In literature lessons we read and analyzed comedy by A.P. Chekhov The Cherry Orchard. Showing the existence of a noble estate, the author introduces us to a whole group in some way connected with it. This, along with the footman Yasha, is the clerk Epikhodov, the landowner Seseonov-Pishchik, the maid Dunyasha, the housekeeper Varya, the governess Charlotte and the footman Firs.
Mainly they play the role of enhancing tragedies and the comic beginning of the work.
Dunyasha and Yasha are an illustrative example of the discrepancy between the behavior and statements of the heroes and their position. The maid says the following about herself: “She has become tender, so delicate, noble.” She tries to imitate gentle young ladies in everything. Dunyasha complains about her upset nerves, although she is a healthy and cheerful girl... Flirty and cutesy, with a constant mirror and powder compact in her hands, the girl is completely in the grip of love dreams. Firs, not without reason, warns her: “You’ll get twisted...” If Dunyasha’s behavior evokes a good-natured smile, then the image of Yasha makes a repulsive impression. This is a lackey corrupted by idleness and life in Paris. In restaurants, he demands that only the most expensive dishes be brought to him, despite the fact that his masters have no money at all. He does not like his homeland at all, calling it “an uneducated country.” “I’ve seen enough of ignorance—that’s enough for me,” he declares, asking Ranevskaya to take him to Paris again. And his phrase: “Viv la France!” causes ridicule and contempt. Yasha, according to Parisian habit, smokes cigars and drinks champagne, and at home, in his homeland, he rudely shouts at Firs (although he himself is the same lackey) and does not want to see his peasant mother.
A comical and at the same time sad impression is made in the play by the image of Epikhodov, a clerk cherry orchard. He considers himself a “developed person”, reads “various wonderful books”, but has difficulty expressing his thoughts. His desire to express himself in bookish phrases leads to the construction of the most chaotic phrases, consisting of introductory words and devoid of any meaning: “Of course, if you look from the point of view, then you, if I may put it this way, excuse the frankness, have completely brought me into a state of feeling.” Dunyasha gives a suitable description of Epikhodov’s incoherent language: “Good and sensitive, but incomprehensible.” Also, the clerk does everything at random, clumsily, for which he received the nickname “twenty-two misfortunes.” He constantly complains that he can’t do anything and falls out of his hands.
Simeonov-Pishchik is a landowner, a hectic person who does not deviate one step from his role. Every time he appears on stage, he invariably asks for money and talks about his daughter Dashenka. Pishchik is a comic figure without any reservations; even his abbreviated surname is funny. He is like a clown who, when going on stage, must show new number. In the first act, Pischik for some reason swallows Lyubov Andreevna’s pills, seriously stating: “I took all the pills,” in the third he admires Charlotte, without bothering himself with refined phrases, all his praise comes down to the words “Just think!” But he is also delicate (he takes Lopakhin away from Ranevskaya after the news of sale of cherry orchard), honest (gives debts to Lopakhin and Ranevskaya), and sensitive (cries when he learns about the family’s departure). But still he is soulful, kind person, in general so similar to Gaev, who laughs at Pishchik.
A rather interesting role in the play is played by the arrogant Charlotte Ivanovna, a master of turning everything serious into a comic way. But she bursts out with sorrowful remarks: “I really want to talk!”, and not with anyone...” Something from Ranevskaya is felt here. Charlotte doesn’t know who she is, how old she is, why she’s here: “Who I am, why I am, is unknown...” There is a feeling of her uselessness. But it was Charlotte with her tricks, ventriloquism, circus acts emphasizes the comedy of the situation. At the time when The fate of the cherry orchard is being decided, she demonstrates tricks with joy. All this once again proves that A.P. Chekhov did not introduce such a quantity into the play in vain. minor characters, because they play an important role with their presence - they enhance the tragedy of the work. It is also important to create greater comedy at the beginning of the work.
« Cherry Orchard", as is commonly believed, is a lyrical comedy. The title of the work directly emphasizes this. This orientation (comic combined with lyrical) is associated with the author himself and his image. We can feel his presence throughout the play; he is discernible in the stage directions and in the setting. He grieves and rejoices along with the heroes, sometimes he ironizes events too much, but in any case, he exists.
