Summary “Cherry Orchard”
Speaking of the work of Anton Chekhov, immediately in his memory, his small humorous stories, filled with profound meaning and often tragic, emerge, and for the theater-goers he, first of all, is one of the most outstanding playwrights of the late XIX – early XX century. Chekhov’s play “The Cherry Orchard” was the last in his work. Written in 1903, she was staged on the stage of his beloved Moscow Art Theater in 1904 and was the result of thinking about the fate of Russia. Those who do not have time to read the play “Cherry Orchard” completely by A. P. Chekhov, a brief summary of the actions will help familiarize themselves with this work.
The play “The Cherry Orchard” by Chekhov Anton Pavlovich was called a drama by critics, and the writer himself believed that there was nothing dramatic about it, and this, first of all, is a comedy.
The main characters of the play
Ranevskaya Lyubov Andreevna – a landowner
Anya is a seventeen-year-old daughter of Ranevskaya. A young, sensible girl who understands that reality has changed, and one must adapt to a new life that can not be built without breaking with the past.
Gaev Leonid Andreevich is Ranevskaya’s brother. Likes to talk about everything in the world. Very often he says inappropriately, because of what he is perceived as a jester and ask to be quiet. Views on life are the same as those of a sister.
Lopakhin Yermolai Alekseevich is a merchant, a very wealthy man, a typical representative of bourgeois Russia. The son of a village shopkeeper with a business grasp and a flair, with the help of which he earned his fortune. At the same time, education can not boast.
Varya is Ranevskaya’s adopted daughter, dreaming of making a pilgrimage to holy places. During the absence of the mother, she acted as the hostess of the house.
Trofimov Pyotr Sergeevich
Other characters
Simeonov-Pischik Boris Borisovich is a landowner, Ranevskaya’s neighbor, like her, is in debt.
Charlotte Ivanovna – governess, childhood passed in the circus, where her parents worked. He knows a lot of tricks and tricks, likes to show them, does not understand why he lives and constantly complains about the absence of a kindred spirit.
Epihodov Semen Panteleevich – clerk, very clumsy, “22 misfortunes”, as his associates call, in love with Dunyasha.
Dunyasha is the maid. A young girl, thirsting for love, tries to behave like a young lady, “a gentle being accustomed to a gallant attitude.”
Firs is a lackey, an old man of 87 years, who served the family of Ranevskaya and Gaeva all her life, refused to create her own hearth and gain freedom.
Yasha – a young lackey, imagines himself a very important person after traveling abroad. The impudent, dissolved young man.
Summary
The play consists of 4 actions that take place in the estate of LA Ranevskaya.
Step 1
The first action of the “Cherry Orchard” unfolds in “a room that until now is called a child’s”.
Early May dawn. It’s still cold, but the cherry garden has already blossomed, filling everything around with a fragrance. Lopakhin and Dunyasha are waiting for the arrival of Ranevskaya, who spent the past 5 years abroad with her daughter Anya, governess, and lackey Yasha. Lopakhin remembers Lyubov Andreyevna as a man of light and simple. Immediately he tells about his fate, telling that his father was a simple peasant, and he was already “in a white waistcoat, yellow shoes.” Not embarrassed, mentions that, despite the wealth, education has not received. But at the same time she reproaches Dunyasha for dressing like a young lady and behaving in an unseemly maid. Dunyasha is very excited about the arrival of the hosts. With a bouquet suddenly comes Epihodov. Dunyasha tells Lopakhin that Yepihodov earlier proposed to her.
Finally, the crews arrive. In addition to those who arrived on the scene, other heroes of the play The Cherry Orchard appeared, who met them at the station – Gaev, Varya, Semionov-Pishchik and Firs.
Anya and Lyubov Andreyevna are happy to return. Glad that nothing has changed around, the situation is so unchanged, that there is a feeling that they did not leave. The house begins a lively bustle. Dunyasha happily tries to tell Anya what happened in their absence, but Anya does not show interest in the chatter of the maid. The only thing that interested her was the news that they had a guest, Petya Trofimov.
