The main theme of the cherry orchard. Compositions

Ideological and thematic analysis of the play by A.P. Chekhov "The Cherry Orchard"

Ideological and thematic analysis of the play

The action takes place in the spring on the estate of Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya, who, after several years of living in France, returns to Russia with her seventeen-year-old daughter Anya. Gaev, Ranevskaya's brother, Varya, her adopted daughter are already waiting for them at the station.

Ranevskaya had practically no money left, and the estate with its beautiful cherry orchard could soon be sold for debts. The familiar merchant Lopakhin tells the landowner his solution to the problem: he proposes to break the land into plots and lease them to summer residents. Lyubov Andreevna is very surprised by such a proposal: she cannot imagine how it is possible to cut down a cherry orchard and rent out her estate, where she grew up, where her young life passed and where her son Grisha died, for rent to summer residents. Gaev and Varya are also trying to find some way out of the current situation: Gaev reassures everyone by saying that he swears that the estate will not be sold. He plans to borrow money from a rich Yaroslavl aunt, who, however, does not like Ranevskaya.

In the second part, all the action is transferred to the street. Lopakhin continues to insist on his plan as the only true one, but they don't even listen to him. At the same time, philosophical themes appear in the play and the image of the teacher Trofimov is more fully revealed. Having entered into a conversation with Ranevskaya and Gaev, Trofimov talks about the future of Russia, about happiness, about a new person. The dreamy Trofimov enters into an argument with the materialist Lopakhin, who is not able to appreciate his thoughts, and, left alone with Anya, who understands him alone, Trofimov tells her that one must be "above love."

In the third act, Gaev and Lopakhin leave for the city, where the auction is to take place, and in the meantime, dances are held on the estate. Governess Charlotte Ivanovna entertains guests with her tricks with ventriloquism. Each of the characters is busy with their own problems. Lyubov Andreevna worries about why her brother does not return for so long. When Gaev nevertheless appears, he informs his sister, full of unfounded hopes, that the estate has been sold, and Lopakhin has become its buyer. Lopakhin is happy, he feels his victory and asks the musicians to play something funny, he does not care about the sadness and despair of Ranevsky and Gaev.

The final act is devoted to the departure of Ranevskaya, her brother, daughters and servants from the estate. They leave the place that meant so much to them and start a new life. Lopakhin's plan came true: now, as he wanted, he will cut down the garden and lease the land to summer residents. Everyone leaves, and only the old footman Firs, abandoned by everyone, delivers the final monologue, after which the sound of an ax banging on wood is heard.

The play takes place on the estate of the landowner Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya. The social "conflict of the play is the conflict of the outgoing nobility with the bourgeoisie that came to replace it. Another storyline is social and romantic. "All Russia is our garden" - this is what Chekhov himself says through the mouth of his heroes. But the dream of Anya and Petya Trofimov is broken by Lopakhin's practicality , by whose will the cherry orchard is cut down.

A play by A.P. Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" is distinguished by its stylistic features. It is enough to pay attention to the fact that when it comes to the genre features of the play, some see a comedy in The Cherry Orchard, others see it as a drama, others see it as a tragicomedy. So what genre does this play belong to? First of all, it should be noted that Chekhov, striving for the truth of life, for naturalness, created plays not of purely dramatic or comedic, but of very complex formation. In his plays (including The Cherry Orchard) the dramatic is realized in an organic mixture with the comic, and the comic is manifested in an organic interweaving with the dramatic.

This play is more correctly called a lyrical comedy. The comedy of The Cherry Orchard is determined, firstly, by the fact that its positive images, such as Trofimov and Anya, are shown by no means dramatic. Dramaticity is unusual for these images either socially or individually. Both in their inner essence and in the author's assessment, these images are optimistic.

The image of Lopakhin is also clearly undramatic, which, in comparison with the images of the local nobles, is shown as relatively positive and major.

The comedy of the play is confirmed, secondly, by the fact that of the two owners of the cherry orchard, one (Gaev) is given primarily comically, and the second (Ranevskaya) in such dramatic situations, which mainly contribute to showing their negative essence.

The comic basis of the play is clearly visible, thirdly, in the comic-satirical depiction of almost all the minor characters: Epikhodov, Pishchik, Charlotte, Yasha, Dunyasha.

The Cherry Orchard also includes explicit vaudeville motifs, even farce, expressed in jokes, tricks, jumps, dressing up Charlotte.

