Do not despair, my dear, there is a way out!
Dedicated to two geniuses of the Russian theater.
memory Anatoly Efros,
who staged The Cherry Orchard at Taganka in 1975.
memory Vladimir Vysotsky, who played Lopakhin.
FIRS. The method was then known.
RANEVSKAYA. Where is this method now?
FIRS. Forgot. Nobody remembers.
Characters
Ranevskaya Lyubov Andreevna, landowner.
Anya, her daughter, 17 years old.
Varya, her adopted daughter, 24 years old.
Gaev Leonid Andreevich, brother of Ranevskaya.
Lopakhin Ermolai Alekseevich, merchant.
Trofimov Petr Sergeevich, student.
Simeonov-Pishchik, landowner.
Charlotte Ivanovna, governess.
Epikhodov Semyon, clerk.
Dunyasha, maid.
Firs, footman, old man 87 years old.
Yasha, a young footman.
THE SIZE HAS THE MEANING
“The Cherry Orchard” is an old play, it is 102 years old. What she is about, no one knows.
Some remember that the estate of the noblewoman Ranevskaya is being sold for debts, and the merchant Lopakhin teaches how to get out - it is necessary to cut the land into plots and rent it out for summer cottages.
How big is the estate? I ask my friends, I ask the actors who play The Cherry Orchard, and the directors who staged the play. The only answer is “I don't know”.
- It is clear that you do not know. But you guess.
The questioner groans, mumbles, then uncertainly:
- Two hectares, perhaps?
- Not. The estate of Ranevskaya is more than a thousand and a hundred hectares.
- Can not be! Where did you get it from?
- It's in the play.
LOPAKHIN. If the cherry orchard and the land along the river are divided into summer cottages and leased out for summer cottages, then you will have at least 25 thousand a year income. You will charge the summer residents at least 25 rubles a year for a tithe. I vouch for anything - you will not have a single free shred left until the fall, everything will be sorted out.
It means a thousand acres. A tithe is 1.1 hectares.
In addition to the garden and “land along the river,” they also have hundreds of acres of forest.
It would seem, what a trouble if the directors are mistaken a thousand times. But it's not just arithmetic. There is a transition from quantity to quality.
It's so wide that you can't see the edge. More precisely: everything that you see around you is yours. Everything is on the horizon.
If you have a thousand hectares, you see Russia. If you have several acres, you see a fence.
The poor man sees a fence ten meters from his house. The rich man is a hundred meters from his mansion. From the second floor of his mansion, he sees many fences.
Director R., who not only staged The Cherry Orchard, but also wrote a book about this play, said: "Two hectares." Director P. (wonderful, subtle) said: "One and a half."
A thousand hectares is a different feeling of life. This is your boundless expanse, boundless expanse. With what to compare? The poor man has a shower, the rich man has a jacuzzi. And there is - the open sea, the ocean. Does it matter how many square kilometers there are? It is important that the coast is not visible.
... Why don't Ranevskaya and her brother act according to such a simple, such a profitable plan of Lopakhin? Why don't they agree? Who plays - that they are out of laziness, who - out of stupidity, because of their inability (they say, the nobles are a dying class) to live in the real world, and not in their fantasies.
But for them, the vast expanse is a reality, and fences are a disgusting fantasy.
If the director does not see a huge estate, then the actors will not play, and the audience will not understand. Our familiar landscape - the walls of houses, fences, billboards.
After all, no one thought what would happen next. If you hand over a thousand plots, a thousand dachas will appear. Summer residents are family people. Four or five thousand people will settle next to you. Families of friends will come to them overnight from Saturday to Sunday. In total, it means that under your nose there will be ten or twelve thousand people - songs, drunken cries, the crying of children, the squeal of bathing girls - hell.
CHEKHOV TO NEMIROVICH-DANCHENKO
August 22, 1903. Yalta
No special decorations are required. Only in the second act will you give me a real green field and a road and an extraordinary distance for the stage.
You go - fields, meadows, copses - endless expanses! The soul is filled with high feelings. Who walked, who traveled around Russia - knows this delight. But this is if the view opens for kilometers.
If you walk between high fences (barbed wire on top), then the feelings are low: annoyance, anger. Fences are higher, feelings are lower.
LOPAKHIN. Lord, you gave us vast forests, vast fields, the deepest horizons, and living here, we ourselves should really be giants ...
It didn't come true.
CHEKHOV TO Suvorin
August 28, 1891. Bogimovo
I looked at several estates. There are small ones, but there are no large ones that would be suitable for you. There are small ones - one and a half, three and five thousand. For one and a half thousand - 40 acres, a huge pond and a house with a park.
We have 15 acres is considered a large area. For Chekhov, 44 hectares is small. Pay attention to the prices: 4400 acres, a pond, a house, a park - for one and a half thousand rubles.
... Under us is still Central Russian elevation. But what a wretch she has become. 
