Summary of the play by A. P. Chekhov “The Cherry Orchard”


The main characters:
Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya – landowner.
Anya is her daughter, 17 years old.
Varya – her adopted daughter, 24 years old.
Leonid Andreevich Gayev is Ranevskaya’s brother.
Ermolai Alekseevich Lopakhin is a merchant.
Boris Borisovich Simeonov-Pishchik is a landowner.
Firs is a footman, 87 years old.
Semen Panteleevich Epihodov – clerk.

Lopakhin and maid Dunyasha are waiting in the children’s room when Ranevskaya, together with everyone who meets her, arrives from the station. Yermolai Alekseevich remembers how Lubov Andreevna felt sorry for him in her childhood, since he was the son of her serf. Here there are Ranevskaya, Anya, governess Charlotte, Varya, Gay, Simeonov-Pishchik. Left alone with Varya, Anya talks about her trip to Paris, about the fact that their mother lives beyond her means, although she has nothing left, she already sold her dacha near Menton, but there is

not a single penny left. Varya tells her sister that they will sell the estate. Before leaving, Lopakhin reminds the owners of the same thing and offers a way out of this situation: he advises to smash the land into dachas and rent them out. But to implement such a plan, you will have to cut down the old cherry orchard. Ranevskaya and Gayev can not understand the practical benefits of Lopakhin’s words and do not want to follow his advice, arguing that their garden is mentioned in the “Encyclopedic Dictionary”. Gaev argues that there are many ways to get money to pay debts. He believes that it is possible to obtain from someone an inheritance or to extradite Anya to a very rich man. Lopakhin still persuades them to give the land to the dachas, reminding about the upcoming auction, but the brother and sister do not want to listen to him, considering his proposal vulgar. All the sensible advice that Lopakhin gives, Ranevskaya tries to translate the conversation about his marriage to Varya. to pay debts. He believes that it is possible to obtain from someone an inheritance or to extradite Anya to a very rich
man. Lopakhin still persuades them to give the land to the dachas, reminding about the upcoming auction, but the brother and sister do not want to listen to him, considering his proposal vulgar. All the sensible advice that Lopakhin gives, Ranevskaya tries to translate the conversation about his marriage to Varya. to pay debts. He believes that it is possible to obtain from someone an inheritance or to extradite Anya to a very rich man. Lopakhin still persuades them to give the land to the dachas, reminding about the upcoming auction, but the brother and sister do not want to listen to him, considering his proposal vulgar. All the sensible advice that Lopakhin gives, Ranevskaya tries to translate the conversation about his marriage to Varya.

Ranevskaya’s husband died of champagne, after which she agreed with the other, having gone abroad with him, where she took care of him for three years while he was ill. But then this man threw it, robbed him and began to live with another. Then Lyubov Andreevna returned to Russia to her daughter. Then the passer-by asks for charity, and Ranevskaya gives him gold.

Petya Trofimov, talking with Anya, calls her forward, calls to throw in the well the keys to the farm and be free, like the wind.

Ranevskaya staged a ball at her house, although she understands perfectly well that this is absolutely inopportune, since Gaev at the moment has gone to the auction to buy an estate by proxy for her aunt in her name. But then it turns out that Lopakhin was ahead of him, who is very proud to have acquired the estate, where his “grandfather and father were slaves,” and dreams of a new life.

The departing gather things. Lopakhin goes to Kharkov. Gaev got the place of an employee in the bank. Varya tells Lopakhina that she has hired someone else in the housekeeper, but he never makes an offer to her. Ranevskaya is going to Paris, where she plans to live on the money sent by her aunt from Yaroslavl. Anya dreams to pass the exam in the gymnasium, and then work and help her mother. Gaev and Ranevskaya say goodbye to the house and the garden. After a while, the owners lock the doors to the key and leave. The sick footman Firsa was shut in the house, forgetting about him. And only in silence can you hear how far in the garden an ax is knocking on a tree.


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Summary of the play by A. P. Chekhov “The Cherry Orchard”