Shortly after the premiere of The Cherry Orchard, on April 10, 1904, Chekhov, in a letter to O.L. Knipper, in an unusually harsh tone for him, remarked: “Why is my play so stubbornly called a drama on posters and in newspaper ads? Nemirovich and Alekseev see positively in my play not what I wrote, and I am ready to give any word that both of them have never read my play carefully. Many times in letters and conversations with different people, Chekhov stubbornly repeated: "The Cherry Orchard" is a comedy, in places even a farce. Later, the genre of the work was defined by literary critics in greater accordance with the author's intention: The Cherry Orchard was called a lyrical comedy.

Researchers note the optimistic tone of the play as a whole. The impression of tragedy, characteristic of Chekhov's previous plays, is different in The Cherry Orchard. The play organically combined the laughter that sounded in Chekhov's stories and the sad reflections of his dramas, giving rise to laughter through tears, but tears not taken seriously.

People of the passing time are absurd, their actions are sometimes absurd, their experiences are sincere, but shallow.

The owners of the cherry orchard are indecisive, not adapted to life, impractical, weak-willed and passive. Their tragic state often finds expression only in a comic act. They are not only the victims of what is happening, but also the perpetrators of it. These people are failing because their time is up. At the end of the play, Ranevskaya and Gaev leave the estate, and the garden is cut down, but still the onset of a new life is felt. There is no longer a sense of the tragic immutability of life in Chekhov's last play. Russian life, seemingly frozen for centuries, began to move. The languid expectation of change, which seemed impossible, was replaced by faith in the future.

The main innovation of The Cherry Orchard was its tonality, which is determined by a complex combination of lyrical and dramatic elements with comedic, sometimes farcical ones. In this regard, the image of Epikhodov is indicative: the hero considers himself a victim of an unfortunate fate, but in fact he is just a klutz. His image takes on a symbolic meaning - it sets off the essential character traits of other characters (Gaev, Ranevskaya, Lopakhin). After all, Gaev's speeches are a manifestation of idle talk in a broad human sense. Chekhov exposes the farcical essence of what passes for high revelation.

The combination of farcical and dramatic elements is most clearly seen in the image of Charlotte. Tricks, strange, eccentric behavior - this is a mask, not so much hiding as emphasizing her deep loneliness and restlessness.

"The Cherry Orchard" -- high lyrical comedy where the sad and the funny, the tragic and the comic are merged into an indissoluble unity. All the characters sometimes cause a smile and all participate in a sad event, hasten its onset - this is what determines the ratio of the serious and the comic in Chekhov's play. Chekhov uses the lessons of Gogol, combining everyday life and lyrics, funny and lofty. Chekhov puts all the heroes in a position of continuous transition from drama to comedy, from tragedy to vaudeville, from pathos to farce. In the play, with lyrical, symbolic overtones, tricks of a booth are used: Petya's fall from the stairs, Lopakhin's head being hit with a stick, Charlotte's tricks, etc.

The lyrical note is very strong in the play. The image of the cherry orchard is fanned with lyricism, the lyrical mood is felt in the speeches and experiences of the heroes (in Petya's speeches, Anya's impulses, Lopakhin's reasoning about giants, etc.).

The experience of modern director's interpretations and theatrical experiments testifies that Chekhov's brilliant creation is inexhaustible.

Chekhov, being the successor of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, also highlights the problem of the death of noble nests in his play The Cherry Orchard. The main theme of his work is the theme of the outgoing world.

The play takes place on the estate of the landowner Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya. social conflict plays are a conflict between the outgoing nobility and the bourgeoisie that has come to replace it. Another storyline is a socio-romantic one. "All of Russia is our garden" - so Chekhov himself says through the lips of his heroes. But the dream of Anya and Petya Trofimov is shattered by the practicality of Lopakhin, by whose will the cherry orchard is cut down.

Chekhov was not a revolutionary. Therefore, he failed to find a real way out of the crisis in which Russia was. The writer deeply sympathizes with the new phenomena taking place in the country, he hates the old way of life. Many writers have continued Chekhov's traditions.

The Cherry Orchard is a multifaceted work. Chekhov touched upon many problems in it that have not lost their relevance even today. But the main issue is, of course, the issue of contradictions between the old and new generations. These contradictions underlie the play's dramatic conflict. The outgoing world of nobles is opposed by representatives of the new society.

Chekhov's play "The Cherry Orchard" reflects a turning point - a time when the old has already died, and the new has not yet been born, and now life stopped for a moment, calmed down ... Who knows, maybe this is the calm before the storm? Nobody knows the answer, but everyone is waiting for something. In the same way, he waited, peering into the unknown, and Chekhov, anticipating the end of his life, waited for the whole of Russian society, which suffered from uncertainty and was at a loss. One thing was clear: the old life had irretrievably gone, and another was coming to replace it... What would it be like, this new life?