LOPAKHIN. Until now, there were only gentlemen and peasants in the village, and now there are more gardeners. All towns, even the smallest ones, are now surrounded by dachas. And we can say that in twenty years the summer resident will multiply to extraordinary.
It came true.
The wall is tall, and behind it is a patch of 6-12 acres, a crow's settlement, tightness. Previously, there was a wooden house on such a piece of land and there was relatively much room for radishes. And now on such a patch stands a concrete three-story freak. Instead of loophole windows; you can only walk sideways between the house and the fence.
Landscapes destroyed. Yesterday you go - on both sides of the highway there are endless fields, forests, meadows, hills. Today - five-meter fences have risen on both sides. It's like going through a tunnel.
Five meters is the same as hundred meters: the earth disappears. All you have left is the sky above the barbed wire.
Someone grabbed the land, and our homeland was gone. Gone is the species that forms the personality more than the banner and the anthem.
theatrical liberties
Except for the vast space that no one noticed, There are two secrets in The Cherry Orchard. They have not yet been unraveled.
...For those who have forgotten the plot. First year of the twentieth century. The noblewoman Ranevskaya returns from Paris to her estate. Here live her brother and her two daughters - Anya and Varya (adopted). The entire estate is being auctioned for debts. A family friend, the merchant Lopakhin, seemed to be trying to teach the owners how to get out of debt, but they did not listen to him. Then Lopakhin, unexpectedly for everyone, bought it himself. And Petya Trofimov is a 30-year-old eternal student, a beggar, a homeless man, Anya's boyfriend. Petya considers it his duty to cut the truth in the eyes of everyone. He asserts himself so much... The Cherry Orchard is sold, everyone is leaving in all directions; Finally, the aged Firs is slaughtered. Not baseball bats, of course, but nails; board up doors, shutters; downtrodden in an empty house, he will simply die of hunger.
What are the mysteries in the old play? For 100 years, thousands of theaters have staged it; everything has long been dismantled to the bone.
And yet there are secrets! - Do not hesitate, reader, evidence will be presented.
Secrets!.. And what are real secrets? For example, was Ranevskaya Lopakhin's mistress? Or how old is she?
Such life truth(which gossips discuss on the benches) is entirely in the hands of the director and actors. Scientifically called interpretation. But most often it is rudeness, smuttyness, vulgarity, antics, or that simplicity that is worse than theft.
Here the landowner Ranevskaya was left alone with the eternal student.
RANEVSKAYA. I can shout now ... I can do stupid things. Save me, Petya.
She prays for spiritual sympathy, for consolation. But without changing a word - only facial expressions, intonation, body movements - it is easy to show that she asks to satisfy her lust. It is enough for the actress to lift up her skirt or simply pull Petya towards her.
The theater is a rough, old, square art, in Russian - a shame.
The adventures of the body are much more spectacular than the work of the soul, and they are a million times easier to play.
* * *
How old is the heroine? The play does not say, but usually Ranevskaya is played “from 50”. It happens that the role is played by a famous actress over 70 (she saw Stanislavsky as a child!). The great old woman is led out onto the stage by the arms. The audience greets the living (half-living) legend with applause.
The famous Lithuanian director Nyakroshyus gave this role to Maksakova. Her Ranevskaya is under 60 (in the West, women over 80 look like this). But Nyakroshyus came up with not only age for Ranevskaya, but also a diagnosis.
She barely walks, barely speaks, and most importantly, she doesn’t remember anything. And the viewer immediately understands: aha! the Russian mistress Ranevskaya in Paris had a stroke (in our opinion - a stroke). An ingenious find brilliantly justifies many of the lines of the first act.
LOPAKHIN. Lyubov Andreevna lived abroad for five years. Will she recognize me?
Weird. Has Lopakhin changed so much in 5 years? Why does he doubt whether he will “know”? But if Ranevskaya has a stroke, then it's understandable.
Justified and the first words of Anya and Ranevskaya.
ANYA. Do you remember what room this is?
RANEVSKAYA (joyfully, through tears). Children's!
The question is stupid. Ranevskaya was born and lived all her life in this house, grew up in this nursery, then her daughter Anya grew up here, then her son Grisha, who drowned at the age of 7.
But if Ranevskaya is insane, then the daughter’s question is justified, and with difficulty, with tears, the answer found, and the patient’s joy that she could remember.
If the play ended here - bravo, Nyakroshus! But after 10 minutes, Gaev will talk about his sister with indecent frankness.
GAEV. She is vicious. It is felt in her slightest movement.
Sorry, in all the movements of Ranevskaya-Maksakova we see paralysis, not depravity.
Yes, of course, the director has the right to any interpretation. But you can't turn too hard. The play, having lost its logic, collapses like a train derailed.
And it becomes boring to watch. Nonsense is boring.
Features of the interpretation can be associated with age, and with gender, and with the orientation of the director, and even with nationality.
