Essay on the topic “The theme of the future in the comedy “The Cherry Orchard.” Chekhov. The Cherry Orchard - past, present and future The problem of the future in the play The Cherry Orchard
The play “The Cherry Orchard” was published at the very beginning of the 20th century and is a kind of final work by A.P. Chekhov. In this work, he most clearly expressed his thoughts about the past, present and future of Russia. He was able to masterfully show the real situation in society on the eve of the first revolution and the changes that took place in the country. As one famous critic said, the main character of the play, in fact, is time. Almost everything depends on him. Throughout the entire work, the author focuses on the transience and mercilessness of time.
The action of the play “The Cherry Orchard” develops on the family estate of former nobles Ranevskaya and Gaev. The plot of the comedy is related to the sale of this estate for the debts of the owners. And along with it, a wonderful blooming garden, which is the personification of beauty and the desire for a better life, will go under the hammer. The play intertwines the lives of the past and present generations. The main characters, the owners of the estate, belong to the old days. They were never able to get used to the new life after the abolition of serfdom. Ranevskaya and Gaev live one day at a time. For them, time has stopped. They don't understand that if they don't act, they will lose everything.
Ranevskaya also loves to waste money on everything, despite the fact that she has almost no money left. And to the merchant Lopakhin’s proposal to turn the garden into summer cottages and make money on it so as not to lose the estate, both Ranevska and Gaev respond negatively. As a result, they lose both their garden and their estate. In this act one can see carelessness, lack of practicality and unwillingness of the owners to make any efforts. However, another driving force was their heightened sense of beauty. They simply could not cut down the garden, in which every leaf was a reminder of a happy childhood.
New times are represented by young characters. First of all, this is the businesslike merchant Lopakhin, who himself grew up under the tutelage of Ranevskaya. His ancestors wore “muzhiks” for the owners of the estate. And now he has become rich and bought the estate himself. In the person of Ermolai Lopakhin, the author depicted the emerging bourgeoisie, which replaced the nobility. With his hard work, practicality, ingenuity and enterprise, he managed to firmly establish himself in modern society.
In addition to Lopakhin, the new generation is represented by Petya Trofimov and Anya - people who want to work for the good of society in order to atone for the sins of inactive ancestors. Petya Trofimov is twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, and he is still studying. He was nicknamed "the eternal student." This character demonstrates a keen sense of justice, philosophizes a lot about how things should be, but acts little. He scolds the nobility for idleness and sees the future behind the bourgeoisie. Petya encourages Anya to follow him, as he is confident in a happy future. Although he calls for work, he himself is not capable of creation.
The future of Russia remains uncertain in Chekhov's play. He does not give a specific answer to who the future belongs to and what will happen next. It is only clear that the writer sincerely hoped that the coming century would be fruitful, and that people would finally appear capable of growing a new cherry orchard, as a symbol of the eternal renewal of life.
The entire comedy by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov “The Cherry Orchard” tells us about the invisible future that awaits Russia in one of the most difficult, transitional eras. At this time, the nobility lost its privileged positions, there were more and more wealthy peasants, and even a separate class of entrepreneurs emerged, for whom the desire for profit became the main thing.
One of the central characters of this work are the once wealthy noblemen Gaev and his sister Ranevskaya. They are on the verge of poverty, but are not ready to give up their former luxurious habits and simply waste their last money on their whims and pleasures. Yes, their past, that is, childhood, was very happy and prosperous. They have a lot to do with the cherry orchard, with the place where they were absolutely happy when they were children. The real A.P. Chekhov portrays him as sad and almost hopeless. There are huge debts and the only way to pay them off is to sell your once rich estate under the hammer so that it has new owners who would do with it whatever their heart desires. It is also worth noting that the play does not indicate how the fate of Gaev and Ranevskaya developed further. All we know is that Ranevskaya was going to leave for Paris again. But did she succeed? How did she continue to live without the cherry orchard? About this A.P. Chekhov is silent. In my opinion, for good reason. Perhaps this is how he wanted to emphasize that people of the “old school”, the nobles, have no future. They must be replaced by new generations who would have different values and a different attitude to life.
The nobility is being replaced by a new generation, a new type of people, with new values and ways of thinking - these are people like Lopakhin. He is an entrepreneur with all his soul, the main thing for him is money and the more of it, the better. And it seems that Lopakhin should be immensely happy, because he is clearly moving towards his intended goal. However, his soul is not at peace, and he does not feel happiness and peace. All his inner experiences are contained in one phrase: “Oh, if only all this would pass, if only our awkward, unhappy life would somehow change.” That is, in the new conditions he is also unhappy and is waiting for certain changes so that his life will also change. In my opinion, in the pursuit of profit and money, Lopakhin lost the most important thing, namely spirituality. Gaev and Ranevskaya had it. This can be seen in the warm and tender memories they have of the cherry orchard and their childhood. Lopakhin has no such memories; for him, a garden is just wood and land that can be sold and also make a profit.