The truth of life in all its sequence and completeness - this is what Chekhov was guided by when creating his images. That is why each character in his plays is a living human character, attracting with great meaning and deep emotionality, convincing with its naturalness, warmth of human feelings.

By the strength of his direct emotional impact, Chekhov is perhaps the most outstanding playwright in the art of critical realism.

Chekhov's dramaturgy, responding to the topical issues of his time, addressing the everyday interests, feelings and worries of ordinary people, awakened the spirit of protest against inertia and routine, called for social activity to improve life. Therefore, it has always had a huge impact on readers and viewers. The significance of Chekhov's dramaturgy has long gone beyond the borders of our homeland, it has become global. Chekhov's dramatic innovation is widely recognized outside our great homeland. I am proud that Anton Pavlovich is a Russian writer, and no matter how different the masters of culture are, they probably all agree that Chekhov, with his works, prepared the world for a better life, more beautiful, more just, more reasonable.

Conflict:

A.P. Chekhov called his work "The Cherry Orchard" a comedy. We, having read the play, attribute it more to tragedy than to comedy. The images of Gaev and Ranevskaya seem tragic to us, their fates are tragic. We sympathize and empathize with them. At first we cannot understand why Anton Pavlovich classified his play as a comedy. But, rereading the work, understanding it, we still find the behavior of such characters as Gaev, Ranevskaya, Epikhodov, somewhat comical. We already believe that they themselves are to blame for their troubles, and perhaps we condemn them for this. To what genre does A.P. Chekhov's play "The Cherry Orchard" belong to comedy or tragedy?

In the play "The Cherry Orchard" we do not see a bright conflict, everything, it would seem, flows as usual. The heroes of the play behave calmly, there are no open quarrels and clashes between them. And yet we feel the existence of a conflict, but not open, but internal, hidden in the quiet, at first glance, peaceful atmosphere of the play. Behind the usual conversations of the heroes of the work, behind their calm attitude towards each other, we see them. Internal misunderstanding of others. We often hear remarks from characters out of place; we often see their distant looks, as if they do not hear others.

But the main conflict of the play "The Cherry Orchard" lies in the misunderstanding of generation by generation. It seems as if three times intersected in the play: past, present and future. These three generations dream of their time, but they only talk and cannot do anything to change their lives. Gaev, Ranevskaya, Firs belong to the past generation; to the present Lopakhin, and representatives of the future generation are Petya Trofimov and Anya.

Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya, a representative of the old nobility, constantly talks about her best young years spent in an old house, in a beautiful and luxurious cherry garden. She lives only with these memories of the past, she is not satisfied with the present, and she does not even want to think about the future. And we think her infantilism is ridiculous. And the whole old generation in this play thinks the same way. None of them are trying to change anything. They talk about the "beautiful" old life, but they themselves seem to resign themselves to the present, let everything take its course, give in without fighting for their ideas. And so Chekhov condemns them for this.

Lopakhin is a representative of the bourgeoisie, a hero of the present. He lives for today. We can't help but notice that his ideas are smart and practical. He has animated conversations about how to change lives for the better, and seems to know what to do. But all these are just words. In fact, Lopakhin is not the ideal hero of the play either. We feel his self-doubt. And at the end of the Work, his hands seem to drop, and he exclaims: "Our clumsy, unhappy life would rather change!".

It would seem that Anya and Petya Trofimov are the author's hope for the future. But how can such a person as Petya Trofimov, the "eternal student" and "shabby gentleman" change this life? After all, only smart, energetic, self-confident people, active people can put forward new ideas, enter the future and lead others. And Petya, like the other characters in the play, talks more than he acts; he generally behaves somehow ridiculously. And Anya is still too young, she does not yet know life to change her.

So, the main tragedy of the play lies not only in the sale of the garden and estate in which people spent their youth, with which their best memories are associated, but also in the inability of these same people to change anything to improve their situation. We, of course, sympathize with Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya, but we cannot but notice her infantile, sometimes ridiculous behavior. We constantly feel the absurdity of the events taking place in the play. Ranevskaya and Gaev look ridiculous with their attachments to old objects, Epikhodov is ridiculous, and Charlotte herself is the personification of uselessness in this life.