Anton Pavlovich pays special attention not only to the main characters, but also to secondary characters. Of course, they do not affect the development of events in the cortex, but they make it possible to recreate a complete picture. In addition, along with the heroes who appear on stage, there are a number of heroes, as they say, behind the scenes - this is Pishchik’s daughter, and the Parisian lover, and the Yaroslavl aunt. They are introduced into the work for a reason; all the characters set a certain tone.
The main task of secondary characters is to summarize the main thoughts of the heroes, to say what passed by, remained unspoken. Sometimes key moments pass through them, which are important for understanding and understanding the play.
Little or nothing is said about the minor characters, but their character can be seen in the lines that the author so skillfully puts into their mouths.
Take Epikhodov, for example. He considers himself a highly educated person, although, in essence, he is underdeveloped and proud. He has a predilection for piling up phrases, making inappropriate comparisons, and using foreign words out of place. He says it seems beautiful and good, but it’s completely, completely incomprehensible.
Another character is Yasha. He is spoiled by Parisian life, this is clearly visible in his address to Dunyasha: “Cucumber!” Yasha’s speech is not filled with any meaning, which gives a feeling of the poverty of his inner world. In addition, he is self-confident, cruel and vindictive. A striking episode to prove these words is the moment when Yasha was bitten on the finger by Charlotte’s dog. Having waited until nightfall, he took the rope, twisted a loop and did his lousy deeds not just anywhere, but right in front of Charlotte’s windows. Poor Charlotte! Yasha is a person who has absolutely no morals. However, it is as simple as five kopecks, and this is why it is necessary, and everyone needs them.
There is one more character who cannot actually be called minor. He plays almost the most main role throughout the play. Despite the fact that he rarely appears on stage, he is entrusted with the final monologue - this is Firs. He remained an “eternal serf”, at one time, having abandoned such a desired freedom.
All minor characters are not background at all; they can rightfully be considered full-fledged independent heroes. The heroes are not able to challenge the established pattern, but this is not at all a reason for sadness. Their departure from the stage is a whole performance, bright as a carnival. The point is precisely that the main acting heroes They cannot overcome their grief, and the secondary ones seem to scare him away with their own laughter. It was these details that made The Cherry Orchard a comedy, and in some places a farce, which, in general, emphasizes the drama of the play.
/ / / What is the role of minor characters in the system of images of Chekhov’s play “The Cherry Orchard”?There are no random or “useless” heroes in Chekhov’s play. Each of them is like a small puzzle of one large image. Perhaps someone can be discarded and considered superfluous, but then the picture of what is happening will become incomplete.
Footman Yasha, brought from Paris by Lyubov Ranevskaya, complements the image of his mistress. The man is completely spoiled. He is arrogant, self-confident and very well settled in life. Despite, not the most better times, continues to pay him decently, travel with him abroad, and even brings a lackey to the estate.
Yasha is irresponsible, has poor speech and a disgusting character. He is spoiled by the luxurious life of his mistress, and when trouble happens and the estate goes up for auction, the man plaintively asks to take him with him to Paris. Ranevskaya's kindness is mistaken by Yasha for weakness.
Yasha is the complete opposite of Firs. Even the ages of the characters are different. Yasha, young, full of strength and indifference to his owners. He is only interested in the financial side and his own comfort. Firs, on the contrary, is an old man who is over eighty years old.
The old footman lived permanently on the estate. He remained with his masters, even after the abolition of serfdom. The man became practically a member of the family. He looked after Lyubov and Gaev when they were little, and he continued to care for them when they became adults. For the elder, “other people’s” finances were never important. He was more concerned about the comfort and order that reigned in the estate.
He is very responsible, pedantic, but at the same time, open-hearted. He literally suffers from new laws, and most importantly, he does not understand what awaits him in the future. When an old man, in the haste and bustle, is simply forgotten on the estate, he faithfully lies down on a bench and waits for someone to come back for him.
Dunyasha also serves on the estate. She is a reflection of Ranevskaya herself. The girl is very emotional, vulnerable and sensitive. Epikhodov is madly in love with Dunyasha. But she frivolously gives preference to Yasha. The girl is drawn to an intelligent, as it seemed to her, image of a foreign lackey. She will soon be greatly disappointed in her wrong hasty choice, since for Yasha, Dunyash is an empty place. Epikhodov will remain to look after the estate when he wins the auction.