The world-famous German, director Peter Stein, staged "Three Sisters", was a resounding success. Muscovites watched with curiosity as Ferapont, the watchman of the zemstvo council, brought papers to the master's house (office) to be signed. Winter, so the old man comes in with earflaps, in a sheepskin coat, in felt boots. Snow on the cap and on the shoulders. Foreign tourists are delighted - Russia! And that the watchman cannot enter the master in a hat and sheepskin coat, that the old man would have been stripped and taken off at the distant approaches (in the hallway, in the people's room) - this the German does not know. He does not know that a Russian, Orthodox, automatically takes off his hat when entering the rooms, even if not to the master, but to the hut. But Stein wanted to show icy Russia (Europe's eternal nightmare). If “Three Sisters” had been staged in a German circus, the snow-covered Ferapont would have entered the master’s office on a bear. In a rich circus - on a polar bear.
Chekhov is not a symbolist, not a decadent. It has subtext, but no substitutions.
When Varya says to Trofimov: “Petya, here they are, your galoshes. (With tears.) And how dirty and old you have, ”- the subtext, of course, is: “How tired you are of me! How unhappy I am!” But the substitutions are kind of flirtatious: “You can take your galoshes, and if you want, you can take me too”- this is not. And it can't be. And if they play like that (which is not excluded), then the image of Varya will be destroyed. And for what? - for a few teenagers to chuckle in the last row?
Interpretations have a limit. You can't argue against direct meanings, direct indications of the text. Here in "Three Sisters" Andrey's wife worries:
NATASHA. I think Bobik is unwell. Bobik has a cold nose.
You can, of course, give her a lap dog named Bobik. But if the play clearly states that Bobik is the child of Andrei and Natasha, then:
a) Bobik is not a dog;
b) Natasha is not a disguised man; not a transvestite.
... So how old is Ranevskaya? The play doesn't say, but the answer is simple. Chekhov wrote the role for Olga Knipper, his wife, adjusted it to her data and talent. He knew all her habits, knew her as a woman and as an actress, sewed exactly to measure, so that she would sit “in a slip”. The play was completed in the autumn of 1903. Olga Knipper was 35 years old. So, Ranevskaya is the same; she got married early (at 18 she already gave birth to Anya, her daughter's age is indicated - 17). She is, as her brother says, vicious. Lopakhin, waiting, is worried like a man.
Chekhov really wanted both the play and his wife to be a success. Adult children age their parents. The younger Anya looks, the better for Olga Knipper. The playwright struggled to assign roles by mail.
CHEKHOV TO NEMIROVICH-DANCHENKO
September 2, 1903. Yalta
I'll call the play a comedy. The role of the mother will be taken by Olga, and who will play the daughter of 17 years old, a girl, young and thin, I do not presume to decide.
CHEKHOV - OLGA KNIPPER
October 14, 1903. Yalta
You will play Lyubov Andreevna. Anna must play certainly
young actress.
CHEKHOV TO NEMIROVICH-DANCHENKO
Why would I talk about dachas? Well, first of all, summer and hot. Secondly, I came across a nice "dacha" exhibition in Melikhovo.
Lopakhin. Your estate is only twenty versts from the city, there is a railway nearby, and if the cherry orchard and the land along the river are divided into summer cottages and then leased out for summer cottages, then you will have at least twenty-five thousand a year income.
Gaev. Sorry, what nonsense! (…)
Lyubov Andreevna. Dachas and summer residents - it's so vulgar, sorry.
Melikhovo is a museum-estate of Chekhov. So you involuntarily recall the "Cherry Orchard". The play was written in 1903, by which time the “dacha” culture had already expanded.
And where did it start? The word itself is etymologically clear - it comes from the verb "give". And at first it was simply about land or forest plots granted by a prince or tsar (there was a lot of land in Rus', little money in the treasury - this is the way to reward worthy close associates).
The concept of a suburban - or rather, even a suburban - small estate appeared in the Petrine era. The tsar began to distribute the lands under the newly built St. Petersburg to high officials - as it was alleged, so that they would not go to distant estates for the summer, but would remain at the monarch’s hand just in case.
However, the meaning of the term continued to be modified - and already in the 1820s we see "Her Imperial Majesty's own dacha Alexandria." And here, of course, we mean simply a suburban ensemble, something like a European villa.
But those dachas that Chekhov's character spoke about were still far away. The changes brought with them two things: the peasant reform of Alexander II (which, having launched many economic transformations, at the same time destroyed the very principle of the noble estate as a large complex, primarily agricultural land) and the railway.
The last one is important. After all, wealthy townspeople existed before - and some even acquired or built small estates for summer holidays (Chekhov's Melikhovo itself, after all, is one of those). But before the advent of railroad communication, leaving for your summer residence meant equipping a large - and slowly creeping - wagon train and already setting off, so for several months at once.
