Cherry Orchard Reaction

The Cherry Orchard

I enjoyed reading the Cherry Orchard by Chekhov because it was a play that stands the age of time, as you can link the main themes running through the play with modern day society. The main issues I picked up on where political and class issues which were commonly highlighted by Lopakhin and Trofimov. The others ideas touched upon where gender dominated roles. These ideas where mouthed by the characters Ranyevskaya, Anya and Varya.

My favourite characters from The Cherry Orchard were Lopakhin and Trofimov. These two where very good characters because they both clashed in their political and social views of Russian life and tensions rise during the play as we learn more about each character. Lopakhin comes across as a nice Gentleman at the beginning of the play we think he is a humble man as we know that he has come from a less well-off background and has worked his way to becoming a successful man. He seems sincere in the way he communicates to Ranyevskaya, he is insistent when talking about the selling of the property. At the end of the play he buys the orchard and he feels bad for Ranyevskya but he knows he did all he could to get her to listen to him. I feel he would be an interesting character to explore because he is very money driven and puts that ahead of personal relationships. This is why he fails to marry Varya. This money driven middle-class mentality is the reason that Lopakhin and Trofimov don’t sit well with each other.

Trofimov I feel is a very important character as I feel he mirrors Chekhov's real life story in the cherry orchard. He is a studious man much like Chekhov who studied at university, he also did not let money rule him. In Chekhov's real life his dad goes into debt and Chekhov is very poor however Chekhov paid for his own education and wasn’t ruled by money, this is the same as the character Trofimov as he doesn’t accept a loan from Lopakhin at the end of the play, because he doesn’t want money to rule his life. This is the key reason why Trofimov and Lopakhin don’t see eye to eye as Trofimov is very liberal in the way he thinks on pg 318 act 2 Trofimov shares his anger of how society is run and how there is no support for struggling families where as Lopakhin as a capitalist man disagrees with this view because he is a specimen of the idea of meritocracy as he started from nothing and achieved success. These two characters have great representation in upcoming Russia because they represent the two different ideologies that were beginning to be formed in Russia. Trofimov represents the left and Lopakhin the right.

The other characters that intrigue me in the play are the female characters, particularly Ranyevskaya,Varya and Anya. Ranyevskaya is the Landowner of the big estate and the main story is based around her needing to sell the estate. All characters in the play treat her with the utmost respect however she has very little power in this story. We know this because she would like to keep hold of the estate however she is incapable because she has limited money. We also know that she is in a failing relationship with a man in Paris who comes across as a foolish man who is no good for her however in the end she goes back to be with him. This shows her lack of power in her relationship. But what is interesting is how she tries to keep hold of the power she has left. She does this by spending and giving money away even though she doesn't have much to give away. We see this when she gives money to the random passer-by and also hires the band to play at the ball. This makes her feel good because it makes her remember the times where she did have the power to do as she wished, and this is a struggle we see her go through throughout the play.

Varya I feel represents the women in the middle-class bracket of Russia. In the play she is portrayed as a busy body rushing around and doing little bits. However we never hear about dreams or aspirations from this character, she only wants to be married  then to look after the House, children and husband which is a very unfulfilled life. Even her mother was worried about this way of life as she says ‘My other worry is Varya. She’s used to rising early and doing a day’s work. Now she has nothing to do all day she’s like a fish out of water.’ The way that Ranyevskaya speaks about marriage between Varya and Lopakhin is simply to do with economic reason. This illustrates the way that women were used in older days in Russia, they were seen as a means of linking one family to another to help each family out economically. Varya is very aware of the fact that this is how marriage and “love” works so this is why she gets agitated by the love affair between Trofimov and Anya because Trofimov believes in love and doesn't view marriage in the same way as Varya nor does if have any intention of getting married, this frustrates Varya because she wants Anya to marry a rich man to help the family remain prosperous.