The image of Epikhodov is both comical and tragic at the same time. The man is called “twenty-two misfortunes” because of his ability to get into various troubles, accidentally break things, and break dishes. It attracts bad luck like a magnet. So the man was clearly unlucky with his marriage to Dunyasha, because his chosen one preferred someone else. Epikhodov takes the “quarrel” very hard and does not even try to hide his emotions.
The image of Boris Semeon-Pishchik is also not accidental in the play. The man is very animated, as his life is full of different events. He is in constant search of money. A man, trying to borrow them even from the ruined Gaev and Ranevskaya.
Pischik is an optimist in life. He believes that even from the most difficult situation, a way out can be found. His faith in goodness models situations after which he, although partially, repays all his debts.
In his play, Chekhov endowed even minor characters with special “traits.” Each of them, one way or another, completes the images of the main characters, while remaining unique.
To understand the plot work of art Main and supporting characters are required.
The image and characterization of Dunyasha in the play “The Cherry Orchard” is an example of the importance of a non-main character for revealing complex problems. Here is the loss of the property by the owners, and the shortsightedness of the servants. The theme of base feelings and lack of understanding runs through the image true love, desire for external gloss, soullessness and laziness.
Characteristics of the heroine
A brilliant author gives the character a complex, but telling name. Maid Dunya - Avdotya Kozodoeva. Much in the image of a girl is from a domestic animal that produces healthy milk, but is harmful in character. A simple peasant girl strives to look like a young lady. Hairstyle, clothes, sleek hands - everything confirms that the servants live at ease on the estate. She plays with a fan instead of running around the house with a broom and duster. In the play, Dunya is approximately 20 years old; she was still a little girl in the house. She does not remember the simple peasant life, she is unaccustomed to her usual work. Avdotya doesn’t know hard work. What does the maid do throughout the play:- looks in the mirror;
- powder;
- admires himself.
Dunya and Epikhodov
Avdotya Fedorovna is the bride of clerk Epikhodov. It would seem that what else does a maid need. But here the image of a simpleton and a liar emerges. The girl keeps her groom at a distance, but takes liberties with another man. The duplicity of the “peasant young lady” evokes a smile. The viewer and reader see the real Yasha, but the maid in love does not. Epikhodov is modest and touchy. He doesn’t understand why Dunyasha doesn’t want to see him, treats him like an insect, doesn’t want to talk and sends Ermolai away. Epikhodov proposes; he intends to love the girl all his life. The clerk has a serious attitude towards Avdotya. Dunyasha is flighty, so it’s difficult to imagine her as a faithful wife in the future. If this union is created, the man will be assigned the role of a “goat” who will be “milked.” That is, the heroine's last name will work. She will easily deceive a man, will not suffer from what she has done, and her frivolity is unlikely to go away over the years. Carefree days on the estate will make themselves felt. The woman is not visible in the household; she does not like to work. The goal is to be in front of men, but you can’t look for serious relationships with everyone. A clerk is not her dream, she is waiting for a prince, a hero romance novels.Dunya and Yakov
Dunyasha fell in love with Ranevskaya's servant Yakov. She thinks he is very educated. A stupid girl believes a cheeky young man who has been abroad. Love here is accompanied by envy. Dunya feels good in the house, but she wants to live even better, and the footman saw this “best.” The couple has a lot in common. Yakov is cruel to his mother, because of him the old servant Firs remains in an empty house. Dunya is also unspiritual. She has fun with Yakov, forgetting about the other’s proposal. Yakov reproaches the girl and accuses her of immoral behavior. Dunyasha has to cry. But the scene of tears does not evoke pity. The girl complains about her health, she is nervous, afraid of being deceived. The reader sees that in reality there is no nervousness in the behavior, everything is feigned. Dunya is in her dreams, she is cheerful and calm. It won't work with a lackey, someone else will appear.Double of the main character
Dunyasha, according to many literary scholars, is Ranevskaya’s double, her image in the mirror. The maid lives the dream of a prince, of a happy, carefree life in wealth. So the housewife is cut off from reality, dreams and forgets about pressing matters. The pampered Ranevskaya does not value money, she is eager for men who take advantage of her and throw her away as an unnecessary item. The power of men is so strong that both women evoke pity and a smile in the viewer. What is the basis of their character is affectation, coquetry, narcissism. Dunyasha is comical and tragic as a housewife. One has a tragedy in the loss of property and the need to return to the person who betrayed her. The maid has the tragedy of losing her loved one. The depraved footman easily leaves the beauty, reproaching her for improper behavior with men.The characterization of Dunyasha in the play “The Cherry Orchard” can be defined as a mirror image of Ranevskaya, a “reduced double” of the main character - a naive, rustic maid, yesterday’s peasant, while speaking, dressing and behaving “like a young lady,” with a pretense of sophistication. “She became tender, so delicate, noble,” she says about herself. With her behavior and remarks she creates comic effect, based on the discrepancy between her actions and her prescribed role. And although this point is also important, the image of Dunyasha in Chekhov’s play “The Cherry Orchard” is not reduced solely to the comic component.
