The Cherry Orchard, first act, summary. A.P. Chekhov
The great Russian writer was not only a magnificent prose writer, but also an outstanding playwright. Chekhov's plays are still part of the classical repertoire of Russian and foreign drama theaters today.
One of the brightest examples of this facet of the talent of a classic of Russian literature is the play “The Cherry Orchard”, summary which can be completed in a few minutes, although on stage it runs for about three hours. “The Cherry Orchard” is quite interesting to read, but it is much more interesting to see the actors play in the theater.
The play “The Cherry Orchard” is the last.
This is interesting! Chekhov wrote “The Cherry Orchard” in 1903 in Yalta, where, suffering from tuberculosis in the last stage, he lived out his days. And “The Cherry Orchard” was staged for the first time on the stage of the Moscow Academic Art Theater (MKhAT) the following year, which was the year of Anton Pavlovich’s death.
The author himself classified the work as a comedy, although essentially there is nothing funny in it. The plot of “The Cherry Orchard” is rather dramatic. Moreover, tragic notes can be found in the content of the play, since we are talking about the ruin of an old noble family.
The time of action in the play “The Cherry Orchard” is the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, when a change in socio-economic formations took place in Russia. Feudalism, which ended with the abolition of serfdom, was replaced by the capitalist system, and during the period described, capitalism had already fully come into its own.
The rich bourgeoisie - merchants and people from the peasantry - on all fronts pressed the nobility, many of whose representatives turned out to be completely unadapted to the new conditions and did not understand the meaning and reasons for their emergence. The severity of the situation described in the play, with the ruling noble class gradually losing its economic and political influence, reached its peak in the first decade of the new century.
The characters in The Cherry Orchard are members of a noble family, once very rich, but now mired in debt and forced to sell their estate, as well as their servants. There is also a representative of the opposite side – the bourgeoisie.
Characters
The list of main characters of The Cherry Orchard includes:
- Ranevskaya Lyubov Andreevna is the owner of the estate, a widow, an impressionable, exalted lady, accustomed to the luxury of former years and not realizing the tragedy of her new situation.
- Anya is Ranevskaya’s own seventeen-year-old daughter. Despite her young age, the girl thinks much more soberly than her mother, realizing that life will never be the same.
- Varya is the adopted twenty-four-year-old daughter of Ranevskaya. She tries to support the declining economy, voluntarily performing the duties of a housekeeper.
- Gaev Leonid Andreevich is Ranevskaya’s brother, a playmaker with no specific activities, whose favorite pastime is playing billiards. Constantly inserts billiard words into his speech out of place. Prone to empty speeches and irresponsible promises. Outlooks on life are similar to those of my sister.
- Lopakhin Ermolai Alekseevich, whose father was once a serf to Ranevskaya’s parents, is a man of modern times, a merchant. Lopakhin's business acumen helped him earn a fortune. He tries to tell Ranevskaya how to save herself from ruin, offering ideas for making a profit from a collapsing estate, but does not forget about her own benefit. He is considered Varya's fiancé, but is in no hurry to propose.
- Trofimov Pyotr is an eternal student, who was once the teacher of Ranevskaya’s deceased son Grisha.
There are several minor characters; they can be presented in a brief description.
The first group consists of:
- Ranevskaya’s neighbor on the estate, Simeonov-Pishchik, who, like her, is in debt;
- clerk Epikhodov is an unlucky man nicknamed “22 misfortunes”;
- Ranevskaya's companion Charlotte Ivanovna is a former circus performer and governess, a woman “without family or tribe.”
The second consists of servants: the maid Dunyasha and two lackeys - old Firs, who still remembers serfdom, and young Yasha, who imagines himself an important person because he happened to visit abroad with Ranevskaya.
Summary
Important! Plan of the play " The Cherry Orchard"includes four actions. Its summary of actions can be read online.
Action 1
The arrival of the mistress from Paris is expected at the estate after a five-year absence. Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya left for France after her husband died from drinking, and then her little son died.
Finally everyone is home. A commotion begins: masters and servants walk through the rooms, carrying travel items. It seems to Ranevskaya that everything in her life has remained the same, but she is mistaken. The financial situation of the landowner has deteriorated greatly; there is a question of selling the family estate at auction along with the cherry orchard for debts.
Anya complains to Varya that her mother does not realize the seriousness of her financial problems, continues to spend money without thinking. For example, he agrees to lend money to Pishchik, who has nothing to pay the interest on the mortgage.
Petya Trofimov enters, this reminds Ranevskaya of deceased son. Lyubov Andreevna is crying, everyone is trying to calm her down. The landowner notices that Trofimov has changed a lot over the past 5 years - he has aged and grown ugly.
To avoid financial ruin, Lopakhin advises building dachas on the site of a huge garden around the estate and renting them out. However, such a business proposal horrifies Lyubov Andreevna. Ermolai Alekseevich leaves. Everyone, one by one, goes to their rooms to go to bed.
Act 2
Time has passed since the owner’s return, and the sale of the estate is approaching, but no decisions have been made. Charlotte, the maid and footman Yasha are sitting on the bench. Epikhodov stands playing the guitar. Charlotte talks about her lonely life, then leaves the company. Epikhodov asks Dunyasha for a private conversation. Citing the coolness, the girl sends him to the house for a cape, and she confesses her love to Yasha, who is clearly not inclined to reciprocate. Noticing that the gentlemen are coming, Dunyasha leaves.
Ranevskaya, Gaev and Lopakhin approach. Ermolai Alekseevich again talks about the cherry orchard, but Gaev pretends not to understand. Lopakhin gets angry and wants to leave, Lyubov Andreevna holds him back, talking about her unhappy love. Then she says that Lopakhin needs to get married and proposes Varya as his bride, but he gets off with general words.