The most positive future emerges for Petya Trofimov and Anya. The two of them understand that inevitable changes are coming throughout Russia. And that something urgently needs to be changed, it is no longer possible to live like this. We need changes that would affect all layers of society and change all the foundations that have already become obsolete. In my opinion, all of Trofimov’s calls are very similar to revolutionary ones. However, he is not ready to go further than his statements. Petya is also a very indecisive person. But he and Anya at least have faith in a bright future, in the fact that they can “plant an even more luxurious and beautiful garden.” And under A.P.’s garden Chekhov meant all of Russia in general.
Therefore, their faith in a bright future is remarkable in itself. But besides this, great efforts must be made to make sure that something changes for the better. But by the end of the play it becomes clear that Anya and Petya are not yet ready for a serious transformation. Perhaps the next generation will be much more decisive.
The play “The Cherry Orchard,” written by Chekhov in 1904, can rightfully be considered the writer’s creative testament. 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 problems are united in the theme of the past, present and future of Russia.
In Chekhov's last play there is one central image that determines the entire life of the characters. This is a cherry orchard. Ranevskaya has memories of her entire life associated with him: both bright and tragic. For her and her brother Gaev, this is a family nest. It would be more accurate to say that she is not the owner of the garden, but he is her owner. “After all, I was born here,” she says, “my father and mother, my grandfather lived here, I love this house, I don’t understand my life without the cherry orchard, and if you really need to sell, then sell me along with the orchard... “But for Ranevskaya and Gaev, the cherry orchard is a symbol of the past.
Another hero, Ermolai Lopakhin, looks at the garden from the point of view of the “circulation of business.” He busily suggests that Ranevskaya and Gaev divide the estate into summer cottages and cut down the garden. We can say that Ranevskaya is a garden in the past, Lopakhin is a garden in the present.
The garden in the future personifies the younger generation of the play: Petya Trofimov and Anya, Ranevskaya’s daughter. Petya Trofimov is the son of a pharmacist. Now he is a commoner student, making his way in life through honest work. Life is hard for him. He himself says that if it is winter, then he is hungry, anxious, poor. Varya calls Trofimov an eternal student who has already been fired from the university twice. Like many progressive people in Russia, Petya is smart, proud, and honest. He knows in what difficult situation the people live. Trofimov thinks that this situation can only be corrected through continuous work. He lives with faith in the bright future of his homeland. With delight, Trofimov exclaims: “Forward! We are moving uncontrollably towards the bright star that burns there in the distance! Forward! Don’t lag behind, friends!” His speech is oratorical, especially where he talks about the bright future of Russia. "All of Russia is our garden!" - he exclaims.
Anya is a seventeen-year-old girl, the daughter of Ranevskaya. Anya received an ordinary noble upbringing. Trofimov had a great influence on the formation of Anya’s worldview. Anya’s spiritual appearance is characterized by spontaneity, sincerity and beauty of feelings and moods. There is a lot of half-childish spontaneity in Anya’s character, she reports with childish joy: “And I flew in a hot air balloon in Paris!” Trofimov awakens in Anya’s soul a beautiful dream of a new wonderful life. The girl breaks ties with the past.
The girl breaks ties with the past. Anya decides to take her high school exams and start living in a new way. Anya’s speech is tender, sincere, filled with faith in the future.
The images of Anya and Trofimov evoke my sympathies. I really like spontaneity, sincerity, the beauty of feelings and moods, faith in the bright future of my Motherland.
It is with their lives that Chekhov connects the future of Russia; it is in their mouths that he puts words of hope, his own thoughts. Therefore, these heroes can also be perceived as reasoners - exponents of the ideas and thoughts of the author himself.
So, Anya says goodbye to the garden, that is, to her past life, easily and joyfully. She is confident that, despite the sound of an ax being heard, that the estate will be sold for dachas, despite this, new people will come and plant new gardens that will be more beautiful than the previous ones. Chekhov himself believes in this along with her.
Chekhov A.P.
An essay based on a work on the topic: The future in A. P. Chekhov’s play “The Cherry Orchard.”
The play "The Cherry Orchard" was written by Chekhov in 1904 - in the last year of the writer's life. It was perceived by the reader as the creative testament of a talented satirist and
Damaturg. One of the main themes of this play is the theme of the future of Russia, connected in
with the images of Petya Trofimov and Anya, Ranevskaya’s daughter. Covering this topic, Chekhov
At the same time, the play raises a number of other problems characteristic of the entire Russian
literature in general. These are the problems of fathers and children, the human doer, love and suffering.
