Act 1: Dunyasha (maid) and Lophakin (merchant ) are waiting for Lyubov Ranevskaya to come home with her brother Gayev and daughter Anya (17), from Paris. It's May and in the nursery. Yephikodov, a servant enters. His boots are squeeky. he's quirky like that. He's called the walking accident. He leaves and Dunyasha giddily reveals, to little reaction, that Yephikodov had proposed to her. Very late, the party arrives: Lyubov, Anya, Gaev, and also Lyubov's friend Simeonov-Pishchik (landowner), more servants, and the governess Charlotta. Varya (24), Lyubov's adopted, daughter also enters. She didn't go to Paris.
They start talking, nostalgia of the nursery, Dunyasha on being proposed Charlotta and Pishchik on other random stuff. There is no very successful conversation. Chekhov trains. Just saying, if you read the blog on Three Sisters, you'll get a lot about Chekhov, like what Chekhov's trains are. So, go on there and if you don't want to read it, I wrote 'Brain Snack' strangely a lot in it for ctrl+f that. Lyubov keeps talking about the old times in the nursery and how her whole life is symbolised in this house and the cherry orchard.
Now Anya and Varya talk and get the situation to the audience. Anya's father died six years ago, and five years ago, Lyubov moved to Paris. Lyubov is the landowner of the place, but ran out of money. However, she, being aristocratic, takes money as a given, so she keeps on spending and spending, and she also brought her new servant Yasha who also spends. He's not very likeable. He was a peasant but rose under Lyubov but acts above it all, with peasant-phobia. But he's educated and Dunyasha seems to have a thing for him, though he's pretty cold towards her, probably not wanting her to bring him down. Varya and Anya are very concerned. Also, Varya has been in love with Lophakin for a long time, and he with her, and everybody is always expecting him to propose but he hasn't yet. This catching up goes on further. you find out the aged servant Firs is still alive, which Lyubov is glad about. Firs is old (87) and deaf and keeps talking about the past and stayed with the family after emancipation, happier then. He throughout makes it pain-staking, the degradation of society in his eyes, and makes leaving the cherry orchard more sad because he's attached to it as the past.
We find out Lophakin's history. His father was a serf of Lubyov's father and grandfather, working for the cherry orchard, but since the emancipation of the serfs , he is free but works still for Lyubov. But after all the time, he's come to love those at the estate as his family, and the cherry orchard, though he's viewed as beneath the residents: a kulak. But he wants to save the land so he proposes cutting down the orchard and leasing the land as dachas (something like summer homes) Everyone is opposed to the idea because one, they don't want to chop the orchard, and two, hey think al this thinking and business is beneath them. They brainstorm to pretend they're productive for a second, and then change subject to Paris. Pishchik's recurring phrase is 'imagine that'. And taking a lot of big pauses. He's a stroke victim. Oh, right, and he never has money and is always borrowing from everybody, but he's a likeable guy. Then they talk of telegrams Lyubov keeps getting from her lover in Paris. He was a tramp and she financed him. She says she's done with Paris. These are all pet conversations. They go back to them a lot, like the philosophising in Three Sisters.
Some funny stuff happens concerning Pishchik downing a bottle of pills, Firs talking of pickles, but the highlight is Gayev's ode to a cupboard that's really old. This is Gayev's thing. He opens his mouth and a splurge of overly romantic, extravagant words come out. Anya asks him to shut up throughout the play. Also, another Gayev tick is that he never gets his clothings right so Firs always fusses over him.
People go to sleep and Lyubov, Varya, Pishchik, Firs, Yasha and Gayev are left on stage admiring the orchard, when Trofimov stops by. Varya meant for him to come tomorrow because Lyubov immediately begins crying. Trofimov is the perpetual student, very intellectual, and was the tutor of Grisha, Lyubov's son who died by drowning. Pishchik asks for money still, despite crying and Lyubov says alright (exasperaed sigh) and Lyubov, Pishchik, and Trofimov leave.
Gayev goes on to Varya of Lyubov being immoral and Anya overhears and gets angry. It really seems pretty wrong, this immoral thing. Lyubov's actions are prety much controlled by her emotions, and they're caring. This causes trouble, like she helps others by giving money to peasants when she can't afford it, and she is so connected to the orchard that she can't give it up to save herself. She's the opposite of the increasingly insensitive Lophakin, who despite what he does, she still wishes to marry her adopted daughter (another caring thing: adoption) because she likes human ties, like with Trofimov and Anya.) Lyubov is an aristocrat not seeing Lophakin as an equal and not working and all, but she's kind.
