; it was not for nothing that he was so upset when he learned that on the posters of the Art Theater and in newspaper advertisements the play was called a drama. “I didn’t get a drama, but a comedy, in some places even a farce,” Chekhov wrote. In an effort to give the play a cheerful tone, the author indicates about forty times in remarks: “joyfully”, “fun”, “laughs”, “everyone laughs”.

3.3 Compositional features

There are four acts in the comedy, and there is no division into scenes. Events take place over several months (from May to October). The first action is exposure. Here is a general description of the characters, their relationships, connections, and also here we learn the whole background of the issue (the reasons for the ruin of the estate).

The action begins in the estate of Ranevskaya. We see Lopakhin and Dunyasha, the maid, waiting for the arrival of Lyubov Andreevna and her youngest daughter Anya. For the last five years, Ranevskaya and her daughter lived abroad, while Ranevskaya's brother, Gaev, and her adopted daughter, Varya, remained on the estate. We learn about the fate of Lyubov Andreevna, about the death of her husband, son, we learn the details of her life abroad. The estate of the landowner is practically ruined, the beautiful cherry orchard must be sold for debts. The reasons for this are the extravagance and impracticality of the heroine, her habit of overspending. The merchant Lopakhin offers her the only way to save the estate - to break the land into plots and rent them out to summer residents. Ranevskaya and Gaev, on the other hand, resolutely reject this proposal, they do not understand how it is possible to cut down a beautiful cherry orchard, the most “wonderful” place in the whole province. This contradiction, emerging between Lopakhin and Ranevskaya-Gaev, constitutes the plot of the play. However, this plot excludes both the external struggle of the actors and the sharp internal struggle. Lopakhin, whose father was a serf of the Ranevskys, only offers them a real, reasonable, from his point of view, way out. At the same time, the first act develops at an emotionally growing pace. The events that take place in it are extremely exciting for all the actors. This is the expectation of the arrival of Ranevskaya, who is returning to her home, a meeting after a long separation, a discussion by Lyubov Andreevna, her brother, Anya and Varya of measures to save the estate, the arrival of Petya Trofimov, who reminded the heroine of her dead son. In the center of the first act, therefore, is the fate of Ranevskaya, her character.

In the second act, the hopes of the owners of the cherry orchard are replaced by a disturbing feeling. Ranevskaya, Gaev and Lopakhin again argue about the fate of the estate. Internal tension grows here, the characters become irritable. It is in this act that “a distant sound is heard, as if from the sky, the sound of a broken string, fading, sad,” as if foreshadowing an impending catastrophe. At the same time, Anya and Petya Trofimov fully reveal themselves in this act, in their remarks they express their views. Here we see the development of the action. The external, social conflict here seems a foregone conclusion, even the date is known - "auctions are scheduled for the twenty-second of August." But at the same time, the motif of ruined beauty continues to develop here.

The third act of the play contains the climactic event - the cherry orchard is sold at auction. Characteristically, the off-stage action becomes the culmination here: the auction takes place in the city. Gaev and Lopakhin go there. In their expectation, the others arrange a ball. Everyone is dancing, Charlotte is doing magic tricks. However, the disturbing atmosphere in the play is growing: Varya is nervous, Lyubov Andreevna is impatiently waiting for her brother's return, Anya transmits a rumor about the sale of the cherry orchard. Lyrical and dramatic scenes are interspersed with comic ones: Petya Trofimov falls down the stairs, Yasha enters into a conversation with Firs, we hear the dialogues of Dunyasha and Firs, Dunyasha and Epikhodov, Varya and Epikhodov. But then Lopakhin appears and reports that he bought an estate in which his father and grandfather were slaves. Lopakhin's monologue is the pinnacle of dramatic tension in the play. The climactic event in the play is given in the perception of the main characters. So, Lopakhin has a personal interest in buying the estate, but his happiness cannot be called complete: the joy of making a successful deal struggles in him with regret, sympathy for Ranevskaya, whom he has loved since childhood. Lyubov Andreevna is upset by everything that is happening: the sale of the estate for her is a loss of shelter, “parting from the house where she was born, which became for her the personification of her usual way of life (“After all, I was born here, my father and mother lived here, my grandfather, I I love this house, I don’t understand my life without a cherry orchard, and if you really need to sell it, then sell me along with the garden ...”). For Anya and Petya, the sale of the estate is not a disaster, they dream of a new life. The cherry orchard for them is the past, which is “already over”. Nevertheless, despite the difference in the attitudes of the characters, the conflict never turns into a personal clash.

