Skip to main content

What are the tragic elements of The Cherry Orchard, by Anton Chekov? I need to debate the proposition that The Cherry Orchard is a satire, but...

Arguably the most tragic element of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard is the auctioning off of the titular cherry orchard which belongs to Lyubov Andreyevna Ranevskaya and her brother, Leonid Andreieveitch Gayev. The orchard must be sold off in August to the highest bidder in order to pay off the debts of the family; the only alternative option—the destruction of the orchard to make room for summer cottages—does not appeal to this sentimental family.


Other tragic elements within the play include:


- The death by drowning of Ravenskaya's son, Grisha, a tragedy which prompted her to run off to France for five years and leave the ancestral estate unattended, and which is brought back to the surface by the arrival of Peter Trofimov, Grisha's former tutor.


- Ravenskaya's subsequent suicide attempt, which prompted her daughter, Anya, to bring her back from France.


- The heartbreak of Dunyasha, whose feeling are selfishly toyed with by a fellow servant, Yasha. 


- The strange passivity between Varya, the adopted daughter of Ravenskaya, and Lopakhin—a relationship which is doomed by inaction.


- The purchase of the orchard by Lopakhin, who decides to tear down the orchard with an axe—the ultimate betrayal of the family. This comes to fruition as the last thing that the audience hears: the sound of axes tearing into the orchard.


- The death of Firs, the elderly manservant, who is accidentally left behind in the abandoned house and boarded up with no way out.


Those who view the play as satire are considering the critique of the extravagance of Russian aristocrats; that said, these characters—no matter how rich—really do experience tragic events and circumstances. Their wealth does not erase the very real impact of things like death, heartbreak, and loss.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more