The dacha of the second half of the 19th century is, in a certain sense, a reproduction of a manor, an estate, but in miniature. Not just landless and not related to agriculture, but also not requiring a large number of servants. And also not too far from the city - unlike the owners of traditional estates, who only twice a year made an arbitrarily long journey from the village to the city and back, the "summer residents" were tied to the city by service or professional activity. For such people, the slowly creeping estate convoy was not suitable. And the townspeople, as a rule, no longer kept their own horses. And with the advent of the train, the issue was resolved.
Of course, some dachas were built "for themselves" - as a rule, according to an individual project and often even with the involvement of serious architects. But more often, entire summer cottages were lined up for rent. And so they begin to appear precisely around the railway stations - so that the father of the family (whose vacation was, as a rule, the shortest summer period) could go to the city in the morning to work, and return in the evening.
Judging by the ads of that time, it was still not about 30 square meters prescribed as a limit on the area of \u200b\u200bthe house for the Soviet owner of six acres, but about more impressive buildings, designed for both the largest family and servants.
In general, let's quote Chekhov's play once again:
Lopakhin. Until now, there were only gentlemen and peasants in the village, but now there are more summer residents.
And with summer residents, a special country style appeared. These were, indeed, no longer those "gentlemen" who spent considerable time looking after agricultural work. The summer resident was resting - adults from the affairs of the service or from urban secular life, children from gymnasium science. And they all drank tea together on the veranda (and also brewed jam at the peak of the season, and cooking jam under the trees in a copper basin is generally a separate, namely country ritual).
Along with traditional (including for urban leisure) board games, sports games also appeared. Among which, the now forgotten (and in some places with difficulty, but stubbornly revived) croquet stood out.
Other types of suburban leisure, one must think, are familiar to everyone - walks, picnics, mushrooms, fishing, swimming, boats ... Why summer cottages quickly acquired a kind of leisure infrastructure.
And summer theaters sprang up everywhere. Somewhere completely capitally built, suitable for inviting professional singers and actors. Somewhere adapted from a barn or a barn - for amateur performances.
How important the dacha theme became at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries is evidenced by numerous printed publications devoted only to it. With advice like "when to go to the country" and "how rational baths should be arranged." And also with numerous cartoons and humorous stories (and to be honest, not only Teffi or Averchenko, but Anton Pavlovich himself managed to pay tribute to the dacha theme in this context).
Well, as you know, there have always been problems with country roads - and this is also an age-old Russian story.
Well, it's funny that in Chekhov's play one can also subtract something like a prediction - only it concerns the "dachas" of the second half of the 20th century.
Lopakhin. All towns, even the smallest ones, are now surrounded by dachas. And we can say that in twenty years the summer resident will multiply to extraordinary. Now he only drinks tea on the balcony, but it may happen that on his one tithe he will take care of the household.
Well, this time I ended up in the Chekhov estate itself on the occasion of another theatrical premiere at the Melikhovsky Theater. What those interested can read about.
Dear Mr. Lopakhin!
In the eyes of my contemporary, you are the present that you brought with you in the era of the last century. We represent today's present. It is possible to compare the present of the “age of the past” and the “age of the present”. Moreover, Ermolai Alekseevich, you and I have a common point of contact - the cherry orchard. It is a kind of moral criterion for us. In relation to it, your creator, A.P. Chekhov, determines not only you, but also tests us.
By the way, cherry trees are visible just through my open window. We have four of them. And outside the window - spring May. Cherries are all in bloom. Every morning I admire this lovely creation of nature. Who once saw a blooming cherry orchard, he will forever keep this miracle of nature in his memory. Remember how sublimely beautiful, but poetically, love Andreevna spoke about him: “O my garden! After a dark rainy autumn and a cold winter, you are young again, full of happiness, the angels of heaven have not abandoned you ... What an amazing garden! White masses of flowers, blue sky ... "
But remember, even you, Mr. Lopakhin, once admitted that sometimes, when you can't sleep, you think you are thanking the Lord for having given "enormous forests, vast fields, the deepest horizons." After all, they sometimes thought. After all, for some reason the Lord gave all this to man.
“The only remarkable thing about this garden is that it is big,” you say, Mr. Lopakhin. It turns out that it is also wonderful for you, but only as a good location, a large space. For you, it is not even cherry, but cherry. But since now the berry does not provide income, you are this piece of nature - in one fell swoop, under the ax.
I fully agree with you, Mr. Lopakhin, when you reproach the former owners of the cherry orchard, accusing them of frivolity and irresponsibility. It is not enough to be disinterested, kind, it is not enough to have honest thoughts, good intentions. You have to feel responsible for every action you take. The former owners are not capable of this.
And now, against the backdrop of this fading landowner's life, you appear, Mr. Lopakhin, carrying with you the present.