The main conflict of the work is the conflict of times, misunderstanding of one generation by another. There is no connection between times in the play, the gap between them is heard in the sound of a broken string. And yet the author expresses his hopes for the future. No wonder the knock of an ax symbolizes the transition from the past to the present. And when a new generation plants a new garden, the future will come.

A.P. Chekhov wrote the play "The Cherry Orchard" before the 1905 revolution. Therefore, the garden itself is the personification of Russia at that time. In this work, Anton Pavlovich reflected the problems of the past nobility, the bourgeoisie and the revolutionary future. At the same time, Chekhov portrayed the main conflict of the work in a new way. The conflict is not openly shown in the work, however, we feel the internal conflict that occurs between the heroes of the play. Tragedy and comedy run inextricably throughout the work. We both sympathize with the characters and condemn them for their inaction.

In the play The Cherry Orchard, the main conflict, reflecting the deep social contradictions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, lies in Ranevskaya's desire to retain the cherry orchard and Lopakhin's desire to turn the cherry orchard into a capitalist enterprise. The essence of the conflict of the play is not in the loss of the cherry orchard, not in the ruin of the owners noble estate(Otherwise, the play would probably have had a different name, for example, "The Sale of the Estate"). The reason for the discord, the source of the conflict, is not in the struggle for the cherry orchard, but in the general dissatisfaction with life, according to A.P. Skaftymova: “Life goes on and in vain quarrels with everyone for a long time, day after day. The bitterness of the life of these people, their drama, therefore, does not consist in a special sad event, but precisely in this long, ordinary, gray, one-color, everyday everyday state.

    The play "The Cherry Orchard", written by Chekhov in 1904, can rightly be considered the creative testament of the writer. In it, the author raises a number of problems characteristic of Russian literature: the problem of the figure, fathers and children, love, suffering, and others. All these...

    “Cute white-handed women” and “faded orchids” are, of course, the owner of the garden, the ruined landowner Ranevskaya and her equally frivolous brother Gaev, who ate his fortune, in a figurative Chekhovian expression, on candy. They are really helpless...

  1. New!

    Ranevskaya's daughter, Anya, and Petya Trofimov, a former tutor of her late younger brother, are not the main characters of The Cherry Orchard - after all, the play is focused on the story of the sale of an estate with a cherry orchard. With this central episode, much more...

  2. The successful businessman Lopakhin is opposed in the play by the student Petya Trofimov. This opposition in itself speaks of the significance of the image of Trofimov in the ideological concept of the play. Petya Trofimov is a poor raznochinets student, honestly working through...

    The play "The Cherry Orchard" begins with the question of time. Lopakhin's second remark is the question "What time is it?" There are also references to time in remarks. The writer doesn't do it by accident. From the first lines of the work, he makes it clear that the theme of time in the play is important....

  3. New!

    “The connection of times has broken up,” Hamlet understands with horror, when in the Kingdom of Denmark, having barely buried the sovereign, they play the wedding of the dowager queen and the brother of the deceased, when magnificent palaces of the “new life” are erected on a freshly filled grave. The most difficult...

The author's play "The Cherry Orchard" by the famous writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was written in a mixture of two styles. Anton Pavlovich wrote the play, more inclined towards the comedy genre, trying to reveal the theme of family estates, resorting to such a valuable concept as "estate", to develop an idea about the future of the population of his country. However, literary critics note that this work belongs to tragedy and drama. Thanks to such discrepancies in genre, every reader can watch the drama flow into a tragicomedy.

The plot of The Cherry Orchard contains various stories of people who at that time fell into a crisis of their own finances, lost their own family estates.

The central image of the play is actually the cherry orchard. The owner of such a property is Lyubov Ranevskaya, who is persuaded by one of the heroes to sell the family estate. The cherry orchard itself is the leitmotif of all scenes, combining various time plans. For Ranevskaya, the garden is something so reverent from a bright childhood that gives warm memories, this is a place where the soul feeds on positive energy. The plot of the play is built around the fate of the family estate. In the first act, a plan is built to save the mortgaged estate from auctions, in the third, the estate is sold, and the fourth act reveals to the reader the lyrical note of parting with the past.

A characteristic feature of this work is that Chekhov does not divide the heroes into good or bad and main and secondary. He divides them into three groups, highlighting them by time frame. The first group includes representatives of the past generation - this is Lyubov Ranevskaya herself, Gaev, lackey Firs. People of the present time fall into the second group; in the plot of the play, this is the only hero in the person of the enterprising merchant Lopakhin. And, finally, the third group brings together the progressive youth of that time, Peter Trofimov and Anya.