All these problems are intertwined in the content of “The Cherry Orchard,” which lies in the new, young Russia’s farewell to its past, in its aspiration for tomorrow’s Self, a bright day. The image of Russia is embodied in the very title of the play, “The Cherry Orchard.” “All of Russia is our garden,” says Chekhov through the lips of his hero. And, indeed, the cherry orchard for Ranevskaya and her brother Gaev is a family nest, a symbol of youth, prosperity and a former graceful life. The owners of the garden love it, although they do not know how to preserve or save it. Ranevskaya speaks with tears and tenderness about her estate: “I love this house, without
I don’t understand my life from the cherry orchard, and if you really need to sell it, then sell me along with the orchard.” But for Ranevskaya and Gaev, the cherry orchard is a symbol of the past.
Such ardent movements of the soul and noble impulses bring these two images closer together. They symbolize hope and a better future. It is with their lives that Chekhov connects the future of Russia; it is in their mouths that he puts his own thoughts. Despite the fact that the estate has been sold, and axes are already knocking in the garden, the author believes “that new people will come and plant new gardens, “more beautiful than which there is nothing in the world.”
"The Cherry Orchard" is the great creation of Chekhov, who put comedy on a par with drama and
tragedy that raised her to unattainable heights.
“The Cherry Orchard” (1904), Chekhov’s dying work of genius, is a bold combination of comedy with tender and subtle lyricism. Laughter, free and cheerful, permeates the entire play. But the lyrical beginning is no less significant in it. Chekhov is the creator of the most original, innovative genre of lyrical comedy. Laughing, humanity says goodbye to its past, to obsolete forms of existence.
The 19th century is a thing of the past. Farewell to the new, young, tomorrow’s Russia with the past, obsolete, “doomed to an early end”, aspiration
For tomorrow's Motherland Day - this is the content of The Cherry Orchard. The end of the old life is so ripe that it already seems absurd, “ghostly,” unreal. This is the mood of the play.
The outdated types of this passing life are ghostly and obsolete. These are the main characters - Ranevskaya and her brother Gaev, the owners of the estate, “more beautiful than which there is nothing in the world.” With their frivolity, the owners brought the estate to a pitiful state. The estate is bought at auction by a family friend, a rich peasant son, merchant Lopakhin. When the disaster is over, it turns out that no special drama is happening for Ranevskaya and Gaev. Ranevskaya returns to Paris, to her old “love, to which she would have returned anyway; Gaev also comes to terms with what happened. “A terrible drama” does not turn out to be a drama for the simple reason that these people are not very capable of serious, deep feelings - this is one of the comedic motives of the play.
The image of the cherry orchard plays a large, multifaceted role. First of all, it symbolizes the old life. And the rightful heir, young Anya, Ranevskaya’s daughter, cheerfully and loudly says goodbye to all this outdated, dead beauty that has lost its living content. Student Petya Trofimov helps her in her spiritual development, in determining her attitude towards the past, present and future of her homeland.
“Think, Anya,” he says to the girl who is eagerly listening to him, “your grandfather, great-grandfather and all your ancestors were serf owners who owned living souls, and are human beings really not looking at you from every cherry in the garden, from every leaf, from every trunk?” , don’t you really hear voices... Owning living souls - after all, this has reborn all of you, who lived before and are now living, so that your mother, you, uncle no longer notice that you live in debt, at someone else’s expense, at the expense of those people, whom you do not allow further than the front hall... After all, it is so clear that in order to begin to live in the present, we must first atone for our past, put an end to it..."
End of the past! This is the pathos of the play. Trofimov calls Anya to the beauty of the future.
“I have a presentiment of happiness, Anya, I already see it... Here it is, happiness, here it comes, coming closer and closer, I can already hear its steps. And if we don’t see him, don’t recognize him, then what’s the harm? Others will see him!”
This is Chekhov's motif of the proximity of happiness. But is businessman Lopakhin really carrying it with him? What kind of beauty can be associated with Lopakhin? So he will cut down the wonderful garden and let in the summer residents. The vulgar prose of life will burst in here with him, prose that destroys beauty, cutting it down at the root. Lopakhin is “a predatory beast that eats everything that gets in its way.” This is how he “eats” the beauty of the cherry orchard. Lopakhin is needed for “metabolism,” as Petya Trofimov says, to fulfill the role of helping to destroy, “devour” what has already become obsolete. No, the future is not with Lopakhin!
“The Cherry Orchard” is a play about the past, present and future of the homeland. The future appears before us in the form of an unprecedentedly beautiful garden. People will come who will be worthy of all the beauty of their native land. They will cleanse, redeem her entire past and turn her entire homeland into a magical garden, and Anya will be with these people.