But what are your plans? Energetic, tenacious, purposeful, hardworking, you propose a plan from the point of view of practical benefits: “cut down a garden, break it up, into summer cottages and then rent it out for summer cottages ...”
Your present is in the country life. “Until now, there were only gentlemen and peasants in the village, but now there are also summer residents. All towns, even the smallest ones, are now surrounded by dachas. And it can be said that in twenty years the summer resident will multiply to extraordinary extent ... and it may happen that on his one tithe he will take care of the household, and then ... ". And further (I quote you verbatim, Mr. Lopakhin): “We will set up dachas and our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will see a new life here.”
Take a peek into our present. Your vision is in our present. Dacha settlements multiplied in your opinion - beyond recognition. Holiday villages - they are everywhere and everywhere. But our suburban dachas are not plots of land leased out, this is not the exploitation of land for the purpose of generating income. According to the laws of beauty, they are built with us. Work, rest, beauty - everything is combined in our dacha.
And how do you compensate, Mr. Lopakhin, the death of humanity and beauty? What new life will your summer cottages bring? My contemporary will argue with you, Ermolai Alekseevich, because he does not see the breadth of thinking in your perspective.
You think that the present that you are carrying will end the era of "awkward, unhappy" life. And you are already celebrating. You, Mr. Lopakhin, like to "wave your arms" in celebration of your victory. But how! At least twenty-five thousand a year income. “A new landowner is coming, the owner of a cherry orchard!” He walks, accidentally pushes the table, almost knocks over the candelabra. Now he can pay for everything. This is your portrait, dear Ermolai Alekseevich. Portrait of a new owner, carrying the present with him.
And what about your confession: "You just have to start doing something to understand how few honest, decent people are." Are you sure that by engaging in entrepreneurial activity, you will maintain honesty and decency in yourself? With your merchant's acumen, I doubt it.
However, I am more condescending to you, Ermolai Alekseevich, I will say more, I like you, with your appearance, courtesy, for going to the theater; your yellow boots are much better than merchant's boots. Petya Trofimov compared you to a "predatory beast". No, you are capable of sympathy, empathy. You, Mr. Lopakhin, are fulfilling your role in the "circulation of life."
And yet, one Trofimov’s advice will not hurt you: “do not wave your arms!” Break the habit of waving. And that's the same... To build dachas, to expect that individual owners will emerge from the dacha owners over time, to count in this way - this also means waving. Summer resident, that lodger; his soul as a business executive is silent. He is rather an exploiter of the land than a master.
“A distant sound is heard, as if from the sky, the sound of a broken string, fading, sad. There is silence, and only one can hear how far in the garden they knock on wood with an ax.
With this remark, your creator, Mr. Lopakhin, informs us that your present is already “knocking”. And I think about you: without beauty, he will manage, without money - no.
And I feel exactly like a sad day in late autumn. And I think about your present, Mr. Lopakhin. What about respect for the past? But what about the cherry orchard - this is a wonderful creation, this symbol of estate life, a symbol of Russia? But what about the strength of traditions, the legacy of fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers with their culture, with their deeds, with their moral virtues and shortcomings? But what about the enduring aesthetic values that unite the spiritual life of people? After all, their loss can fall upon “grandchildren and great-grandchildren” with destructive force. My contemporary addresses these questions to you, Mr. Lopakhin.
And I say goodbye to you. But I will always remember you. Still, you have a “thin tender soul”, and your fingers are like those of an artist.
You were a man of a new formation of a new time. And everything that is new is wrong. Maybe you yourself would like other, new relationships between people.
In our present you remain the hero of classical literature, the hero of Chekhov's works.
Men's games
Lopakhin and Gaev compete with each other for status. And since the Parisian beauty Ranevskaya is in the center of everyone's attention, here “status in general” is status in the eyes of Ranevskaya.
The first meeting of Lopakhin and Gaev in the text of the play - Lopakhin tries to enter into the conversation between Ranevskaya and Gaev as an equal - Gaev blocks this opportunity for him.
Lyubov Andreevna . Like this? Let me remember... Yellow in the corner! Doublet in the middle!
Gaev . I cut into the corner! Once upon a time, you and I, sister, slept in this very room, and now I am already fifty-one years old, oddly enough ...
Lopakhin . Yes, time is ticking.
Gaev . Whom?
Lopakhin . Time, I say, is running out.
Gaev . And it smells like patchouli in here.
Gaev is afraid to directly attack Lopakhin, he does it behind his back - but in the eyes of his sister.
Lopakhin . I'm leaving, I'm leaving... (Leaves).
Gaev . Ham. However, sorry ... Varya is marrying him, this is Varya's fiance.
Varya . Don't talk too much, uncle.
The second direct skirmish ends not in favor of Gaev
Lyubov Andreevna . Dachas and summer residents - it's so vulgar, sorry.
Gaev . Completely agree with you.
Lopakhin . I will either sob, or scream, or faint. I can not! You tortured me! (to Gaev.) Baba you!