In the center of the plot lies the fate of the cherry orchard, the sale of the family estate, in which the confrontation between the new and the old era unfolds. The culmination of the storyline lurks in the third act of the play, where the family estate is sold and the final denouement is revealed in the final fourth scene. The old habitual nobility of Russia is being replaced by young people and budding entrepreneurs. The main reason for the emergence of conflict is not social confrontation, but the struggle of the characters themselves with the conditions surrounding them. Such a conflict in time is revealed only through the knowledge of future changes in the life of the people.

Chekhov in The Cherry Orchard wanted to encourage his reader to think philosophically about the upcoming future, about new era, which is reborn around, resorting to introspection.

Option 2

The work is a lyrical comedy, the key theme of which is the author's reflections on the future of the country and its population. The play is based on the story of the forced auction sale of a family estate by an impoverished noble family.

The peculiarity of the work is its genre presentation, which from the point of view of the writer is a comedy, and from the point of view of the literary society and theatergoers, it demonstrates dramatic elements. Thus, alternating dramatic and comic scenes, the writer achieves the artistic reality of the play.

A distinctive feature of the work is the author's innovation, expressed in the absence of a division of the heroes of the play as either negative or positive characters, dividing them into only three categories, the first of which represents people of the past generation in the person of noble aristocrats Ranevskaya, Gaev and lackey Firs, to the second the group includes people of the present time in the vivid presentation of the enterprising merchant Lopakhin, and the third category includes the people of the future in the person of the progressive youth of that period, Pyotr Trofimov and Anya.

The structural composition of the play consists of four acts that are not divided into independent scenes, while the time span of the work is about six months, starting in spring and ending in mid-autumn. In the first act, the mise-en-scene of the plot line is presented, which increases with tension in the second act, the third act is characterized by the climax of the plot in the form of the sale of the family name, and the fourth comes the final denouement. The artistic content of the play develops the emotional and psychological background, which consists in describing the inner experiences of the characters.

The work is also distinguished by the complete absence of pronounced external conflicts, as well as dynamism and unpredictable plot twists, which are emphasized by the author's remarks, monologues, pauses, creating the impression of special understatement and giving the work a unique exquisite lyricism.

Analysis 3

The famous writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov managed to compose not only stories, but also original plays. His play known today is The Cherry Orchard, which was written from 1903 to 1904. Zealous over his creation, Chekhov clearly showed the change in social structures.

Getting acquainted with the work, it becomes clear that the Cherry Orchard itself is in the center of the play. Its owner is Lyubov Ranevskaya, whom Lopakhin persuades to sell the beautiful beauty in order to rent it out and receive a decent amount of income. But what is the problem? The bad luck lies in the fact that for Ranevskaya the garden is, first of all, childhood, these are bright memories that are fanned at the mere idea of ​​the wonderful expanses of their native place. This is joy, this is happiness, this is her soul mate. She can't imagine her own life without him! For the heroine, as well as for her brother, the Cherry Orchard is neither real estate nor a means of subsistence, as Lopakhin thinks. No, it's not. A garden is a house where their heart is, a house where you feel at ease, a house where you are free, the soul receives aesthetic pleasure!

Anton Pavlovich not only analyzed the state Russian society, his behavior, but also reflected in his characters an analysis of Russia's past, reflections on its future. Any of Chekhov's characters is associated with the theme of the past, either the theme of the present or the future.

The old owners who manage the garden are responsible for the personification of the past of our country. This is Lyubov Ranevskaya and, accordingly, her brother Leonid Gaev. The main thing that gives them away is their inability to work.

It should be understood that the fate of the characters depends on the fate of the Cherry Orchard. But Ranevskaya's decision leaves much to be desired, because she is selling the garden, which was a spiritual asset, the best medicine from adversity. Together with him, the millennial culture of the nobility is leaving. Those who own the Cherry Orchard are indecisive, weak-willed in difficult situations. And because of their cowardice, these people fail, because their time has passed ... It turns out that the place of the heroine Ranevskaya is taken by Lopakhin, this is a new generation, greedy, looking for benefits for themselves in everything. And this is tragic, since the replenishment of the world with such behavioral people negatively affects the lives of others.

While reading Chekhov's book, loneliness is felt, the end blows, a cliff into darkness, from where there is no way out. This shows that the decision that Ranevskaya makes about the garden is erroneous, because along with the Cherry Orchard her childhood, her soul are being sold ...