From the conversations in the first act it becomes clear that now Ranevskaya is in an extremely distressed situation. She had already been forced to sell foreign real estate, and in August she will have to sell her estate with a cherry garden for her debts. Anya and Varya discuss this and understand how deplorable they are, while Lyubov Andreevna, who is not used to saving, only sighs and listens to Firs’s memories of how cherries were sold before and what they were preparing. Lopakhin proposes to cut down the cherry orchard, and the territory is divided into plots and handed over to the townspeople for cottages. Lopakhin promises “the smallest twenty-five thousand a year in revenue.” However, Lyubov Andreevna and her brother are categorically against this decision, they cherish their garden: “If there is anything interesting in the whole province, even a remarkable one,
In the same action appears Petya Trofimov, passionately in love with Anya.
Step 2
The second action of the “Cherry Orchard” unfolds in the nature, near the old church, where you can see the cherry orchard and the city, which is visible on the horizon. After the arrival of Ranevskaya a lot of time has passed, before the auction for the sale of the garden there are only a few days. During this time Dunyasha’s heart is conquered by Yasha, who is not in a hurry to advertise relations and even embarrasses them.
Epihodov, Charlotte Ivanovna, Dunyasha and Yasha are walking. Charlotte talks about her loneliness, that there is no person with whom she could talk heart to heart. Epihodov feels that Dunyasha prefers Yasha and is very upset by this. Hints that he is ready to commit suicide. Dunyasha is passionately in love with Yasha, but his behavior shows that for him this is only a passing fad.
Near the church appear Ranevskaya, Gayev, Lopakhin. Gayev discusses the advantages of the railway, which allowed them to easily get to the city and have breakfast. Lopakhin asks Lyubov Andreevna to give an answer about renting the land of the estate, but she does not seem to hear him, arguing about the lack of money, and cursing herself for their unreasonable waste. At the same time a little later, after these arguments, he gives the gold ruble to the casual passer-by.
Ranevskaya and Gaev are waiting for a money transfer from the Countess’s aunt, but the amount is not enough to pay off debts, and it is not acceptable for them to give the land to renters for them, even went. Lopakhin is surprised at the frivolity and short-sightedness of their behavior, it already makes him angry, because the estate is for sale, and if you start to lease, then to any bank this will be the best guarantee. But the landowners do not hear and do not understand what Lopakhin is trying to achieve. Lubov Andreevna reproaches the merchant in the absence of education and mundane judgments. And then he tries to match him to Varya. Gaev, as always in bad time, reports that he was offered a job in a bank, but his sister is besieging him, saying that he has nothing to do there. Old Firs comes, recalls his youth and how well it was with serfdom, everything was clear and clear: who is the master, and who is the servant.
Then Varya, Anya and Petya join the walkers. And yesterday’s conversation continues about pride, about intellectuals who, in the face of external education, are in fact small and uninteresting beings. It becomes clear how different people have come together.
When everyone went home, Anya and Petya were left alone, and then Anya confessed that the cherry orchard was not so important to her, and that she was ready for a new life.
Step 3
The third action of the “Cherry Orchard” takes place in the living room in the evening.
The house is played by an orchestra, couples are dancing around. All the actors are here, except for Lopakhin and Gaev. August 22 – the day on which the auction for the sale of the estate was assigned.
Pischik and Trofimov talk, interrupted by Lyubov Andreyevna, she is extremely excited, waiting for her brother to return from the auction, he is delayed. Ranevskaya is wondering whether the auctions were held, and what their result is.
Did you have enough money sent by your aunt to buy out an estate, although he understands that 15 thousand – the amount is insufficient, which even to pay interest on debts is not enough. Charlotte Ivanovna entertains those present with her tricks. Yasha asks the hostess to go to Paris, as he is beset by the surrounding rudeness and ignorance. The atmosphere in the room is nervous. Ranevskaya, anticipating her speedy departure to France and meeting with her lover, is trying to settle the lives of her daughters. Vary she also prophesies Lopakhin, and Anya would like to betray Petya, but is afraid of his incomprehensible position of the “eternal student.”