Gaev . Whom?
Lopakhin . Woman! (Wants to leave.)
Lyubov Andreevna (scared). No, don't go, stay, my dear. I ask you to. Maybe we can think of something!
Finally, having bought a garden, Lopakhin finally destroys Gaev - but this is a Pyrrhic victory. Ranevskaya leaves.
Gaev (does not answer her, only waves his hand; to Firs, crying). Here, take it... There are anchovies, Kerch herring... I haven't eaten anything today... I've suffered so much! ...
Pishchik . What's up for auction? Tell me!
Lyubov Andreevna . Sold cherry orchard?
Lopakhin . Sold.
Lyubov Andreevna . Who bought?
Lopakhin . I bought.
The conflict of two strong men for one beautiful woman is painfully superimposed here on the conflict of the old nobility and the young bourgeoisie.
It is interesting that Gaev is in conflict with Yasha in the same way.
Gaev (waves his hand). I'm incorrigible, that's obvious... (Irritably, to Yasha.) What's wrong, you're constantly spinning before your eyes...
Yasha (laughs). I couldn't hear your voice without laughing.
Gaev (sister). Either me or he...
Lyubov Andreevna . Go away, Yasha, go...
Yasha (gives Lyubov Andreevna a purse). I'll leave now. (He can barely keep from laughing.) Right now... (He leaves).
End of the world
Absolutely responsible Firs and Varya personify the solid positive foundation of the old society - Russian society before the abolition of serfdom.
Firs . Before the misfortune, it was also: the owl screamed, and the samovar buzzed endlessly.
Gaev . Before what misfortune?
Firs . Before will.
Firs was deeply convinced that the old society carried positive values - and with the abolition of serfdom, these values began to disintegrate and disappear from life.
Firs . In the old days, forty or fifty years ago, cherries were dried, soaked, pickled, jam was cooked, and it happened ...
Gaev . Shut up, Firs.
Firs . And, it used to be, dried cherries were sent by carts to Moscow and Kharkov. There was money! And then dried cherries were soft, juicy, sweet, fragrant... Then they knew the way...
Lyubov Andreevna . Where is this method now?
Firs . Forgot. Nobody remembers.
Just forty years ago, serfdom was abolished. Young people began to leave for the city. There was no one to transfer old technologies to. They have been forgotten. But it was these forty years that gave the young people the opportunity to learn, to get used to the city. So summer residents appeared - coming from the city to the village.
Lopakhin . Until now, there were only gentlemen and peasants in the village, but now there are more summer residents. All towns, even the smallest ones, are now surrounded by dachas. And we can say that in twenty years the summer resident will multiply to extraordinary. Now he only drinks tea on the balcony, but it may happen that on his one tithe he will take care of the household, and then your cherry orchard will become happy, rich, luxurious ...
Gaev (outraged). What nonsense!
For Gaev, Ranevskaya, Firs, Vari, time has stopped. Selling a garden for them is the end of the world, but for Firs it is physical death in general.
Lyubov Andreevna . Sold cherry orchard?
Lopakhin . Sold.
Lyubov Andreevna a. Who bought?
Lopakhin . I bought. Pause.
Lyubov Andreevna is oppressed; she would have fallen if she had not been standing near the chair and table. Varya takes the keys from her belt, throws them on the floor, in the middle of the living room, and leaves.
High society as a standard
Yasha, Dunyasha, Epikhodov - three variants of one model of thinking-behavior. The meaning of this model is to, without sufficient grounds, to enter the upper world by copying the external signs of behavior.
Epikhodov . I am a developed person, I read various wonderful books, but I just can’t understand the direction of what I actually want, to live or to shoot myself, in fact, but nevertheless I always carry a revolver with me. Here he is... (Shows a revolver)... (Leaves)
Dunyasha . God forbid, shoot yourself. (Pause.. I became anxious, I'm all worried. I was taken to the masters as a girl, now I have lost the habit of a simple life, and now my hands are white-white, like a young lady's. I have become tender, so delicate, noble, I'm afraid of everything ... Terrible And if you, Yasha, deceive me, then I don't know what will happen to my nerves.
Yasha (kisses her). Cucumber! Of course, every girl should remember herself, and I don’t like it more than anything if a girl has bad behavior.
Dunyasha . I passionately fell in love with you, you are educated, you can talk about everything. (Pause).
Yasha (yawns). Yes, sir ... In my opinion, this is how: if a girl loves someone, then she, therefore, is immoral. (Pause). It's nice to smoke a cigarette in the fresh air... (Listens). They're coming... These are the gentlemen...
However, people "more developed mentally and spiritually" instantly distinguish this "fake upper light" from the real "higher light".
Lyubov Andreevna . Who's smoking disgusting cigars here...
Epikhodov (plays guitar and sings). “What do I care about the noisy light, what are my friends and enemies ...” How pleasant it is to play the mandolin!