In the three-part system of characters in the work, Dunyasha refers to the heroes who are in a speculative future. However, her future is not determined as specifically as that of Anya or Trofimov; this is not the chronotope of a “new garden”, a monastery or Paris. Dunyasha’s “future” lies in her dreams; like many young ladies, among whom she counts herself, these are love dreams. Dunyasha lives in anticipation of the “prince,” and this expectation becomes almost an end in itself. When Epikhodov proposes to her, Dunyasha, despite the fact that she “seems to like him,” is in no hurry to agree. Much more important to her is the speculative space of “ideal,” fairy-tale love, a distant hint of which she finds in her “relationship” with the lackey Yasha. Attempts to realize these dreams will lead to their simplification, vulgarization, and will tear Dunyasha out of the sphere of dreams, in which she is most comfortable to be. Like almost all the characters in the play, she not only does not live in the present, but also desperately wants nothing to do with it - and in this she is also a “mirror” of Ranevskaya. By depicting the image of Dunyasha in “The Cherry Orchard,” the author even more clearly emphasized the typical painful gap between the worldviews of the play’s characters and the reality in which they are forced to act.
- Main characters: Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya, landowner. Anya, her daughter, 17 years old. Varya, her adopted daughter, 24 years old. Gaev Leonid Andreevich, brother of Ranevskaya. Lopakhin Ermolai...
- Speaking about the work of A.P. Chekhov, his small humorous stories, filled deep meaning and often tragic, but for theatergoers it...
- “...if it fails, then the whole play will fail.” So in one of his letters Chekhov spoke about the role of Lopakhin from the play “The Cherry Orchard”. How...
- Before us is a play with the prosaic title “The Cherry Orchard”. I wonder what the author meant by a cherry orchard? “All of Russia is our garden,” says one of...
- A.P. Chekhov The Cherry Orchard (in summary by action) Act one The estate of the landowner Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya. Spring, the cherry orchard is blooming. But this wonderful garden...
- The play “The Cherry Orchard” became A.P. Chekhov’s swan song, occupying for many years the stage of world theaters. The success of this work was due not only to its theme,...
- Act 1 The room, which is still called the nursery. Lopakhin and Dunyasha are waiting for Ranevskaya and everyone who went to meet her to arrive from the station. Lopakhin...
- Chekhov's plays seemed unusual to his contemporaries. They differed sharply from the usual dramatic forms. They did not have the seemingly necessary beginning, climax and, strictly speaking, dramatic action...
- Social statuses of the characters in the play - as one of the characteristics In A. P. Chekhov’s final play “The Cherry Orchard” there is no division into main and secondary characters....
- It is symbolic that the first line in the play belongs to E. Lopakhin. This emphasizes the importance of this character to reveal ideological content plays. It is noteworthy that the hero gives himself...
- Traditionally, the system of images in the play “The Cherry Orchard” is divided into three groups, symbolizing the present, future and past, which include all the characters. In the process of production...
- The action of the last work of A.P. Chekhov takes place on the estate of Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya, which in a few months will be sold at auction for debts, and it is the image...
- Chekhov gave his last play the subtitle “comedy.” But in the first production of the Moscow art theater Even during the author’s lifetime, the play appeared as a heavy drama, even a tragedy. Who...
- The history of the creation of the play “The Cherry Orchard” For the first time, A.P. Chekhov announced the start of work on new play in 1901 in a letter to his wife O. L....
- “The Cherry Orchard” – last piece A.P. Chekhov. The writer was terminally ill when he wrote this play. He realized that he would soon pass away, and, probably...
The lyrical comedy by A.P. Chekhov “The Cherry Orchard” is one of the peaks of the writer’s dramatic creativity. The images of the main characters he created have become textbook ones, but the images of the secondary characters are also of considerable importance. Of course, these characters do not make a serious contribution to the development of the overall plot, but they help the author paint and show viewers and readers a more complete and voluminous picture.