At this moment, a dispute arises that for the sake of love you can lose your head. Lubov Andreevna reproaches Petya for being “higher than love,” and Petya reminds her that she is striving for an unworthy person who has once generalized and abandoned her. Although there is still no accurate news about the sale of the house and garden, but it is felt that all those present decided what they would do if the garden was sold.
Epihodov tries to talk with Dunyasha, who completely lost interest in him; Varya, who is just as agitated as the adoptive mother, chases him away, reproaching him for being too self-centered for the servant. Firs makes a fuss, giving the guests a treat, everyone notices that he is not feeling well.
Lopakhin enters, hardly concealing his joy. He came with Gayev, who was to bring the news from the auction. Leonid Andreevich cries. The news of the sale is reported by Ermolai Alekseevich. The new owner is he! And after that he gives vent to his feelings. He is delighted that the most beautiful estate in which his grandfather and father were slaves now belongs to him, and he can afford to do in him everything he wants, the owner of not only the estate, but also of life: “For all I can pay! ” He can not wait to start cutting down the garden in order to build dachas in his place, and this is the new life that he sees.
Varya throws the keys and leaves, Lubov Andreevna sobs, Anya tries to comfort her, saying that there is still a lot of good ahead, and life goes on.
Step 4
Action four begins in the nursery, but it is empty, only in the corner is the luggage and things prepared for export. From the street the sound of cut down trees is heard. Lopakhin and Yasha are waiting when the former masters come, with whom their former peasants came to say goodbye. Lopakhin accompanies the family Ranevskaya champagne, but no one wants to drink it. The mood of all the characters is different. Lyubov Andreevna and Gayev are sad, Anya and Petya are looking forward to the beginning of a new stage of life, Yasha is glad that she leaves his motherland and mother, which is boring him, Lopakhin can not wait to close the house as soon as possible and start the project he has conceived. The former mistress restrains tears, but when Anya says that after the sale of the estate, everything has only become easier, since they all could understand where to move on, everyone agrees with her. Now all together go to Kharkov, and there the ways of the heroes will disperse. Rayevskaya with Yasha goes to Paris, Anya – to study, Petya – to Moscow, Gaev agreed to serve in a bank, Varya found a housekeeper’s place in a neighboring place. Only Charlotte Ivanovna is not attached, but Lopakhin promises to help her settle down. He took Epikhodov to his house, to help with the issues with the estate. Of the former inhabitants of this house, only Firs, who was ill, does not bother, who should have been taken to the hospital in the morning, but because of the turmoil they can not figure out whether he was taken there or not.
For a moment, Pischik comes running, surprisingly everyone, he gives the debt to Lopakhin and Ranevskaya, and tells that he surrendered his land to the English to produce rare white clay. And admits that to surrender the land of the estate for him was like a leap from the roof, but after surrendering, nothing terrible happened.
Lyubov Andreevna undertakes the last attempt to arrange the marriage of Lopakhin and Vary, but left alone, Lopakhin never makes an offer, and Varya is very upset. The carriages arrived and the loading of things began. Everyone leaves, only the brother and sister left to say goodbye to the house in which childhood and youth passed, they cry, embracing, saying goodbye to the past, dreams and memories, with each other, realizing that their life has changed irrevocably.
The house is closed. And then Firs appears, who was simply forgotten in this turmoil. He sees that the house is closed, and he is forgotten, but he does not have anger at the hosts. He just lays down on the couch and soon dies.
The sound of a bursting string and ax strokes on the tree. A curtain.
Conclusion
This is a retelling of the content of the play “The Cherry Orchard”. Having read the “Cherry Orchard” in the abbreviation, you, of course, will save time, but for a better acquaintance with the characters, in order to understand the idea and problems of this work, its full reading is desirable.
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