Trofimov, Anya and Varya approach. Lopakhin teases Trofimov, saying that he will soon be 50, but he is still a student and goes out with young ladies. Petya is sure that people who consider themselves intelligent are actually rude, vulgar and uneducated. Lopakhin agrees: there are very few honest and decent people in Russia.
Everyone except Anya and Petya leaves. Petya says that Russia, with its serfdom, was 200 years behind other countries. Trofimov reminds Anya that not so long ago her ancestors owned living people, and this sin can only be atone for by work. At this time, Varya’s voice is heard calling Anya, who, together with Petya, goes to the river.
Act 3
On the day of the auction, when the estate was to be sold, the hostess throws a ball. Charlotte Ivanovna entertains guests with magic tricks. Pischik, who came to the estate for the ball, still talks about money. Lyubov Andreevna is waiting for her brother to return from the auction, is worried that he has been gone for a long time, and says that the ball was started at the wrong time. Aunt Countess sent 15 thousand, but it won’t be enough.
Petya says that, regardless of whether the estate is sold today or not, nothing will change - the fate of the cherry orchard is decided. The former owner understands that he is right, but does not want to agree. She received a telegram from Paris from her lover, who fell ill again and asked her to return. Ranevskaya says that she still loves him.
In response to Petya’s surprise at how she can love a man who robbed and deceived her, she gets angry and says that Petya knows nothing about love, because at his age he doesn’t even have a mistress. Offended, Petya leaves, but then returns. The mistress of the estate asks for his forgiveness and goes to dance with him.
Anya enters and says that the auction has taken place and the estate has been sold. At this time, Gaev and Lopakhin return, who reports that he bought the estate. The landowner cries, Lopakhin tries to console her, then leaves with Pishchik. Anya reassures her mother, because life does not end with the sale of the estate, there is still a lot of good things ahead.
Act 4
Having sold the estate, the former owners are relieved - the painful issue has finally been resolved. The inhabitants of the sold estate leave it. Lopakhin is going to go to Kharkov, Petya decides to return to the university and continue his studies.
He refuses the money offered by Lopakhin, since a free person should not depend on anyone. Anya is also going to finish high school, start working and live a new life.
Her mother is going to return to France to live off her aunt's money. Yasha goes with her, Dunyasha says goodbye to him with tears. Gaev still takes the job - he will be a bank employee. Pischik arrives with unexpected news: a deposit of white clay was found on his land, he is now rich and can pay off his debts.
Lopakhin promises to help Charlotte find a new place, Varya also finds a job - she gets a job as a housekeeper on a neighboring estate. Epikhodov remains a clerk for the new owner of the estate. Ranevskaya tries to arrange an explanation between Lopakhin and Varya, but he avoids the conversation.
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Let's sum it up
Everyone leaves the house and forgets about Firs. The old servant lies down on the sofa to die and hears the sound of an ax - it’s the cherry orchard being cut down. This is how the play “The Cherry Orchard,” ironically called a comedy by the author, ends sadly.
A. P. ChekhovThe Cherry Orchard (in a summary of the actions)
Act one
The estate of the landowner Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya. Spring, the cherry orchard is blooming. But this wonderful garden will soon be forced to sell for debts. Five years before the events of the play “The Cherry Orchard,” Ranevskaya and her seventeen-year-old daughter Anya were abroad. The family estate was inhabited by Leonid Andreevich Gaev, Ranevskaya’s brother, and Ranevskaya’s adopted daughter, Varya, twenty-four years old. Things were going badly for Ranevskaya, and she was running out of money. Lyubov Andreevna always lived in grand style. About 6 years ago, her husband died from heavy drinking. Ranevskaya fell in love with another man, began to live with him, but soon disaster struck - her little son Grisha drowned in the river. Lyubov Andreevna, running away from the grief that befell her, went abroad. The new lover followed her. However, he soon fell ill, and Ranevskaya had to settle him at her dacha near Menton, where she looked after him for about three years. Over time, the dacha had to be sold for debts and moved to Paris. At that moment, the lover robbed and abandoned Lyubov Andreevna.
Gaev and Varvara meet Lyubov Andreevna and Anya, who have arrived from abroad, at the station. The maid Dunyasha and an old acquaintance, the merchant Ermolai Alekseevich Lopakhin, are waiting for them at the estate. Lopakhin's father came out of serfdom (from the Ranevskys), but miraculously became rich, although he never stopped saying about himself that he was always a “man a man.” Soon after his arrival, clerk Epikhodov appears, a man whom everyone calls “thirty-three misfortunes,” because he always finds himself in different situations.
Soon guests arrive at the house in carriages. They fill the house and feel pleasant excitement. Everyone talks about their own affairs. Lyubov Andreevna walks from room to room and joyfully recalls the past. The maid Dunyasha wants to tell the lady that Epikhodov proposed his hand and heart to her. Anya recommends Varya to marry Lopakhin, and Varya cherishes the dream of giving Anya to a wealthy man. Immediately, Charlotte Ivanovna, a very strange and eccentric governess, boasts of her unique dog, and the Ranevskys’ neighbor, the landowner Simeonov-Pishik, begs for a loan of money. Only the servant Firs doesn’t seem to hear any of this and mutters something under his breath.
Lopakhin hastens to remind Ranevskaya that the estate will be sold at auction if the land is not divided into separate plots and rented out to summer residents. Ranevskaya is discouraged by this proposal: how can she destroy her beloved wonderful cherry orchard! Lopakhin wants to stay longer with Ranevskaya, whom he loves, as he claims, “more than his own,” but it’s time for him to go. Gaev makes his famous speech to the century-old and, in his words, “respected” closet, but then becomes embarrassed and again takes up his favorite billiard words.
Ranevskaya at first does not recognize Petya Trofimov: he has changed a lot, he has turned ugly, the “dear student” has turned into a pitiful “eternal student.” Lyubov Andreevna remembers the drowned son Grisha, who was once taught by this same Trofimov.