The key job of secondary characters is to summarize the main thoughts and opinions of the main characters. They seem to express what the main characters did not say in their speech. With the help of them, Chekhov shows the importance of key points that are fundamental for understanding and understanding the play.
Chekhov practically does not describe the secondary characters in any way; all the traits of their characters can be seen through their remarks, which the author successfully and effectively “forces” them to say.
Let's consider a hero like Epikhodov. In his opinion, he is very educated person what is gross exaggeration, because in essence, we see his narrow-minded mindset and pride. His speech is characterized by a jumble of words, not entirely correct comparisons, he often inserts foreign words into his speech that are inappropriate in this context. On the one hand, his speech is beautiful and good, but on the other hand, it is difficult to understand him:
“As a matter of fact, without touching on other subjects, I must express myself, among other things, that fate treats me without regret, like a storm treats a small ship. If, let’s say, I’m mistaken, then why did I wake up this morning, for example, I look, and there’s a scary-sized spider on my chest... Like this. (Points with both hands.) And you also take kvass to get drunk, and there, you see, something extremely indecent, like a cockroach.”
Let's take a character like Yasha. This is a young man who picked up a harmful atmosphere Parisian life, which is especially clearly visible in his addresses to Dunyasha, whom he calls “Cucumber.” Yasha speaks, but his speech does not make much sense, he is overly self-confident, cruel and vindictive. This is especially noticeable in the episode when he brutally dealt with Charlotte’s dog, which bit him, right in front of her window. Yasha is a person without principles and without morals, but he is quite simple and understandable, and such people are needed everywhere, so he can use it.
There is another hero who is difficult to define as “minor”, since in fact, he practically plays the main role in “The Cherry Orchard” - Firs. He is not present on stage much, but the author put into his mouth the final monologue summing up the play. Firs is an “eternal serf” who once gave up his long-awaited freedom.
I think it's unfair to label minor characters as background characters, like pieces of furniture. They are just as important characters in the play, although they are given little time. The characters cannot emerge victorious in the current living conditions, but they do not consider this a tragedy. They leave the stage brightly, effectively, and memorablely. It is important to understand that if the main characters are not able to overcome their melancholy and grief, and the secondary characters seem to scare away everything bad with their behavior and their laughter. This turns the play into a comedy, and in some places into a farce, which emphasizes the fact that this is a dramatic work.
Article menu:
A.P. Chekhov entered Russian literature as a writer who combined French grace and subtlety, the subtlety of the Russian soul along with its cruel, sharp contradictions. Of course, the play “The Cherry Orchard” is one of the most famous works A.P. Chekhov, with whom his name is often associated.
Features of the characters in the play
This work is one of those rare texts in which it is extremely difficult, and sometimes even impossible, to distinguish the heroes of the first and second plan. Here no one is in the center, meanwhile, the criterion for distinguishing the characters is not the author’s attention to them or their position in the text, but their social status.
Dear readers! We bring to your attention which is one of the few especially beloved by the author.
We could characterize all the characters as the main ones, because even the most insignificant character, as it turns out later, plays a significant role in the plot of the text. It’s probably obvious here exactly how the phrase “meeted by their clothes, seen off by their minds” works: in our perception of other people we are subject to stereotypes, the formation of which is influenced by, for example, social status, status, social significance of another person.
Considering that this is a play, the character of the characters is built by the author not through descriptions, but through speech and remarks, which greatly rationalizes the work itself. However, now it is worth considering in more detail the specifics of the characters we have chosen.
Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya
This heroine is torn between what her heart tells her and between what she is being pushed towards. life circumstances. She is an aristocrat by origin, but fate decreed that after the death of her husband she was left alone, and her company consisted mainly of unpaid debts.
Her very name - Love - hints to us that the woman needed new feelings and impressions. She passionately searches for them, but the price for such a search is high - she loses not only her husband, but also her little son. After this tragic incident, Ranevskaya is constantly tormented by her conscience, she tries to retire abroad, however, her gigolo lover finds her there too, bringing ruin after ruin - both emotional and material.
Dear readers! We invite you to familiarize yourself with A.P. Chekhov.