Therefore, the work of Anton Pavlovich is so striking in its content and unusual. The play posed many problems that Chekhov saw in his time, he took every detail seriously. Thus, he depicted what disturbed and worried him: submission, cowardice of a person before a serious decision. You should never give away what belongs to you, what brings happiness and incredible joy. Don't let this go easy! It is important to stand up for yourself to the end! You need to be strong and courageous, have a strong character, strong willpower, so as not to break down under another problem. This is why Chekhov is amazing: he writes so penetratingly that thoughts after reading his stories do not leave him alone! That's how it should be!

Cherry Orchard - analysis for grade 10

The plot of the play by A.P. Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" is based on numerous stories related to the sale of family estates by nobles. At that time, many of them lost their property, suffered serious financial difficulties, and, among other things, were often forced to auction their family nests. It is interesting that a similar situation happened with the author himself, when his father had to sell the shop and the house due to debts. All this greatly influenced Chekhov's life and his future writing activity. In the play "The Cherry Orchard" Chekhov considers a similar problem, analyzes psychological condition people who were destined to lose their own homes.

The classical approach to the analysis of Chekhov's play is as follows. The heroes of the work are divided into three groups according to the time criterion. The first of them includes the aristocrats Gaev, Ranevskaya and the lackey Firs - representatives of the old era. The second category of present time is represented by a single character - the merchant Lopakhin. The third group is the people of the future, which include Petya Trofimov and Anya. At the same time, the play lacks the division of heroes into “good” and “bad”, main and secondary. Such a presentation of the plot became a characteristic feature of Chekhov's authorial style, which was later traced in his future plays.

In the center of the plot is the story of the sale of a family estate with a cherry orchard, while there is no open conflict in the play. If there is any opposition here, then it is expressed in a certain contradiction of the two different eras- new and old. Ruined nobles categorically do not want to part with their property, while they are also not ready to lease a piece of land and receive commercial profit for it. For them, this is too new and incomprehensible. The temporal conflict in the play is revealed through the realization of future changes in the life of society, so clearly felt by the author himself. With his work, Chekhov wanted to show this situation from the outside in order to make the reader think about his place and role in this life.

The author's position here is ambiguous. Despite the tragedy of what is happening, the heroes of the play do not cause pity or sympathy. Chekhov portrayed them as narrow-minded people, incapable of introspection and deep feelings. The work is rather a philosophical discussion of the author about the future, about that new era, which Russian society will soon enter.

Some interesting essays

  • The main idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe story Shot of Pushkin essay

    One of the most remarkable stories of A.S. Pushkin is "Shot". The writer and poet mainly described the feelings and life of people of that time in his works.

  • Why did Tolstoy call Leskov the writer of the future? (6th grade essay)

    Tolstoy appreciated the works of Leskov and spoke positively about him. However, Nikolai Semenovich owes such assessments not to the fact that he became an imitator of the style of the author of War and Peace.

  • The image and characteristics of Prince Igor. A word about Igor's regiment composition

    The main character of the Lay about Igor's Campaign is Prince Igor. The ancient Russian prince ruled the big city of Novgorod and was a worthy son of Svyatoslav Olegovich

  • The image and characteristics of the Foolovites in the History of one city Saltykov-Shchedrin essay

    The intelligentsia, including writers, is that part of every nation that comprehends the experience of all other people, is able to consider this experience from the side

  • Analysis of the story Sign of trouble Bykov

    In the center of events, we see an elderly couple who live near the village, where the German invaders come and occupy their house. At first, Petrok obeys them and does whatever they order.

RESPONSE PLAN

1. Origins of the play.

2. Genre features plays.

4. Comedy conflict and its features.

5. The main images of comedy.

6. The main idea of ​​the play.

7. The symbolic sound of the play's title.

1. A.P. Chekhov finished his play The Cherry Orchard in 1903, when the new century was knocking at the door. There was a reassessment of centuries of established values. The nobility was ruined and stratified. It was a class doomed to perish. It was replaced by a mighty force - the bourgeoisie. The dying of the nobility as a class and the arrival of the capitalists - this is the basis of the play. Chekhov understands that the new masters of life will not last long as a class, as another, young force is growing up that will build a new life in Russia.

2. The play "The Cherry Orchard" is imbued with a bright, lyrical mood. The author himself emphasized that "The Cherry Orchard" is a comedy, as he managed to combine a dramatic, sometimes tragic beginning with a comic one.

3. The main event of the play is the purchase of a cherry orchard. All the problems, experiences of the characters are built around this. All thoughts, memories are connected with him. It is the cherry orchard that is the central image of the play.