Gaev, having retired with Varya, talks about business. There is a wealthy aunt in Yaroslavl, but she does not treat them very well, because Lyubov Andreevna did not marry a nobleman, and then allowed them to behave not “very virtuously.” Gaev loves his sister, but allows himself to call her “vicious.” Anya is unhappy with this. Gaev comes up with saving projects: borrow money from Lopakhin, send Anya to her aunt Yaroslavl - the estate needs to be saved and Gaev swears that he will save it. Soon Firs finally takes Gaev to bed. Anya rejoices: her uncle will arrange everything and save the estate.
Act two
The next day, Lopakhin again persuades Ranevskaya and Gaev to do his thing. They were at breakfast in the city and on the way back they stopped at the chapel. Not long before this, Epikhodov and Dunyasha were here. Epikhodov tried to explain himself to Dunyasha, but she had already made a choice in favor of the young lackey Yasha. Ranevskaya and Gaev pretend that they do not hear Lopakhin’s words and continue to talk about something completely different. Lopakhin, amazed by their frivolity, wants to leave. However, Ranevskaya insists that he stay: it’s “still more fun.”
This is a summary of Chekhov's play "The Cherry Orchard" from the website
They are joined by Anya, Varya and the “eternal student” Trofimov. Ranevskaya begins a conversation about a “proud man.” Trofimov assures that pride is meaningless: a person needs to work, and not admire himself. Petya attacks the intelligentsia, which is not capable of work, but only philosophizes and treats men like wild animals. Lopakhin joins in: he “from morning to evening” deals with big money, but increasingly understands that there are few decent people in the world. Lopakhin is interrupted by Ranevskaya. It is clear that no one wants or knows how to hear the other. Silence reigns, and the distant sad whistle of a broken string can be heard in it.
Then everyone disperses. Anya and Trofimov are left alone and are happy to have the opportunity to talk, without Varya. Trofimov assures Anya that there must be “above love,” that freedom comes first: “all of Russia is our garden,” but in order to live in the present, it is first necessary to atone for the past through labor and suffering. After all, happiness is very close: and if not they, then others will definitely see it.
Act three
Finally August 22nd arrives, the day trading begins. It was in the evening of this day, quite inopportunely, that a ball was planned at the estate, and a Jewish orchestra was even invited. There was a time when barons and generals danced here at such balls, but now, as Firs notes, you can’t lure anyone. Charlotte Ivanovna entertains guests with her tricks. Ranevskaya awaits her brother's return with a feeling of anxiety. The Yaroslavl aunt had mercy and gave fifteen thousand, but this is not enough to buy back the estate with the cherry orchard.
Petya Trofimov “tries to calm down” Ranevskaya: the orchard cannot be saved, it is already finished, but it is necessary to face the truth, to understand... Ranevskaya asks not to judge her, to have pity: for her there is no meaning in life without the cherry orchard. Every day, Ranevskaya receives telegrams from Paris. At first she tore them right away, then immediately as soon as she read them, and now she doesn’t tear them at all. The lover who robbed her, whom she still loves, begs her to come. Trofimov condemns Ranevskaya for her stupid love for such a “petty scoundrel and nonentity.” Touched to the quick, Ranevskaya, unable to restrain herself, attacks Trofimov, calling him names in every possible way: “You have to love yourself... you have to fall in love!” Trofimov wants to leave in horror, but remains, and even dances with Ranevskaya, who asks him for forgiveness.
Finally, Lopakhin and Gaev appear, who, without really saying anything, retires to his room. The cherry orchard was sold - Lopakhin bought it. Lopakhin is happy: he managed to outbid the rich man Deriganov, assigning as much as ninety thousand on top of the debt. Lopakhin easily picks up the keys, which proud Varya throws on the floor. It’s all over, and Ermolai Lopakhin, the son of the former serf Ranevsky, is about to “take an ax to the cherry orchard”!
you are reading a summary of Chekhov's play "The Cherry Orchard"
Anya tries to console her mother: the garden has been sold, but their whole life awaits them. There will be another garden, more luxurious and better than this one, “quiet, deep joy” awaits them ahead...
Act four
The house becomes empty. Its inhabitants are leaving in all directions. Lopakhin plans to spend the winter in Kharkov, Trofimov is going back to Moscow, to the university. At parting, Lopakhin and Petya exchange caustic “courtesy” remarks. And although Trofimov calls Lopakhin a “beast of prey,” necessary for the metabolism of nature, he loves his “tender, subtle soul.” Lopakhin, in turn, is confused about giving Trofimov money for the trip. But Trofimov refuses: his pride does not allow him.
A metamorphosis occurs with Ranevskaya and Gaev: they became happier after the cherry orchard was sold. The unrest and suffering are over. Ranevskaya plans to live in Paris with her aunt’s money. Anya is euphoric: here it is - a new life - she will graduate from high school, begin to read books, work, this will be a “new wonderful world.” Suddenly Simeonov-Pishchik appears, he is very out of breath. Now he does not ask for money, but, on the contrary, distributes debts. It turns out that the British found white clay on his land.
Now everything is different. Gaev calls himself a bank employee. Lopakhin promises to find a new place for Charlotte, Varvara goes to work as a housekeeper for the Ragulins, Epikhodov, whom Lopakhin hires, remains on the estate. Poor old Firs should be placed in a hospital. Gaev sadly says: “Everyone is abandoning us... we suddenly became unnecessary.”
An explanation between Varya and Lopakhin should finally happen. Varya is even teased with irony as “Madame Lopakhina.” Varya herself likes Lopakhin, but she is waiting for his actions. Lopakhin, in his words, agrees to “end this matter right away.” However, when Ranevskaya organizes a meeting for them, Lopakhin, hesitant, runs away, taking advantage of the first pretext. There is no explanation between them.
Finally I leave the estate, locking all the doors. Only old Firs remains, whom everyone forgot about and was never sent to the hospital. Firs lies down to rest and dies. The sound of a string breaking is heard again. And then the blows of axes.