Dunyasha . It's a guitar, not a mandolin. (Looks in the mirror and powders).
Epohodov . For a madman who is in love, this is a mandolin ... (Sings.) “It would be warmed by the heat of mutual love ...” (Yasha sings along).
Charlotte . These people sing terribly... fuy! Like jackals.
Pishchik and Dasha
Pishchik doesn't read books himself, but his daughter Dasha does. (This is the second - and last - reading character in the play - after Lopakhin). Pishchik is good already because he supports his daughter, creates conditions for her cultural growth. Pishchik is not a hero (like Lopakhin), he is more primitive, more assertive, more successful than Gaev - his estate is not being sold yet. If he had been smarter, he would have joined the British, he would have become a capitalist - but that would have been a completely different story.
What did Chekhov miss?
The play lacks direct answers to two important questions - and we ourselves will have to answer them.
Question one. Why was Ranevskaya brought from Paris?
Question two. Where does the rumor about the imminent wedding of Lopakhin and Varya come from?
Let's start with the second question - the answer to it will help us deal with the first question.
The wedding of Lopakhin and Vari
The relationship between Lopakhin and Varya, as we see them in the course of the play, does not give us the slightest reason to assume an imminent wedding. Obviously this is a rumor started by a man watching the case from afar. Neither Varya nor Lopakhin would spread such a rumor or pass it on. Anya, Gaev, servants - would begin to transfer - but not invent. A semi-outsider and semi-intelligent, “creative” person, for example, Pishchik, could start a rumor. “Truly, I tell you…” But what was the basis of the rumors?
A necessary and sufficient condition for rumors is the fact of Lopakhin's frequent, causeless visits to the estate. This fact can be considered proven. Lopakhin's affairs are far away, in Kharkov. Why does he come here? He's 35, it's time to get married. There is only one person equal to him here - Varya. It's time for Varya to get married too. This is what an outside observer says. But Lopakhin is not here for this. What for?
We see only one explanation. Lopakhin is in love with Ranevskaya - from that very first meeting, twenty years ago .. He was here later, and saw her briefly. He saw her here before leaving. After leaving, he came here to remember Ranevskaya, to talk about her.
Lopakhin ... I love you like my own... more than my own.
Such Lopakhin after Ranevskaya cannot even look at other women. He is preparing for her arrival, "preparing a business plan" for the return of the estate. But he is silent about this until the arrival of Ranevskaya. Neither Gaev nor Varya know anything about this to me. This is his surprise - Ranevskaya's "arrival gift".
Why did they bring Ranevskaya?
Obviously, the "expedition for Ranevskaya" was organized by Gaev - he is generally the main and only organizer in the family. What for?
Gaev... (to Anya.) Your mother will talk to Lopakhin; Of course he won't refuse her...
Actually for this. But now, after Lopakhin's speech about summer residents, Gaev is no longer so sure that he will not refuse. This is now said rather out of inertia.
If Lopakhin had revealed himself earlier, Gaev would not have organized the expedition.
But even Lopakhin does not understand Gaev by the beginning of the play. He is sure that Gaev will be delighted with his plan, he will become a manager or, at worst, hire him, Lopakhin, as a manager. And only in the course of the play, the parties (Lopakhin and Gaev) gradually realize that their previous ideas about each other are false, that they will not be able to agree.
Ranevskaya, however, does not understand this even at the end of the play, until the last minute she tries to command Lopakhin, to marry him to Varya. He doesn't mind, but he doesn't comply either.
From the point of view of TUAI
(Theories of levels of abstract intelligence)
A complete analysis of a dramatic text, as we understand it, should include a TOAI profile of each character with a rationale taken from the text, plus an analysis of conflicts as an TOAI maneuver.
character profile
Ranevskaya 1-5-4
Lopakhin 5-6-3
Trofimov 1-4-5
Dunyasha 3-2-1
Pishchik 4-3-1
Epikhodov 4-1-2
Charlotte 5-4-6
Harmonious people have levels continuously.
These are Firs (4-3-2) and Varya (4-3-2). Their highest level is role-playing behavior (4), the lowest is the cyclical nature of life (2).
Such is Charlotte Ivanovna (5-4-6), but she has her own inner world (6), although in the first place - the determination of the act, improvisation (5), in the second - the artistic ability to perform (4).
Harmonious - in its primitivism - Dunyasha (3-2-1).
Lopakhin models someone else's consciousness as homogeneous to his own (6) (this is partly why he is always deceived in people, believing that they think the same way as he does, and then he is disappointed. And why did he hire Epikhodov!)
Gaev knows how, but uses it as a means (in third place).
Anya knows how - she foresees that Ranevskaya will be hurt to see Petya, but here she is mistaken, equating Ranevskaya to herself).
