Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard is not a tragedy but a comedy.
Chekhov depicts the conflict between necessity for change and nostalgia for the past in the play, which suffered with an over-powering sense of inevitability.The setting of the play is the social transformation of Russia in the early twentieth century.Chekhov wants to show that the society is in a constant state of change.The play shows the rise of middle class society.
Landlady Renevskaya came back to her home country from Paris with her daughter and footman.The cherry orchard is going to be sold because she is in debt.She is spendthrift and doesn't seem to be practical.She gives gold coins to each waiter in the restaurant at the railway station.She gives money to beggars even if her servants are not getting paid.She lost her cherry orchard because of her refusal to change.She takes it as a duty of upper-class people.She is trying to live on the upper class ethos.She doesn't feel like she needs to change even though she has to pay off a larger amount of loan.She doesn't forget her romantic past.She acts as if she has enough money.She faces her ruin due to her impracticality.She doesn't have to change immediately to save herself from ruin.The ideal sitting and impractical life of the Russian aristocracy is represented here by her.
The middle class people, who were once serf, are more practical and enthusiastic than the so called ethos of Ranevskaya.He works to improve his social economic status.His upward mobility is a result of practicality.He suggests that the cherry orchard should be given to the foreigners so that she can be saved from the ruin.She refuses to think about a foreigner living in her childhood home because she can't accept the new way.The loss of the cherry orchard was caused by her refusal to change.She stopped her brother Gayev from going to the job of bank that was offered him.The estate is purchased when it is auctioned.After being freed from slavery, he becomes a successful merchant who can afford to purchase the state.There is a comic element in the play.The selling of cherry orchard shows that the old order has to give way to the new.Trofimov supports the slave.In the utopian world, Trofimov symbolizes the past and present.
There are many comical and farcical elements in the play that can be traced back to the manner and disposition of the characters.Gayev's ridiculousness results in the dominant comic element.He eats a lot of candis.The symbol of his childishness is his candy eating.The old butler makes him feel like a child when he brings him his coat in the cold.There is a brand of comic elements.The man has never matured.When her husband died and her son drowned, she left Russia with her lover, leaving her two daughters behind and spending all her money.She returns to him at the end of the play.Gayev and Lyubov's childishness and ridiculous mentality are exposed in their passive stand on the most admirable suggestion given by Lopakhin in an attempt to save the cherry orchard.
There are a lot of comic qualities in Varya.She can't be happy because of her indecision.She imposes a severe discipline in her management of the household.The lady has to wait for the gentleman to propose to her, but she is incapable of ignoring the convention.She is a comic character because of her lack of purpose, her inability to show affection to the man she loves, and her frequent weeping.
Major characters reveal comic themes and comic traits because they are all different from the norm.Some of the minor characters have comic qualities.Charlotte forgets how old she is.She gains for herself a group of admirers by conjuring.
The family left for Paris at the end of the play.A man is sitting on a sofa.The death of the aristocracy is symbolized by him motionless.There is no one on the stage.The sound of a door being unlocked is heard.The sound of cutting trees is heard.The crying of snap strings is sad.The sad notes are symbolic of the phasing out of aristocracy.The play is a great example of tragicomedy.