We remind you that this is only a brief summary of the play by A.P. Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard". Many important quotes are missing here.
The action takes place on the estate of Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya.
Act one
Early May morning. Cherry trees are blooming.
The merchant Ermolai Alekseevich Lopakhin deliberately came to Ranevskaya’s estate to meet the train on which she and her daughter were arriving from abroad, where they had lived for five years. I arrived and fell asleep sitting up. The train was two hours late. Lopakhin speaks with tenderness about Ranevskaya: “She is a good person. An easy, simple person." Lopakhin's father was a simple, rude man, but about himself he says that he was a man - and remains a man. Just got rich.
The clerk Epikhodov wanders around the house and complains: “Every day some kind of trouble happens to me...”
The maid Dunyasha (dressed and combed like a young lady) casually informs the merchant that Epikhodov proposed to her. “He’s a meek person, but only sometimes he starts talking - you won’t understand anything... He’s an unhappy person... They tease him about us: he’s unlucky - they tease him like that: “twenty-two misfortunes,” sighs Dunyasha.
Ranevskaya and her seventeen-year-old daughter Anya with their governess Charlotte Ivanovna arrive from the station. Those who met them also enter with them: Lyubov Andreevna’s brother Gaev, her adopted daughter Varya, twenty-four years old, and the neighbor-landowner Simeonov-Pishchik.
From the conversation between Anya and Varya, it turns out that Anya did not live with her mother in Paris for all five years. Varya sent her, accompanied by Charlotte (you can’t go alone at seventeen!) to her mother in Paris.
Anya: Mom lives on the fifth floor, I come to her, she has some French ladies, an old priest with a book, and it’s smoky, uncomfortable. I suddenly felt so sorry for my mother, so sorry, I hugged her head, squeezed her with my hands and couldn’t let go. Mom then kept caressing and crying...
She sold her dacha near Menton a long time ago; she had nothing left.
Ranevskaya does not want to understand that she is not a rich woman, that she needs to save money. In station restaurants he orders the most expensive things and tips the footmen a ruble each. Her impudent lackey Yasha also demands a portion for himself.
Varya’s affairs are bad, the interest on Ranevskaya’s huge debt was unable to be paid - and the estate will be sold in August.
Anya hopes that Lopakhin will propose to Varya, but her hopes are in vain. Varya spends the whole day doing housework and keeps dreaming of marrying her sister to a rich man, while she herself wants to go to a monastery.
It is noticeable that the sisters love each other very much.
Student Petya Trofimov, a former tutor of Ranevskaya’s son Grisha, who drowned at the age of seven, spends the night in the bathhouse.
The decrepit footman Firs takes care of the coffee for the hostess. Ranevskaya is moved: “I want to jump and wave my arms. What if I'm dreaming! God knows, I love my homeland, I love dearly, I couldn’t look from the carriage, I kept crying... My dear closet... (Kisses the closet.) My table...”
Gaev. And without you, the nanny died here.
Lyubov Andreevna (sits down and drinks coffee). Yes, the kingdom of heaven. They wrote to me.
Lopakhin says that Ranevskaya did him a lot of good, he loves her “like his own, more than his own,” and he wants to do something good for her.
He puts forward his project to save the estate from debt: it is necessary to divide the garden into summer cottages and rent out. This will provide Ranevskaya with at least twenty-five thousand annual income. True, the old buildings will have to be demolished, including the dilapidated house itself, and the cherry orchard will have to be cut down.
Lyubov Andreevna objected passionately. Against and her brother: and in " Encyclopedic Dictionary"This garden is mentioned.
Lopakhin says that the garden has degenerated, that summer residents can work on the plots agriculture, “and then your cherry orchard will become happy, rich, luxurious...”
But neither Ranevskaya nor her brother (he constantly and senselessly sprinkles his speech with billiard terms: “From the ball to the right to the corner! Yellow to the middle!”) do not want to listen to the reasonable speeches of the merchant.
Gaev gives a speech dedicated to the centenary of the bookcase standing in the room:
“Dear, dear closet! I greet 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...
Ranevskaya looks out the window at the garden:
“Oh my childhood, my purity! I slept in this nursery, looked at the garden from here, happiness woke up with me... Oh my garden! After a dark stormy autumn and cold winter again you are young, full of happiness, the heavenly angels have not abandoned you... If only the heavy stone could be removed from my chest and shoulders, if only I could forget my past!”
She is about to go to sleep from the road, but Petya Trofimov comes in - as he says, just to say hello.
As Varya foresaw, who asked Petya to wait until tomorrow, the mother, seeing the student, remembers her drowned son and quietly cries. Afterwards she reproaches Petya: “Why have you turned so ugly? Why have you aged?
Trofimov. “One woman in the carriage called me this: shabby gentleman.”
Varya tells the footman Yasha that his mother, who came from the village, has been sitting in the servants’ room for two days. Wants to see his son. Yasha waves it off: “It’s very necessary! I could come tomorrow..."
Pishchik asks Ranevskaya for a loan, she tells her brother to give the person asking money.
Gaev. My sister has not yet gotten out of the habit of wasting money... It would be nice... to try my luck with Aunt Countess. My aunt is very, very rich... she doesn’t love us. The sister, firstly, did not marry a nobleman and did not behave very virtuously. She is good, kind, nice, I love her very much, but no matter how you come up with mitigating circumstances, I still have to admit that she is vicious. This is felt in her slightest movement.
Anya, having accidentally heard these words, asks her uncle to better remain silent.
Confused, Gaev promises to find all means to ensure that the estate is not sold: borrow money against bills, go to Yaroslavl to see his grandmother-countess... “I swear with all my being!”
Anya believes her uncle, peace returns to her.