Rivalry, purposefulness (3) is in Gaev and Lopakhin, purposefulness (3) is in Pishchik, Yasha, Dunyasha, but not in Anya, Ranevskaya, Epikhodov, Trofimov.
Ranevskaya, Trofimov, Yasha, Lopakhin are easy to change places (5).
To stories, speeches, propaganda (4) inclined, Gaev, Anya, Dunyasha, Trofimov
Level 1 - the ability to get carried away by an instantaneous circumstance.
This passion gives instant speech (1-4) for Trofimov and Anya (Ani still has role obligations stronger than passion, 4-1), an instant act (and speech) for Ranevskaya (1-4, 1-5) an instant act for Yashi (1-5).
Ranevskaya still has the remnants of role-playing behavior (4) - that's why she is trying to marry Varya, to take Firs to the hospital.
But the lack of purposefulness (3) does not allow her to achieve her stated goals, although in the case of Firs this is not at all difficult.
Giving gold to a passerby is both an instant passion (1) and an act (5) and a role obligation - to give to the poor (4).
The hypnotic power of Ranevskaya and Trofimov is also visible in the fact that they have level 1 in the first place, and this is the level of magic, the level of shamanism.
Real art is always a riddle that the author offers the reader or viewer to solve.
If this article makes you go back to the text of the Chekhov play and re-read it - once, or twice, or ten times - our goal has been achieved.
Gaev. Sorry, what nonsense!
Lyubov Andreevna. I don't quite understand you, Yermolai Alekseich.
Lopakhin. You will charge the summer residents at least twenty-five rubles a year for a tithe, and if you declare now, then, I guarantee with anything, you will not have a single free patch left until the fall, everything will be sorted out. In a word, congratulations, you are saved. The location is wonderful, the river is deep. Only, of course, you need to clean up, clean up, for example, demolish all the old buildings, this house, which is no longer good for anything, cut down the old cherry orchard ...
Lyubov Andreevna. Cut down? My dear, I'm sorry, you do not understand anything. If there is anything interesting, even remarkable, in the whole province, it is only our cherry orchard.
Lopakhin. The only remarkable thing about this garden is that it is very large. Cherry is born every two years, and even that has nowhere to go, no one buys.
Gaev. And the Encyclopedic Dictionary mentions this garden.
LOPAKHIN (looking at his watch). If we don’t think of anything and come to nothing, then on the twenty-second of August both the cherry orchard and the whole estate will be auctioned off. Make up your mind! There is no other way, I swear to you. No and no.
Firs. In the old days, forty or fifty years ago, cherries were dried, soaked, pickled, jam was cooked, and it happened ...
Gaev. Shut up, Firs.
Firs. And it used to be that dried cherries were sent in carts to Moscow and Kharkov. There was money! And dried cherries were then soft, juicy, sweet, fragrant… The method was then known…
Lyubov Andreevna. Where is this method now?
Firs. Forgot. Nobody remembers
Pishchik (Lyubov Andreevna). What's in Paris? How? Did you eat frogs?
Lyubov Andreevna. Ate crocodiles.
Pishchik. You think...
Lopakhin. Until now, there were only gentlemen and peasants in the village, but now there are more summer residents. All towns, even the smallest ones, are now surrounded by dachas. And we can say that in twenty years the summer resident will multiply to extraordinary. Now he only drinks tea on the balcony, but it may happen that on his one tithe he will take care of the household, and then your cherry orchard will become happy, rich, luxurious ...
GAYEV (indignantly). What nonsense!
Varya and Yasha enter.
Varya. Here, mommy, two telegrams for you. (He selects a key and unlocks an old cabinet with a clang.) Here they are.
Lyubov Andreevna. This is from Paris. (Tears telegrams without reading.) Paris is over...
Gaev. Do you know, Lyuba, how old is this closet? A week ago, I pulled out the bottom drawer, and I looked, and the numbers were burned there. The wardrobe was made exactly one hundred years ago. What is it? AND? We could celebrate an anniversary. An inanimate object, but still, after all, a bookcase.
Pishchik (surprised). One hundred years ... Just think! ..
Gaev. Yes... It's a thing... (Feeling the closet.) Dear, respected closet! I salute your existence, which for more than a hundred years has been directed towards the bright ideals of goodness and justice; your silent call to fruitful work has not weakened for a hundred years, maintaining (through tears) in the generations of our kind cheerfulness, faith in a better future and educating in us the ideals of goodness and social self-consciousness.
Pause.
Lopakhin. Yes…
Lyubov Andreevna. You're still the same, Lenya.
GAYEV (a little embarrassed). From the ball to the right into the corner! I cut in the middle!
LOPAKHIN (looking at his watch). Well, I have to go.
YASHA (gives Lyubov Andreevna medicine). Maybe take some pills now...
Pishchik. There is no need to take medicines, my dear ... they do no harm or good ... Give it here ... dear. (Takes pills, pours them into his palm, blows on them,