Gayev laments on his big mouth and they decide he should just not speak. There are so many tiny things they say that are funny. Gayev is just like a big baby. He plays air-pool, he eats candy, can't dress, can't speak, cries a lot. He also points out to Yasha here that he smells like chicken. Sort of scared of peasants, he is, though he says he's kind to them. I think he's supposed to just show how terribly unmovable and dependent the aristocracy is. Just read it, really, please read it. Firds enters to send Gayev to bed and Trofimov enters and stops, seeing the sisters. When they exit, Trofimov is overcome with emotion. He loves Anya. He calls her My spring. This I think encapsulates well why everyone loves her. She's young, in the spring of her life, and can pursue things. She doesn't do much. She's like her mother, kind, and connected to the orchard, at least in Act 1.
ACT 2: Same day, sunset, in he garden. Charlotta, Yasha, Dunyasha, an Yepikhodov on stage, Yep playing guitar. Charlotta has a gun. Chekhov's gun, by the way, is a concept that a prop has to be useful, so if you see a gun on stage, it has to be used at some point. Charlotte talks about how she doesn't know her age, origin, or family really, and how she's alone. Yep tries to get her attention biut she's focused on Yasha. Yep always carries around a revolver in case he gets the need to commit suicide. Yep leaves and Dunyasha and Yasha have a sudden romantic moment, and Yasha is rude and smokes a cigar, giving Dunyasha a headache for which she exits.
Enter Lyubov, Gayev and Lophakin. Lophakin walks out after he has no luck convincing Gayev and Lyubov that they have to actually do something aside from ask their rich aunt for money to save the orchard. Lyubov is as strangely poised and emotionally understanding as ever. Then Lyubov talks to Gayev about her past, how her husband was a lawyer beneath her money-wise but whom she married for love. He became an alcoholic and greatly indebted, and the alcohol led to his death, leaving Lyubov financially weak. She fell in love again, unluckily, she says, and then Grisha died and she left to Paris to escape memories. Her love followed her and they stayed in a villa in Mentone she bought then for three years whilst he was ill, leaching from her generosity. She sold the villa to pay debts and moved to Paris, and there he robbed her and abandoned her, and she tried to poison herself, failed, and then missed her daughters and Russia. Her life sucks. And yet she's pretty nice. The guy is telegramming her now, desperate for money and care. She changes the subject by talking of the band and Lophakin and Gayev go along with it, with a short, but interesting conversation on plays. They get to the Varya proposal again and Lophakin is awkward. I think there is a slight chance he may be in love with Lyubov. One interpretation. He thinks highly of her kindness. The first thing we hear of Lyubov is at the beginning of act 1 from Lophakin. He says she helped him and was kind to him when his father beat him as a child. awww
Enter Firs to fuss on Gayev. Gayev's mean to him. Putting the peasant in his place again. sigh. Firs says some very interesting things about the emancipation and how things have been confused, but no one really listens. Gayev and Lyubov are above him and Lophakin is attempting to be as least-peasant as possible.
Enter Trofimov, Varya, Anya. Trofimov goes off about working, but not preachily, like Tuzenbakh in Three Sisters, but more practically. He criticises the intelligentsia because they aren't capable of work. Lyubov praises him, Lophakin's cold, and his preaching seems a bit wrong because he is the perpetual student, who, for all he knows, hasn't worked much yet, and who is so young and inexperienced. Yep walks by with his guitar, and then, all silent in thought, there is a disant noise: 'the sound of a broken string, a dying, sad sound.' Very Tennessee Williams stage direction. Good for reading, but how are you supposed to make that sound?
A drunk passer-by enters. He asks directions and Gayev clams up. Lyubov gives him money. We're stuck between exasperation and awe at her generosity. Varya's freaked out. Lophakin calls Varya Ophelia and says get thee to a nunnery. That's the scene when Hamlet says he doesn't actually love Ophelia and he won't marry her. Very Lophakin. Also, Varya looks like a nun. Tres interessant, non? Don't know why that was french. Then Lophakin reminds everyone of the realistic cherry orchard issue. It'll be sold in auction. It feels a bit like a reminder to the audience since everyone distracts themselves so well.