Act two
A field near the house. Evening. The sun is setting. Charlotte, Yasha and Dunyasha are sitting on a bench. Epikhodov is standing, playing the guitar.
Charlotte. I don’t have a real passport, I don’t know how old I am, and it still seems to me that I’m young. When I was a little girl, my father and mother went to fairs and gave performances, very good ones. And I jumped somersaults and various things... I grew up, then became a governess. But where I come from and who I am, I don’t know. Who are my parents, maybe they didn’t get married... I don’t know. (He takes a cucumber out of his pocket and eats it.) I really want to talk, but not with anyone... I don’t have anyone.
Epikhodov also complains that he doesn’t know “whether he should live or shoot himself,” and even shows a revolver. He is gnawed by melancholy - Dunyasha did not agree to his proposal. She, by her own admission, “passionately fell in love” with the footman Yasha.
He yawns: “In my opinion, it’s like this: if a girl loves someone, then she is immoral...”
The previous group is replaced by Ranevskaya with her brother and Lopakhin. Lyubov Andreevna looks into the wallet. He is surprised that there is so little money left - and it is unclear where it went. He immediately scatters the remaining gold...
Lopakhin again convinces her that she urgently needs to rent out the garden; Otherwise, the estate will be sold at auction for debts! No Yaroslavl aunt can save Ranevskaya - she still won’t give her as much money as she needs.
Ranevskaya sluggishly objects that “dachas and summer residents are so vulgar.”
Lopakhin. “I have never met such frivolous people, such unbusinesslike, strange people. They tell you... but you definitely don’t understand...”
Lyubov Andreevna is not ready to decide to take action; she prefers to go over her sins:
I always wasted money like crazy, and I married a man who only made debts. My husband died from champagne - he drank terribly, and, unfortunately, I fell in love with someone else...
Son Grisha drowned, and Ranevskaya went abroad, leaving her daughter, “so as never to see this river.”
Lyubov Andreevna bought a dacha in France, her lover came there and fell ill. She looked after him for three years, the patient was rude and capricious, he completely tormented her - “my soul dried up.”
The dacha was sold for debts, and I had to move to Paris to a poor apartment. Ranevskaya's lover left him, went to someone else, she tried to poison herself...
And so she returned to Russia, to her girl...
Now I received a telegram from Paris: he asks for forgiveness, begs to return.
Just then Varya, Anya and Trofimov approach the bench. Lopakhin makes fun of Trofimov: “He will soon be fifty years old, but he is still a student.”
In fact, Trofimov is about thirty. He philosophizes about a proud man, about the need to work, about the purpose of the intelligentsia, which only calls itself that... But in fact, the “intellectuals” don’t read anything serious, they say “you” to the peasants, “they only talk about science, they understand little about art ...".
Lopakhin contrasts his view with the lamentations of the eternal student - the merchant gets up at five in the morning and works until the evening. He sees how many dishonest people there are around, especially if it smells of money. He thinks: “Lord, you gave us huge forests, vast fields, the deepest horizons, and living here, we ourselves should truly be giants...”
The caring Firs brings Gaev a coat - it becomes cool.
Everyone leaves except Trofimov and Anya.
The student laughs at Varya - elder sister“Afraid, what if we fall in love with each other... She, with her narrow head, cannot understand that we are above love... We are moving uncontrollably towards that bright star that burns there in the distance! Forward! Don't lag behind, friends!
Trofimov says that the nobility must work hard to atone for the sins of past serfdom. Don't philosophize, don't drink vodka, but work!
He persuades Anya to leave the house and leave so that she can be free like the wind!
The naive young girl is delighted with these calls.
Anya! Anya!
Act three
Evening in Ranevskaya's living room. A Jewish orchestra is playing. They dance. Charlotte shows tricks. Date: August twenty-second - trading day.
They are waiting for Gaev with news. The Yaroslavl grandmother sent fifteen thousand to buy the estate in her name, but this money is not even enough to pay interest. However, Ranevskaya hopes for some kind of miracle.
In nervous anticipation, she starts a conversation with Petya Trofimov. Petya now declares to her that he is “above love.” He notices that Ranevskaya is again thinking about a trip to Paris, besides terrible person that he robbed her. Ranevskaya is offended and angry:
You have to be a man, at your age you have to understand those who love! And you have to love yourself... You have to fall in love! And you have no cleanliness, and you are just a clean person, a funny eccentric, a freak... You are a klutz! Don't have a mistress at your age!
Petya declares: “It’s all over between us!” He runs away and falls down the stairs.
Ranevskaya.
What an eccentric this Petya is...
She asks for forgiveness: “Well, a pure soul... Let's go dance!”
And Trofimov and Ranevskaya are dancing.
Firs complains to Yasha about being unwell, Yasha indifferently replies:
I'm tired of you, grandpa. I wish you would die soon.
Yasha asks Lyubov Andreevna, if she goes to Paris again, to take him with her. It’s impossible for him to stay here: “the people are uneducated” and the food in the kitchen is poor, “and here’s this Firs walking around muttering various inappropriate words...”
Gaev appears with tears: “The estate has been sold!” Who bought it?
I bought. The cherry orchard is now mine! My!
He is overwhelmed with joy: he, Ermolai, who ran barefoot in the snow as a boy, bought an estate where his father and grandfather were not even allowed into the kitchen... Music, play!
Having come to his senses, the merchant expresses his sympathy for Ranevskaya and wishes that her “awkward, unhappy life” would somehow change. Anya tries to console her crying mother:
The cherry orchard has been sold, it is no longer there, it’s true, it’s true, but don’t cry, mom, you still have your good, pure soul... We will plant a new garden, more luxurious than this, you will see it, you will understand, and there will be joy, quiet, deep joy will fall on your soul like the sun in the evening, and you will smile, mom!
Act four
The setting is the same as in the first act. Only the curtains are removed, there are no paintings. Suitcases and travel items are stacked at the back of the stage. Yasha holds a tray with glasses filled with champagne.