The fourth act is the denouement of the play. The dramatic tension in this act weakens. After the problem is resolved, everyone calms down, rushing to the future. Ranevskaya and Gaev say goodbye to the cherry orchard, Lyubov Andreevna returns to her former life - she is preparing to leave for Paris. Gaev calls himself a bank employee. Anya and Petya welcome the "new life" without regretting the past. At the same time, a love conflict between Varya and Lopakhin is resolved - the matchmaking never took place. Varya is also getting ready to leave - she has found a job as a housekeeper. In the confusion, everyone forgets about old Firs, who was supposed to be sent to the hospital. And again the sound of a broken string is heard. And in the finale, the sound of an ax is heard, symbolizing sadness, the death of the passing era, the end of the old life. Thus, we have a circular composition in the play: in the finale, the theme of Paris reappears, expanding the artistic space of the work. The author's idea of ​​the inexorable course of time becomes the basis of the plot in the play. Chekhov's heroes seem to be lost in time. For Ranevskaya and Gaev, real life seems to have remained in the past, for Anya and Petya it lies in a ghostly future. Lopakhin, who has become the owner of the estate in the present, also does not feel joy and complains about the "awkward" life. And the very deep motives of the behavior of this character do not lie in the present, but also in the distant past.

In the very composition of The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov sought to reflect the empty, sluggish, boring nature of the existence of his noble heroes, their eventful life. The play is devoid of "spectacular" scenes and episodes, external diversity: the action in all four acts is not carried outside the Ranevskaya estate. The only significant event - the sale of the estate and the cherry orchard - takes place not in front of the viewer, but behind the scenes. On the stage - everyday life in the estate. People talk about everyday little things over a cup of coffee, during a walk or an impromptu “ball”, quarrel and make up, rejoice at the meeting and are upset by the upcoming separation, remember the past, dream of the future, and at this time - “their destinies are being formed”, ruined their "nest".

In an effort to give this play a life-affirming, major key, Chekhov accelerated its pace, in comparison with previous plays, in particular, reduced the number of pauses. Chekhov was especially concerned that the final act should not be drawn out and that what was happening on the stage would thus not produce the impression of "tragism", drama. “It seems to me,” wrote Anton Pavlovich, “that in my play, no matter how boring it is, there is something new. In the whole play, not a single shot, by the way. “How awful! An act that should last 12 minutes maximum, you have 40 minutes.

3.4 Heroes and their roles

Deliberately depriving the play of "events", Chekhov directed all his attention to the state of the characters, their attitude to the main fact - the sale of the estate and the garden, to their relationships, collisions. The teacher should draw students' attention to the fact that in a dramatic work the author's attitude, the author's position is the most hidden. In order to clarify this position, in order to understand the attitude of the playwright to the historical phenomena of the life of the motherland, to the characters and the event, the viewer and reader need to be very attentive to all the components of the play: the system of images carefully thought out by the author, the arrangement of characters, the alternation of mise-en-scenes, the interlocking of monologues, dialogues, individual replicas of the characters, author's remarks.

Sometimes Chekhov consciously exposes the clash of dreams and reality, the lyrical and comic beginnings in the play. So, while working on The Cherry Orchard, he introduced into the second act after the words of Lopakhin (“And living here we ourselves should really be giants ...”) Ranevskaya’s response: “You needed giants. They are only good in fairy tales, otherwise they frighten. To this Chekhov added another mise-en-scène: the ugly figure of the “klutz” Epikhodov appears in the depths of the stage, clearly contrasting with the dream of giant people. To the appearance of Epikhodov, Chekhov specially attracts the attention of the audience with two remarks: Ranevskaya (thoughtfully) "Epikhodov is coming." Anya (thoughtfully) "Epikhodov is coming."

In the new historical conditions, Chekhov the playwright, following Ostrovsky and Shchedrin, responded to Gogol's call: “For God's sake, give us Russian characters, give us ourselves, our rogues, our eccentrics! To their stage, to the laughter of everyone! Laughter is a great thing! ("Petersburg Notes"). "Our eccentrics", our "stupid" seeks to lead Chekhov to ridicule the public in the play "The Cherry Orchard".

The author's intention to arouse the viewer's laughter and at the same time make him think about modern reality is most clearly expressed in the original comic characters - Epikhodov and Charlotte. The function of these "clunkers" in the play is very significant. Chekhov makes the viewer catch their inner connection with the central characters and thereby denounces these eye-catching faces of the comedy. Epikhodov and Charlotte are not only ridiculous, but also pitiful with their unfortunate "fortune" full of inconsistencies and surprises. Fate, in fact, treats them "without regret, like a storm to a small ship." These people are ruined by life. Epikhodov is shown as insignificant in his meager ambition, miserable in his misfortunes, in his pretensions and in his protest, limited in his "philosophy". He is proud, painfully proud, and life has put him in the position of a half-lackey and a rejected lover. He claims to be “educated”, elevated feelings, strong passions, and life “prepared” for him daily “22 misfortunes”, petty, ineffectual, offensive.