All leave but Trofimov and Anya. They talk. Apparently Varya is afrais of them falling in love and keep them apart but he thinks they are above love. Anya says she used to think there was no place better than the orchard but now sees it more separately, and thinks Trofimov changed her. He says he did and hat she sees better now that the world waits before her beyond the orchard. He philosophises about how the orchard was made by serfs and that the aristocracy live in debt of lives owned, and they must work that debt off in suffering labour, and Trofimov has a premonition of happiness through his own suffering. It's one of the very few profound moments in the play. Yep's guitar can be heard. Tuzenbakh's approaching happiness in generations repeated and it's all very Marxist. Russia evolves as a being in itself.
Act 3: August 22nd, auction day. A drawing-room and ballroom for a party thrown by Lyubov. Gayev and Lophakin are at the auction.. The rest dance. Pishchik starts it off with some weird talk about being descended from Caligula. He mentions nietzche (which is the existenialist issue that all Chekhov characters deal with, resolved by marxism) but though it catches Trofimov's attention, it drops there with Pishchik's ignorance and worry that he needs his money in three days or he'll be evicted. Charlotta does some magic tricks. Fun for the audience. More on Varya-Lophakin proposal, Varya wants to go to a convent. Trofimov teases, Lyubov encourages. Lyubov has it out with Trofimov for being judgemental and inexperienced and insecure. He's not sensitive of her feelings. Lyubov wants to go back to her lover and weeps over her orchard that Trofimov has dismissed, and Trofimov thinks that's crazy and she hits on the, you're-young-and-ignorant-and-haven't-suffered. issue and he leaves flustered and falls down the stairs.
People dance and Yasha tells FIrs to go die. Firs feels ill and Lyubov lets him go and he demonstrates his loyalty to her. Some servant drama as Yep accuses Dunyasha of despising him. Lyubov is on pins the whole evening about the auction and finally Gayev enters crying. Lophakin gives a huge very insensitive speech on him buying the orchard. It;s basically an I-was-right-you-were-wrong speech. True, but it's still cruel. He talks of class and says he came out on top and is now completely dislocated from the peasant-past (another possible reason for him not marrying Varya) Lyubov is crushed and weeping. He's oblivious. They all leave Lyubov to be alone, and Anya, strengthened from her transformation, comforts here mom on the world lying before them.
Act 4: The set of act one but the nursery is bare. They are moving out. Very sad and symbolic. All Lyubov's past is disappearing. Yasha on stage. Lyubov and Gayev enter. Lyubov is pale and not crying, but not able to speak. Lophakin is still in his glory-power-drive. He opens champagne that Yasha insults but later drinks most of. Trofimov enters, moving things gently forwards. He's hopeful and strong amidst the crowd and proclaims happiness to come. he is civil to Lophakin, seeing him as a businessman, a tye that must take and take so change can occur, and treats him as an equal (which the others don't).
The trees are being chopped and you could hear it thudding in the distance. PEople move about. Yasha is being terrible, getting a free pass to Paris and leaving Dunyasha happily for his freeloader life. Lyubov, Gayev, Anya and Charlotta enter. Lyubov notices that Anya is radiant. She is going to go study and is hopeful of he future and even excited to leave the orchard to start an adventure. Pishchik comes in, paying everyone back what they've loaned him. he's crazy happy. Some people found white clay in his soil and paid him a load for a lease.
Lyubov is concerned about Firs. With the orchard gone, Firs is being forgotten too, as part of the past, and she was to send him to a hospital and assigned the task to Yasha and no one is very sure whether he'd gone, but the subject is left with a reassuring probably. They ll fill it up with small talk, Yep helping with a few accidents, whilst Lyubov sits, preparing a farewell. They finally leave, Anya and Trofimov hopeful, Lyubov and Gayev left last alone, sobbing and hugging. They exit and all that's left is the hollow soud of axe on wood, when Firs enters. He's locked in and forgotten. He lies down and grows quiet and calls his weak old self a big booby, a line he uses all throughout. The sound from Act 2 of a string broken and curtain.
Chilling, huh. Wow.
Read, folks. Read.