4. Truly depicting life, the writer tells about the fate of three generations, three social strata of society: the nobility, the bourgeoisie and the progressive intelligentsia. A distinctive feature of the plot is the absence of a pronounced conflict. All events take place in the same estate with permanent characters. The external conflict in the play is replaced by the drama of the characters' experiences.

5. The old world of serf Russia is personified by the images of Gaev and Ranevskaya, Vari and Firs. The world of today, the world of the business bourgeoisie, is represented by Lopakhin, the world of the undecided tendencies of the future is represented by Anya and Petya Trofimov.

6. The expectation of change is the main leitmotif of the play. All the heroes of The Cherry Orchard are oppressed by the temporality of everything that exists, the frailty of being. In their life, as in the life of contemporary Russia, “the thread connecting the days has broken”, the old has been destroyed, but the new has not yet been built, and it is not known what this new will be like. All of them unconsciously cling to the past, not realizing that it no longer exists.

Hence the feeling of loneliness in this world, the awkwardness of being. Lonely and unhappy in this life are not only Ranevskaya, Gaev, Lopakhin, but also Charlotte, Epikhodov. All the heroes of the play are closed in themselves, they are so absorbed in their problems that they do not hear, do not notice others. Uncertainty and anxiety about the future still gives rise to hope for something better in their hearts. But what is the best future? Chekhov leaves this question open... Petya Trofimov looks at life exclusively from a social point of view. There is a lot of justice in his speeches, but they do not have a concrete idea of ​​resolving eternal issues. He understands little real life. Therefore, Chekhov gives us this image in contradiction: on the one hand, he is an accuser, and on the other, he is a “stupid”, “eternal student”, “shabby gentleman”. Anya is full of hope, vitality, but she still has so much inexperience and childhood.

7. The author does not yet see a hero in Russian life who could become the real owner of the "cherry orchard", the keeper of its beauty and wealth. The title of the play carries deep ideological content. The garden is a symbol of the outgoing life. The end of the garden is the end of the outgoing generation - the nobles. But in the play the image of a new garden grows, "more luxurious than this." "The whole of Russia is our garden." And this new blooming garden, with its fragrance, its beauty, is to be cultivated by the younger generation.

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS

1. What is the trouble and what is the fault of the former owners of the cherry orchard?

2. Why does Chekhov end the play with the clatter of an ax?

47. Past, present, future in a play A.P. Chekhov "The Cherry Orchard". (Ticket 24)

Option 1

The cardinal conflict in Chekhov's play "The Cherry Orchard" is expressed by the complex opposition of three times - past, present and future.
The past is connected with the images of Ranevskaya and Chekhov.
The Cherry Orchard shows the historical change of social structures: the period of cherry orchards ends with the elegiac beauty of the outgoing manor life, with the poetry of memories of the past life. The owners of the cherry orchard are indecisive, not adapted to life, impractical and passive, they have paralysis of the will. These features are filled with historical meaning: these people are failing because their time has passed. People obey the dictates of history more than personal feelings.
Ranevskaya is replaced by Lopakhin, but she does not blame him for anything, he also feels sincere and cordial affection for her. “My father was a serf of your grandfather and father, but you, in fact, you once did so much for me that I forgot everything and love you like my own ... more than my own,” he says.
Petya Trofimov, announcing the onset of a new life, uttering passionate tirades against the old injustice, also dearly loves Ranevskaya and on the night of her arrival greets her with touching and timid delicacy: "I will only bow to you and leave immediately."
But even this atmosphere of universal disposition cannot change anything. Leaving their estate forever, Ranevskaya and Gaev accidentally remain alone for a minute. “They were definitely waiting for this, throwing themselves on each other’s necks and sobbing in a restrained low voice, afraid that they would not be heard.” Here, as if before the eyes of the audience, history is being made, its inexorable course is felt.
In Chekhov's play, "the age follows its iron path." The period of Lopakhin is coming, the cherry orchard is cracking under his ax, although as a person Lopakhin is subtler and more humane than the role imposed on him by history. He cannot but rejoice at the fact that he became the owner of the estate, where his father was a serf, and his joy is natural and understandable. And at the same time, Lopakhin understands that his triumph will not bring decisive changes, that the general color of life will remain the same, and he himself dreams of the end of that “awkward, unhappy life” in which he and others like him will be the main force.
They will be replaced by new people, and this will be the next step in history, which Trofimov happily talks about. He himself does not embody the future, but feels its approach. No matter how "shabby gentleman" and klutz Trofimov may seem, he is a man of a difficult fate: according to Chekhov, he "is in exile every now and then." Trofimov's soul is "full of inexplicable premonitions", he exclaims: "All Russia is our garden."
Joyful words and exclamations of Trofimov and Anya give the tone to the whole play. It is still far from complete happiness, we still have to go through the Lopakhin era, they are cutting down a beautiful garden, Firs has been forgotten in a boarded-up house. Life's tragedies are far from over.
Russia at the turn of the two centuries had not yet worked out in itself a real ideal of man. Premonitions of the coming coup are ripening in it, but people are not ready for it. There are rays of truth, humanity and beauty in each of the heroes. At the end, there is a feeling that life ends for everyone. People have not risen to the heights that the upcoming trials require of them.