The men come to say goodbye. Lyubov Andreevna gives them her wallet. You can hear Gaev’s reproaches: “You can’t do that, Lyuba! You can not do it this way!"
Lopakhin offers to drink champagne. There is an awkward pause. Only Yasha drinks.
It's time to go to the station.
Lopakhin is going to Kharkov - with the Ranevskaya family he is “tortured with nothing to do.” Trofimov goes to Moscow, late as always for the start of classes. Lopakhin first makes fun of the “eternal student,” according to his long-standing habit, and then offers him money for the trip. The student proudly refuses:
Give me at least two hundred thousand, I won’t take it. Im free person. And everything that you all value so highly and dearly, rich and poor, does not have the slightest power over me... Humanity is moving towards the highest truth, towards the highest happiness that is possible on earth, and I am in the forefront!
Lopakhin. Will you get there?
Trofimov. I'll get there. I’ll get there or show others how to get there.
You can hear an ax knocking on a tree in the distance.
Ranevskaya asks that the garden not be cut down until she leaves.
It was decided to send Firs to the hospital. Anya asks Yasha if it’s done. Yasha waves it off - it must be done. The arrogant footman refuses to say goodbye to his mother and recommends her to the crying one. Dunyasha behaves decently - then she won’t have to cry. Yasha’s thoughts are already all in Paris - he’s seen enough of ignorance, that’s enough!
Ranevskaya is going to live in France with the money that her Yaroslavl grandmother sent. Of course, the money won't last long. Anya is going to pass the exam at the gymnasium, start working and help her mother. Charlotte is left without a livelihood. However, Lopakhin promises to find her a place. Lyubov Andreevna tries to last time to marry Varya to Lopakhin, but nothing comes of their conversation. Varya hired herself as a housekeeper on a rich estate. She's used to working.
Lyubov Andreevna. Oh my dear, my tender, beautiful garden! My life, my youth, my happiness, goodbye! Goodbye!..
You can hear all the doors being locked. The crews are leaving.
In the locked house, the forgotten, decrepit, sick Firs remains - no one sent him to the hospital. Out of habit, he worries that the owner did not put on a fur coat - he went in a coat. The exhausted old man lies down and lies motionless.
You can hear an ax hitting wood.
The estate of landowner Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya. Spring, cherry trees are blooming. But the beautiful garden will soon have to be sold for debts. For the last five years, Ranevskaya and her seventeen-year-old daughter Anya have lived abroad. Ranevskaya’s brother Leonid Andreevich Gaev and her adopted daughter, twenty-four-year-old Varya, remained on the estate. Things are bad for Ranevskaya, there are almost no funds left. Lyubov Andreevna always squandered money. Six years ago, her husband died from drunkenness. Ranevskaya fell in love with another person and got along with him. But soon her little son Grisha died tragically, drowning in the river. Lyubov Andreevna, unable to bear the grief, fled abroad. The lover followed her. When he fell ill, Ranevskaya had to settle him at her dacha near Menton and look after him for three years. And then, when he had to sell his dacha for debts and move to Paris, he robbed and abandoned Ranevskaya.
Gaev and Varya meet Lyubov Andreevna and Anya at the station. The maid Dunyasha and the merchant Ermolai Alekseevich Lopakhin are waiting for them at home. Lopakhin's father was a serf of the Ranevskys, he himself became rich, but says of himself that he remained a “man a man.” The clerk Epikhodov comes, a man with whom something constantly happens and who is nicknamed “thirty-three misfortunes.”
Finally the carriages arrive. The house is filled with people, everyone is in pleasant excitement. Everyone talks about their own things. Lyubov Andreevna looks at the rooms and through tears of joy remembers the past. The maid Dunyasha can’t wait to tell the young lady that Epikhodov proposed to her. Anya herself advises Varya to marry Lopakhin, and Varya dreams of marrying Anya to a rich man. The governess Charlotte Ivanovna, a strange and eccentric person, boasts about her amazing dog; the neighbor, the landowner Simeonov-Pishik, asks for a loan of money. The old faithful servant Firs hears almost nothing and mutters something all the time.
Lopakhin reminds Ranevskaya that the estate should soon be sold at auction, the only way out is to divide the land into plots and rent them out to summer residents. Ranevskaya is surprised by Lopakhin’s proposal: how can her beloved wonderful cherry orchard be cut down! Lopakhin wants to stay longer with Ranevskaya, whom he loves “more than his own,” but it’s time for him to leave. Gaev makes a welcoming speech to the hundred-year-old “respected” cabinet, but then, embarrassed, he again begins to meaninglessly utter his favorite billiard words.
Ranevskaya does not immediately recognize Petya Trofimov: so he has changed, turned ugly, the “dear student” has turned into an “eternal student.” Lyubov Andreevna cries, remembering her little drowned son Grisha, whose teacher was Trofimov.
Gaev, left alone with Varya, tries to talk about business. There is a rich aunt in Yaroslavl, who, however, does not love them: after all, Lyubov Andreevna did not marry a nobleman, and she did not behave “very virtuously.” Gaev loves his sister, but still calls her “vicious,” which displeases Anya. Gaev continues to build projects: his sister will ask Lopakhin for money, Anya will go to Yaroslavl - in a word, they will not allow the estate to be sold, Gaev even swears by it. The grumpy Firs finally takes the master, like a child, to bed. Anya is calm and happy: her uncle will arrange everything.
Lopakhin never ceases to persuade Ranevskaya and Gaev to accept his plan. The three of them had breakfast in the city and, on their way back, stopped in a field near the chapel. Just now, here, on the same bench, Epikhodov tried to explain himself to Dunyasha, but she had already preferred the young cynical lackey Yasha to him. Ranevskaya and Gaev don’t seem to hear Lopakhin and are talking about completely different things. Without convincing the “frivolous, unbusinesslike, strange” people of anything, Lopakhin wants to leave. Ranevskaya asks him to stay: “it’s still more fun” with him.