Charlotta: My dog loves nuts. Pishchik: Imagine that! (1)
Gayev: Dear, reverend cupboard! I salute your existence which for more than a hundred years now has been directed toward the shining ideals of good and justice; your silent call to fruitful labour has not faltered in he course of a hundred years, persevering [with tears in his eyes] in generations of our family a good spirit, faith in a better future and fostering in us ideals of the good and of social consciousness. (1)
Yasha: if a girl loves someone, that means she has no morals. (2)
Lyubov: You shouldn't go to plays but look more often at yourselves. Your lives are all so grey, you say such a lot of unnecessary things. Lophakin: That's true. One must admit our life is idiotic. (2)
Firs: I've lived a long time. They were looking for a wife for me when your papa wasn't yet on the earth...[laughs] And when Emancipation came, I was already first valet. I didn't accept full freedom then, I stayed with the family... [A pause]] And I remember everyone was glad, but why they were glad they didn't know themselves. Lophakin: It used to be a very good life in the old days. At least they used to flog people. Fird: [Not hearing] Of course. The muzhiks had masters, he masters had muzhiks, but now everything's all broken up, you can't make sense of anything. (2)
Trofimov: Who knows? What does that mean - you'll die? Perhaps man has a hundred senses and death eliminates only the five that are known to us, but the other ninety-five remain alive. (2)
Trofimov: The huge majority of the intelligentsia I know seek nothing, do nothing and aren't yet capable of hard work. (2)
Trofimov: Onward! We are going irresistibly towards a bright star burning there in the distance! Don't fall back, my friends! (2)
Anya: I thought there was no better place on earth than our orchard. Trofimov: All Russia is our orchard. The land is great and beautiful, there are many wonderful place in it. (2)
Trofimov: The ownership of living souls has formed all of you, those who lived before and those who are living now, so that your mother, you, your uncle, no longer notice that you are living in debt, at others' expense, at the expense of those people whom you don't let in further than your front hall...We've got a least two hundred years behind, we have nothing at all yet, no defined relationship too the past, we only talk philosophy , complain of boredom or drink vodka. It's so very clear that to begin to live in the present we must first redeem our past, finish with it, and we can redeem it only by suffering, only by exceptional, ceaseless labour. (2)
Trofimov: Believe me, Anya, believe me! I'm not yet thirty, I'm young, I am still a student, but I have already been through so much! When winter comes, when I am hungry, sick, anxious, poor as a beggar, and - where hasn't fate driven me, where haven't I been! And all the time, every minute, day and night, my spirit is full of premonitions I can't express. I have a premonition of happiness, Anya, I can already see it... (2)
Trofimov: Yes, the moon is rising. There it is, happiness, there it comes, nearer and nearer, I can already hear it's steps. And if we don't see it, don't recognise it, it's not so terrible. Others will see it! (2)
Lyubov: You're boldly solving all the important questions, but tell me, my dear, isn't that because you are young, because you haven' had time to suffer as a result of a single one of your questions? You look ahead boldly, ad isn't that because you don;t see and don't expect anything terrifying, as life is still hidden from your young eyes? You're bolder, more honest, you have greater depth than any of us, but just think, be generous just with the tip of a finger, spare me. (3)
Lyubov: And why conceal things or say nothing, I love him, that's obvious. I love him, I love him...It's a stone round my neck, I'm going with it to the bottom, but I love this stone and I can;t live without it. (3)
Anya: We will plant a new orchard, more splendid than this one, you will see it, you will understand, and joy, a quiet, deep joy, will settle on your spirit like the sun in the evening, and Mama, you will smile! (3)
Trofimov: I am a free man. And everything all of you, rich and poor, hold so high and fear - none of it has he slightest hold over me, it's all just like thistledown floating in the air. I can do without you, I can walk past you. I am strong and proud. Mankind is moving towards the greatest truth, towards the greatest happiness on earth, and I am in the front ranks! (4)
Pishchik: great philosopher advises one to jump off the roof...'Jump!' he says, and that's our whole mission. [in astonishment] Imagine that! Some water!... (4)
Anya: Farewell, house! Farewell, old life! Trofimov: Hail, new life!... (4)
Lyubov: Oh my darling, my sweet, beautiful orchard!...My life, my youth, my happiness, farewell!...farewell!... (4)
Firs: Life has gone by, as if I haven't lived. [Lies down] I'll lie down a moment...You've got no strength, nothing is left, nothing...Oh yo...big booby!...[Lies motionless] (4)
There is the distant sound of a string breaking, as if in the sky, a dying, melancholy sound. Silence falls, and the only thing to be heard is a tree being struck with an axe far off in the orchard. (4)
No comments:
Post a Comment