Chekhov, who dreamed of people in whom “everything would be beautiful: face, clothes, soul, and thoughts,” saw so far many freaks who have not found their place in life, people with a complete confusion of thoughts and feelings, actions and words which are devoid of logic and meaning: “Of course, if you look from the point of view, then you, let me put it this way, excuse my frankness, completely put me in a state of mind.”

The source of Epikhodov's comedy in the play also lies in the fact that he does everything inopportunely, out of time. There is no correspondence between his natural data and behavior. Close-minded, tongue-tied, he is prone to lengthy speeches, reasoning; clumsy, mediocre, he plays billiards (breaking his cue), sings "terribly like a jackal" (by Charlotte's definition), darkly accompanying himself on the guitar. At the wrong time he declares his love to Dunyasha, inappropriately asks thoughtful questions (“Have you read Buckle?”), inappropriately uses many words: “Only people who understand and older can talk about that”; “But you look like something extremely indecent, like a cockroach”, “to exact from me, let me express it, you cannot.”

The function of Charlotte's image in the play is close to that of Epikhodov's image. The fate of Charlotte is absurd, paradoxical: a German, a circus actress, an acrobat and a conjurer, she turned out to be a governess in Russia. Everything is uncertain, accidental in her life: the appearance at the Ranevskaya estate is accidental, and the departure from it is accidental. Charlotte is always in for the unexpected; how her life will be determined further after the sale of the estate, she does not know how the purpose and meaning of her existence are incomprehensible: “Everything is alone, alone, I have no one and ... who I am, why I am unknown.” Loneliness, unhappiness, confusion constitute the second, hidden underlying basis of this comic character of the play.

It is significant in this regard that, while continuing to work on the image of Charlotte during rehearsals of the play at the Art Theater, Chekhov did not retain the previously planned additional comic episodes (tricks in Acts I, III, IV) and, on the contrary, strengthened the motif of Charlotte's loneliness and unhappy fate: at the beginning of Act II, everything from the words: “I so want to talk, but not with anyone ...” to: “why I am unknown” - was introduced by Chekhov into the final edition.

"Happy Charlotte: Sing!" Gaev says at the end of the play. With these words, Chekhov also emphasizes Gaev's misunderstanding of Charlotte's position and the paradoxical nature of her behavior. At a tragic moment in her life, even as if she were aware of her position (“so you, please find me a place. I can’t do this ... I have nowhere to live in the city”), she shows tricks, sings. Serious thought, awareness of loneliness, unhappiness is combined in her with buffoonery, buffoonery, a circus habit of amusing.

In Charlotte's speech, there is the same bizarre combination of different styles, words: along with purely Russian ones, distorted words and constructions (“I want to sell. Does anyone want to buy?”), Foreign words, paradoxical phrases (“These wise men are all so stupid” , "You, Epikhodov, are a very smart person and very scary; women must love you madly. Brrr! ..").

Chekhov attached great importance to these two characters (Epikhodov and Charlotte) and was concerned that they be correctly and interestingly interpreted in the theater. The role of Charlotte seemed to the author the most successful, and he advised the actresses Knipper, Lilina to take her, and wrote about Epikhodov that this role was short, "but the real one." With these two comic characters, the author, in fact, helps the viewer and reader to understand not only the situation in the life of the Epikhodovs and Charlotte, but also to extend to the rest of the characters the impressions that he receives from the convex, pointed image of these "klutzes", makes him see the "wrong side" of life phenomena, to notice in some cases the "unfunny" in the comic, in other cases - to guess the funny behind the outwardly dramatic.

We understand that not only Epikhodov and Charlotte, but also Ranevskaya, Gaev, Simeonov-Pishchik "exist for who knows what". To these idle inhabitants of the ruined nests of nobles, living "at someone else's expense", Chekhov added faces not yet acting on the stage and thereby strengthened the typicality of the images. The lord-serf, the father of Ranevskaya and Gaev, corrupted by idleness, the morally lost second husband of Ranevskaya, the despotic Yaroslavl grandmother-countess, showing class arrogance (she still cannot forgive Ranevskaya that her first husband was "not a nobleman") - all these "types", together with Ranevskaya, Gaev, Pishchik, "have already become obsolete." To convince the viewer of this, according to Chekhov, neither malicious satire nor contempt was needed; it was enough to make them look at them through the eyes of a person who had gone a considerable historical distance and was no longer satisfied with their living standards.