The problem of the theme of the play "The Cherry Orchard"

In the last play by A.P. Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, the topic was the usual situation at the turn of the century - the sale of the estate and the once luxurious cherry orchard to ruined nobles. However, the sale of the garden is something that lies on the very surface, but in fact the theme and idea of ​​the play "The Cherry Orchard" is much deeper.

The decline of the nobility as an estate and the loss of their family nests, the destruction of the way of life that has been formed over the centuries, the emergence of a new class of entrepreneurs who are replacing the nobility, revolutionary ideas about changing life, which the author doubts - all this served as the idea of ​​the play. However, Chekhov's skill was so great that his final play turned out to be so multilayered that its meaning turned out to be much deeper than the original idea. Except for herself visible theme there are a number of other equally significant ones. This is the conflict of generations, and misunderstanding of each other, the internal discord of the characters, concluded in the inability to love and hear others, the conscious destruction of their roots, forgetting the memory of their ancestors. But the most relevant and today the theme of the work "The Cherry Orchard" is the destruction of beauty. human life and the disappearance of links between generations. And the garden itself in this context becomes a symbol of the destruction of an entire culture. And it is not by chance that in the second act Charlotte Ivanovna has a gun, because, according to Chekhov himself, the gun must fire. But in this play the shot did not sound, and meanwhile the garden, which personifies beauty, is being killed.

The main theme of the play

So what topic can be singled out as the main one? The theme of the play "The Cherry Orchard" was not chosen by chance, Chekhov was very interested in this problem, since his family once lost their house, sold for debts. And all the time he tried to understand the feelings of people who are losing their native nest, forced to break away from their roots.

While working on the production of the play, A.P. Chekhov was in close correspondence with the actors involved in it. It was extremely important to him that the characters were presented to the public exactly as he intended. Why was this of such great importance to the playwright? Anton Pavlovich became the first writer who did not divide heroes into positive or negative. Each image created by him is so close to real people that it is easy to find some features of themselves and their acquaintances in them. His expression: “The whole meaning and drama of a person is inside, and not in external manifestations: People dine, and only dine, and at this time their destinies are formed and their lives are broken” prove that for Chekhov, in the first place was an interest in human characters. After all, as in life there are no people representing absolute evil or good, so on stage. And it is no coincidence that Chekhov was called a realist.

It can be concluded that the main theme of Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" is life, shown through the created images. A life in which very often what is desired is at odds with reality. After all, history is made by people, but there are no ideal people, which Anton Pavlovich showed very clearly.

The system of images as a means of revealing the theme of the work

The system of images in the play is divided according to the belonging of the characters to a certain time. It is past, present and future. What's left in the past? Ease, beauty, a centuries-old way of life, understandable to everyone. After all, there were only “muzhiks” and “gentlemen”. The gentlemen lived for their pleasure, and the common people worked. Both of them went with the flow, and there was no need to make firm decisions about their lives, because everything was so well-established. But the old regime was replaced by the abolition of serfdom. And everything got mixed up. It turned out that smart, sensitive, sympathetic and generous aristocrats cannot fit into the new era. They still know how to see and feel the beauty around them, but they are unable to save. They are opposed to the present. The present is harsh and cynical. Lopakhin is the real thing. He knows how to see and appreciate beauty, but the ability to make a profit is firmly in his mind. It is bitter for him to realize that he is destroying the past, but he cannot do otherwise.

And finally, the future. It is so vague and gloomy that it is impossible to say what it will be: joyful or bitter. However, it is clear that the future in the present is breaking with the past. Family ties, attachment to one's home lose their meaning, and another theme of the work becomes noticeable: loneliness.

Chekhov was ahead of the development of the theater for many years. His works are so subtle in their content that it is very difficult to single out any one main theme of the plays. After all, analyzing them, it becomes clear that he sought to show the whole depth of life, thereby becoming an unsurpassed master in depicting "undercurrents".

Artwork test