Anya, Varya and Petya Trofimov arrive. Ranevskaya starts a conversation about a “proud man.” According to Trofimov, there is no point in pride: a rude, unhappy person should not admire himself, but work. Petya condemns the intelligentsia, who are incapable of work, those people who philosophize importantly, and treat men like animals. Lopakhin enters the conversation: he works “from morning to evening,” dealing with large capitals, but he is becoming more and more convinced how few decent people there are around. Lopakhin doesn’t finish speaking, Ranevskaya interrupts him. In general, everyone here doesn’t want to and doesn’t know how to listen -
b each other. There is silence, in which the distant sad sound of a broken string can be heard.
Soon everyone disperses. Left alone, Anya and Trofimov are glad to have the opportunity to talk together, without Varya. Trofimov convinces Anya that one must be “above love”, that the main thing is freedom: “all of Russia is our garden,” but in order to live in the present, one must first atone for the past through suffering and labor. Happiness is close: if not they, then others will definitely see it.
The twenty-second of August arrives, trading day. It was on this evening, completely inopportunely, that a ball was being held at the estate, and a Jewish orchestra was invited. Once upon a time, generals and barons danced here, but now, as Firs complains, both the postal official and the station master “don’t like to go.” Charlotte Ivanovna entertains guests with her tricks. Ranevskaya anxiously awaits her brother's return. The Yaroslavl aunt nevertheless sent fifteen thousand, but it was not enough to redeem the estate.
Petya Trofimov “calms” Ranevskaya: it’s not about the garden, it’s over long ago, we need to face the truth. Lyubov Andreevna asks not to judge her, to have pity: after all, without the cherry orchard, her life loses its meaning. Every day Ranevskaya receives telegrams from Paris. At first she tore them right away, then - after reading them first, now she no longer tears them. “This wild man,” whom she still loves, begs her to come. Petya condemns Ranevskaya for her love for “a petty scoundrel, a nonentity.” Angry Ranevskaya, unable to restrain herself, takes revenge on Trofimov, calling him a “funny eccentric”, “freak”, “neat”: “You have to love yourself... you have to fall in love!” Petya tries to leave in horror, but then stays and dances with Ranevskaya, who asked him for forgiveness.
Finally, a confused, joyful Lopakhin and a tired Gaev appear, who, without saying anything, immediately goes home. The cherry orchard was sold, and Lopakhin bought it. The “new landowner” is happy: he managed to outbid the rich man Deriganov at the auction, giving ninety thousand on top of his debt. Lopakhin picks up the keys thrown on the floor by the proud Varya. Let the music play, let everyone see how Ermolai Lopakhin “takes an ax to the cherry orchard”!
Anya consoles her crying mother: the garden has been sold, but there is a whole life ahead. There will be a new garden, more luxurious than this, “quiet, deep joy” awaits them...
The house is empty. Its inhabitants, having said goodbye to each other, leave. Lopakhin is going to Kharkov for the winter, Trofimov is returning to Moscow, to the university. Lopakhin and Petya exchange barbs. Although Trofimov calls Lopakhin a “beast of prey,” necessary “in the sense of metabolism,” he still loves his “tender, subtle soul.” Lopakhin offers Trofimov money for the trip. He refuses: no one should have power over the “free man”, “in the forefront of moving” to the “highest happiness”.
Ranevskaya and Gaev even became happier after selling the cherry orchard. Previously they were worried and suffered, but now they have calmed down. Ranevskaya is going to live in Paris for now with money sent by her aunt. Anya is inspired: a new life is beginning - she will graduate from high school, work, read books, and a “new wonderful world” will open up before her. Suddenly, out of breath, Simeonov-Pishchik appears and instead of asking for money, on the contrary, he gives away debts. It turned out that the British found white clay on his land.
Everyone settled down differently. Gaev says that now he is a bank employee. Lopakhin promises to find a new place for Charlotte, Varya got a job as a housekeeper for the Ragulins, Epikhodov, hired by Lopakhin, remains on the estate, Firs should be sent to the hospital. But still Gaev sadly says: “Everyone is abandoning us... we suddenly became unnecessary.”
There must finally be an explanation between Varya and Lopakhin. Varya has been teased as “Madame Lopakhina” for a long time. Varya likes Ermolai Alekseevich, but she herself cannot propose. Lopakhin, who also speaks highly of Varya, agrees to “end this matter right away.” But when Ranevskaya arranges their meeting, Lopakhin, having never made up his mind, leaves Varya, taking advantage of the first pretext.
“It's time to go! On the road! - with these words they leave the house, locking all the doors. All that remains is old Firs, whom everyone seemed to care about, but whom they forgot to send to the hospital. Firs, sighing that Leonid Andreevich went in a coat and not a fur coat, lies down to rest and lies motionless. The same sound of a broken string is heard. “Silence falls, and you can only hear how far away in the garden an ax is knocking on a tree.”
Comedy in four acts
CHARACTERS:
Ranevska Lyubov Andreevna, landowner.
Anya, her daughter, 17 years old.
Varya, her named daughter, is 24 years old.
Gaev Leonid Andreevich, brother of Ranevskaya.
Lopakhin Ermolai Alekseevich, merchant.
Trofimov Petr Sergeevich, student.
Simeonov-Pishchik Boris Borisovich, landowner.
Charlotte Ivanovna, governess.
Epikhodov Semyon Panteleevich, clerk.
Dunyasha, maid.
Firs, footman, old 87 years old.
Yasha, a young footman.
The events take place on the estate of L.A. Ranevskaya.