Ranevskaya and Gaev do nothing to save, save the estate and the garden from destruction. On the contrary, it is precisely because of their idleness, impracticality, carelessness that the “holy favorite” of them “nests” are ruined, poetic beautiful cherry orchards are destroyed.

Such is the price of these people's love for their homeland. “God knows, I love my homeland, I love dearly,” says Ranevskaya. Chekhov makes us confront these words with actions and understand that her words are impulsive, do not reflect a constant mood, depth of feeling, and are at odds with actions. We learn that Ranevskaya left Russia five years ago, that she was “suddenly drawn to Russia” from Paris only after a catastrophe in her personal life (“there he robbed me, left me, got together with another, I tried to poison myself ...”) , and we see in the finale that she still leaves her homeland. No matter how sorry Ranevskaya is about the cherry orchard and the estate, she pretty soon “calmed down and cheered up” in anticipation of leaving for Paris. On the contrary, Chekhov throughout the play says that the idle anti-social nature of the life of Ranevskaya, Gaev, Pishchik testifies to their complete oblivion of the interests of their homeland. He creates the impression that, with all their subjectively good qualities, they are useless and even harmful, since they do not contribute to creation, not to “multiplying the wealth and beauty” of the homeland, but to destruction: thoughtlessly Pishchik rents a piece of land to the British for 24 years for the predatory exploitation of Russian natural wealth, the magnificent cherry orchard of Ranevskaya and Gaev perishes.

By the actions of these characters, Chekhov convinces us that one cannot trust their words, even spoken sincerely, excitedly. “We’ll pay the interest, I’m convinced,” Gaev bursts out without any reason, and he already excites himself and others with these words: “By my honor, whatever you want, I swear, the estate will not be sold! .. I swear by my happiness! Here's my hand, then call me a lousy, dishonorable person if I let you go to the auction! I swear with all my being!” Chekhov compromises his hero in the eyes of the viewer, showing that Gaev "allows the auction" and the estate, contrary to his oaths, is sold.

Ranevskaya in Act I resolutely tears, without reading, telegrams from Paris from the person who insulted her: "It's over with Paris." But Chekhov, in the further course of the play, shows the instability of Ranevskaya's reaction. In the following acts, she is already reading telegrams, tends to reconcile, and in the finale, reassured and cheerful, she willingly returns to Paris.

Combining these characters according to the principle of kinship and social affiliation, Chekhov, however, shows both similarities and individual traits of each. At the same time, he makes the viewer not only question the words of these characters, but also think about the justice, the depth of other people's opinions about them. “She is good, kind, nice, I love her very much,” Gaev says about Ranevskaya. “She is a good person, an easy, simple person,” Lopakhin says about her and enthusiastically expresses his feeling to her: “I love you like my own ... more than my own.” Anya, Varya, Pishchik, Trofimov, and Firs are attracted to Ranevskaya like a magnet. She is equally kind, delicate, affectionate with her own, and with her adopted daughter, and with her brother, and with the "man" Lopakhin, and with the servants.

Ranevskaya is cordial, emotional, her soul is open to beauty. But Chekhov will show that these qualities, combined with carelessness, spoiledness, frivolity, very often (although regardless of the will and subjective intentions of Ranevskaya) turn into their opposite: cruelty, indifference, carelessness in relation to people. Ranevskaya will give the last gold to a random passerby, and at home the servants will live from hand to mouth; she will say to Firs: “Thank you, my dear,” kiss him, sympathetically and affectionately inquire about his health and ... leave him, a sick, old, devoted servant, in a boarded-up house. With this final chord in the play, Chekhov deliberately compromises Ranevskaya and Gaev in the eyes of the viewer.

Gaev, like Ranevskaya, is gentle and receptive to beauty. However, Chekhov does not allow us to fully trust Anya's words: "Everyone loves you, respects you." "How good you are, uncle, how smart." Chekhov will show that Gaev’s gentle, gentle treatment of close people (sister, niece) is combined with his estate disdain for the “grimy” Lopakhin, “a peasant and a boor” (by his definition), with a contemptuous-squeamish attitude towards servants (from Yasha “smells like chicken”, Firs is “tired”, etc.). We see that, along with the lordly sensitivity, grace, he absorbed the lordly swagger, arrogance (Gaev’s word is characteristic: “whom?”), Conviction in the exclusivity of people of his circle (“white bone”). He feels more than Ranevskaya himself and makes others feel his position as a gentleman and the advantages associated with it. And at the same time, he flirts with proximity to the people, claims that he “knows the people”, that “the man loves” him.