Love seeks peace, but finding it in the hustle and bustle and constant stress from the debt trap does not seem realistic. She has a choice - she can save her estate and her garden, which she loves so much, but for this Lyubov must become Lopakhin’s wife. This means an interruption of tradition, because the line of inheritance of the estate will be interrupted, since Lopakhin does not suit her status. Ranevskaya found herself captive of her own cultural codes and stereotypes, perhaps imposed by society.
Leonid Andreevich Gaev
The heroine also has a brother - Leonid Andreevich Gaev. He, like his sister, has all the traits of aristocrats: he has a keen sense of beauty, Leonid is a generous and responsive, well-educated person. But, as often happens, advantages turn into vices: after all, in fact, we are dealing with the same qualities, it’s just that, for example, generosity without a middle ground turns into its extreme manifestation - squandering, and responsiveness and kindness turn into lack of will and excessive softness .
Ermolai Alekseevich Lopakhin
If the rest of the characters in the play are distinguished by verbosity and only a small amount of action, but in the case of Lopakhin the opposite is true: he is perhaps the only truly active person.
He represents the class not of aristocrats, but of merchants. In it one can notice all the features that distinguish the ideal of Protestantism: a person is self-made, and success in business testifies to the support of God.
Flair, perseverance, determination, intelligence and business acumen - these are the traits that allowed the son of serfs to become a rich man.
But money in this society is not everything. Lopakhin has many bright and positive qualities, however, he does not speak the language that is understood by the people whose company he strives to join. This is language and code social status, determined in that era by origin.
Lopakhin, meanwhile, also has a subtle worldview. He is a connoisseur of beauty, which is not always obvious. So, the hero sees beauty in Ranevskaya’s garden, but she, unfortunately, is not able to appreciate it. The blindness of social roles is what the reader sees here.
Petr Trofimov
Perhaps Petya also comes from a noble family. But now he is a poor and “shabby” student, who can only be called a master as a joke. Petya has no home, he is the bearer of ideas about the common good and happiness, accessible to all people without exception.
Peter's problem is that he, too, is a man of words and not of deeds. He beautifully and captivatingly expresses his ideas about the good, however, at the same time, he embodies complete passivity in its implementation.
Peter lives in the world of his own dreams. He is a nomad man, always traveling and moving from place to place. Such a life distinguishes unhappy people for whom delving into dreams is a kind of escapism.
Anna
Peter’s dreams, meanwhile, inspire and captivate Ranevskaya’s daughter, Anna. Anya was raised by her uncle, to whom she was left by her mother. When Anya was a teenager, she mostly lived her inner world, which led to some of her naivety in teenage years. The girl also inherits best qualities aristocrats, but her features - due to her young age - do not yet go to extremes.
Varya
Ranevskaya also had adopted daughter- I’m cooking. However, in reality, the girl looked after the estate, she was responsible for the servants, and also took care of the owners of the estate. Varya has no sublime ideas: her life revolves around everyday life, but it is this everyday life that is the basis that frees up time for other characters so that they can direct their thoughts into lofty matters.
Varya dreams of going to a monastery and devoting her life to God, but no one is interested in her desires and thoughts. Ranevskaya wants Varya to become Lopakhin’s wife, but he does not show any feelings for her.
Simeonov-Pishchik
This is a landowner equal in status to Ranevskaya. Just like her, he was mired in a lot of debt. Simeonov is an optimist, he easily adapts to changing circumstances, while the characters gathered around the “cherry orchard” live by conservative values and concepts.
Yasha
Despite the fact that Yasha is only a lackey, he is distinguished by a fair amount of arrogance and pride. Yasha feels neither affection nor respect. Status for him is a convention that is lost in his pride.
Dunyasha
This heroine is an image of frivolity and carelessness. She lives only in the present, like a one-day butterfly, indulging only in romantic dreams.
Epikhodov
An unfortunate office employee who embodies not only the chronic failures of life, but also its emptiness, meaninglessness and futility.
Charlotte Ivanovna
The verbose governess. But, in general, her image is very comical.
Firs
This hero is a tragic figure who represents all those serfs who did not know what to do without their masters. Many serfs had the consciousness of an infant (despite the fact that they could be quite advanced in age) and the master's family was like their own family for them. When serfdom canceled, all these serfs felt emptiness and helplessness, as if they were left without a father.
Firs is a very symbolic character. He dies in an empty estate, and trees are being cut down on the street - the beautiful cherry orchard is no more - just as the old order is no more.
- New!
