(283 words) Anton Pavlovich Chekhov devoted his last work to long reflections on the impending loss of estate. The heroes of the Cherry Orchard sigh, cry, and for a long time cannot part with their home. But is everything in the play as primitive as it seems at first glance?
The playwright reveals the image of the Motherland in the phrase of one of the heroes of the play: "All of Russia is our garden." Chekhov laments not over the loss of property, but over the imminent loss of the entire country for the former owners. The drama was written at the very beginning of the 20th century, shortly before the repressions, civil wars and revolutions. The writer seemed to foresee the difficulties that his people would have to face.
The heroes of The Cherry Orchard do not want and cannot hear each other. They belong to different times: Ranevskaya, Gayev and Firs - to the noble and serf past, Lopakhin - to the active present, and eternal student Petya Trofimov and Anya - to an uncertain foggy future. Anton Pavlovich even calls the work a comedy, seeing in the behavior of these people insolvency and unpreparedness to seek a compromise. The symbolism of the play is striking. Disagreement in families, the destruction of a noble society, the slave psychology of the lackey Firs ... The sound of an ax, which makes it clear to the viewer of the comedy that the garden is already beginning to be cut down to summer cottages, is compared to the sound of a broken string. The music of a quiet life is interrupted, with its shortcomings and vices. Especially symbolic is the death of the faithful servant Firs - he is forgotten in a locked house.
The heroes who personify the future plan to plant a new garden, but no one knows who will do this. In The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov raises the question of what is happening with Russia, and are all these changes necessary? There is no one to blame for the work, or, on the contrary, is everyone guilty? On the one hand, Russia is a huge garden with flowering trees. On the other hand, this garden is up and running and needs updating. The understatement makes it possible to reflect on the fate of the country and leaves the open finale in the drama. There are more questions than answers.
Viscount de Brazhelon