High comedy is not based solely on laughter... and often comes close to tragedy. A. S. Pushkin Why did A. P. Chekhov call “The Cherry Orchard” a comedy? It is very difficult to answer this question. In the 19th century there was a certain mixture of genres, their...
Chekhov's mature plays, built on concrete everyday material, at the same time have a generalizing, symbolic meaning. The meaning of “The Cherry Orchard” (1903) is also not at all limited to the story of how the old owners of the estate - the nobles - were replaced...
“The Cherry Orchard” is the last work of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, completing it creative biography, his ideological and artistic quests. The new stylistic principles he developed, new “techniques” for plotting and composition were embodied in this play...
The last play by A.P. Chekhov was written in 1903. It is imbued with the author's thoughts about the past, present and future of Russia, the symbol of which is the cherry orchard. The image of the cherry orchard is central in the work; all the characters are located around it....
Reading the 4th act of Chekhov's play "V.S.", you understand what the author wanted to show noble nest, represented by Ranevskaya and Gaev, the present represented by Lopakhin and the uncertain future represented by young people Petya and Anya. Before us...
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - master short story, a brilliant short story writer and great playwright. His plays “The Seagull”, “Three Sisters”, “Uncle Vanya”, “The Cherry Orchard” do not leave the theater stages to this day. Their popularity here and in the West is great. ...
A.P. Chekhov had a great influence on Russian culture, in particular literature and theater. His works are filled with irony, symbolism and vitality. One of his best works was the comedy (as defined by the author) “The Cherry Orchard,” which he wrote shortly before his death. In it, the author revealed his views on the past, present and future of Russia.
According to many critics, Chekhov is the founder of the “new drama”. His play is “plotless”; the viewer is shown only the reactions of the characters to what is happening behind the scenes. The author does not care about the course of events; Chekhov gives greater importance to the characters of his play, since through their characters, life, views on the world, one can understand about contemporary author Russia. In different situations, certain characters think and act differently, which speaks to another feature of Chekhov’s play: his characters are not clearly divided into positive and negative (except for Yasha). In addition, there are a considerable number of minor characters in the play, who are just as important as the main ones. Their abundance is explained by the fact that through them the reader can better understand the true face of a particular hero.
Lyubov Ranevskaya – main character works of Chekhov. At first, her image may evoke sympathy in the reader. Many heroes call her good person, “easy, simple.” She's not sharp negative character, so it seems harmless, but in reality it is not. Ranevskaya, like most other heroes, is perceived ambiguously, and secondary characters help to understand this.
In the second act, Lyubov Andreevna and other characters sat on the bench, deep in thought. It was already evening, they were about to leave, but a passer-by approached them. After some pretext, he turns to Varya: “Mademoiselle, allow the hungry Russian thirty kopecks...”. She was frightened, Lopakhin considered the passerby’s request “disgraceful,” but Ranevskaya, despite her plight, still serves the passerby. She is used to wasting money, she does not know how to save, although she notices this in herself, but she cannot do anything about it: “I have always wasted money without restraint, like crazy.” The episode with this “random” character once again confirms that Ranevskaya is a frivolous and unbusinesslike woman, but at the same time that she has a soul; her responsiveness and attention to the ordinary “hungry Russian” are manifested.
Throughout the entire play, Lyubov Ranevskaya is affectionate with the footman Firs, she called him “my old man.” This is an elderly man who sincerely loves his owners. He served Ranevskaya’s father, and remained with the masters after the abolition of serfdom in 1861. Upon the return of Lyubov Andreevna, Firs rejoiced with tears in his eyes. When Lopakhin bought the estate, Ranevskaya and other heroes were getting ready to leave, no one noticed Firs’ presence, and they locked him in an empty house. Although Ranevskaya is devoted to memories of the past, values everything connected with her cherry orchard, childhood, and therefore the footman Firs, in the end she forgets about him. This gives the reader a reason to doubt the strength and depth of her experiences about the past, and this is precisely why, in my opinion, the image of Firs is important.
In the play by A.P. Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" has quite a lot of secondary characters, but they are just as important as the main ones. Using the example of Ranevskaya, one can understand that she reveals different sides of her personality through interactions with “random” characters. This is their main “function”, which determines their abundance: to show how versatile certain characters are.
Updated: 2018-04-26
Attention!
Thank you for your attention.
If you notice an error or typo, highlight the text and click Ctrl+Enter.
By doing so, you will provide invaluable benefit to the project and other readers.