Act one
It's May, the cherry trees are blooming. It's starting to get light. In the room, which is still called the nursery, Lopakhin and Dunyasha are waiting for Ranevskaya to arrive. Lyubov Andreevna was abroad for five years and is now returning home. Almost everyone in the household, not excluding old man Firs, went to meet him at the station. The train is two hours late, Lopakhin says about Ranevskaya: “He is a kind person. Lightweight, simple person" She remembers how she pitied him, the boy, when he suffered from his father. Epikhodov enters with a bouquet and immediately drops it. The clerk complains that some kind of trouble happens to him every day: he lost a bouquet, knocked over a chair, bought boots the day before yesterday, and they squeak. He says strangely, incomprehensibly: “You see, excuse me on this word, which circumstance, by the way... It’s just wonderful.” They called it “twenty-two disasters.” While everyone is waiting for Ranevskaya, Dunyasha confesses to Lopakhin that Epikhodov proposed to her.
Finally two carriages arrive. Ranevskaya, Gaev, Simeonov-Pishchik, Anya, Varya, Charlotte appear; in a hurry, Firs passes, leaning on a stick, in an old livery and a high cape. Lyubov Andreevna joyfully looks around the old nursery, says through tears: “The nursery, my dear... I slept here when I was little... And now I’m like a little girl...” Varya, on whom, to tell the truth, the whole monastery rests , makes orders around the house (“Dunyasha, hurry up for coffee... Mother asks for coffee”), kindly says to his sister: “You’re home again. My heart has arrived! The beauty has arrived! Anya tells her how tired she is from her trip to Paris, to see her mother: “We arrive in Paris, it’s cold there, there’s snow. I speak French terrible. Mom lives on the fifth floor... she has some French people, paggies, an old priest with a book, and it’s smoky, uncomfortable... She’s already sold her dacha to Mentoni, she has nothing, nothing. I also didn’t have a penny left, we barely got there. And mom doesn't understand! We sit down at the station for lunch, and she demands the most expensive thing and gives the footmen a ruble each as a tip. Charlotte too. Yasha also demands a portion for himself. After all, mom has a footman, Yasha.” “We saw the scoundrel,” says Varya. She tells her sister the sad news: she failed to pay the interest on the estate and it will be sold.
Lopakhin looks in the door, and Anya asks Varya if he confessed to her, because Lopakhin loves Varya, so why can’t they get along? Varya shakes her head negatively: “I believe that nothing will work out for us. He has a lot to do, he has no time for me... If only you could marry a rich husband, and I would find peace, I would go into emptiness... then to Kiev... and so I would go to holy places.” Yasha comes into the room. He tries to seem like a “man from abroad”, looks like a rake, speaks delicately (“can I pass here, sir?”). He makes a strong impression on Dunyasha; she flirts with Yasha, he tries to hug her.
Lyubov Andreevna cannot come to her senses: she feels happy that she is back in her home, that Varya is “still the same,” that the old servant Firs is still alive. She laughs with joy, recognizing familiar things: “I want to jump, wave my arms... God knows, I love my homeland, I love dearly, I couldn’t look out of the window, I kept crying... I won’t survive this joy... Shafonko my dear...my table.”
Lopakhin breaks the idyll: he reminds that the estate is being sold for debts, an auction is scheduled for August 22. Lopakhin offers a way out: the estate is located near the city; There is a railway nearby, a cherry orchard and the land can be divided into plots and rented out to summer residents. Ranevskaya and Gaev do not understand his proposal. Lopakhin explains: the owners are already loaning money for this project, and in the fall there won’t be a single free piece left - the summer residents will take it all. To tell the truth, some buildings will have to be demolished and the old cherry orchard will have to be cut down. The owners cannot allow this. “If there is something extraordinary in the entire province, it is our cherry orchard,” says Ranevskaya. Gaev adds that it is also mentioned in the Encyclopedic Dictionary. Lopakhin explains that there is no other way out: either his project, or selling the estate along with the garden for debts, besides, the cherry tree gives birth once every two years, and there is nowhere to put it - no one is buying it. He still hopes to implement his plan, he proves that the summer resident “will take care of farming on his one tithe, and then the cherry orchard will become... rich, luxurious...”
“What nonsense,” Gaev is indignant and makes a magnificent speech dedicated to the hundred-year-old “noble closet”: “I greet 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 vigor in generations of our family, faith in a better future and nurturing in us the ideals of goodness...”
Everyone feels awkward. There is a pause. Gaev, who feels a little overwhelmed, resorts to his favorite “billiard vocabulary: “From a bullet to the right into the corner! I’m cutting it to medium!” Varya brings Lyubov Andreevna two telegrams from Paris; and tears them up without reading them.
Charlotte Ivanovna comes into the room, in a white dress, very thin, with a lorgnette on her belt. Lopakhin wants to kiss her hand; the governess coos: “If I allow you to kiss my hand, then you will then wish on the elbow, then on the shoulder...” Lopakhin succeeds by proposing to resolve the issue regarding the dachas after all. Taking advantage of the pause, Pischik tries to beg Ranevskaya for a loan of two hundred and forty rubles (he is completely in debt, and all his thoughts are aimed at getting money somewhere to pay interest on the deposit). Lyubov Andreevna says in confusion that she has no money. But Pischik never loses hope: somehow he thought that everything was lost, but here a railway was built through his land, and he was paid, and now, maybe his daughter will win two hundred thousand, because she owes a ticket.
Varya opens the window into the garden. Ranevskaya looks into the garden, laughs with joy: “Oh my garden! After a dark, stormy autumn and a cold winter, you again feel young, full of happiness, the heavenly angels have not abandoned you...” The brother reminds her that this beautiful garden, “strangely enough,” will be sold for debts. But Ranevskaya doesn’t seem to hear his words: “Look, the deceased mother is walking through the garden... in a white dress... No, there is no one, it seemed to me... What an amazing garden, white masses of flowers... blue sky... »
Petya Trofimov enters, former teacher Grisha, Ranevskaya's son, who drowned six years ago, at the age of seven. Lyubov Andreevna hardly recognizes him, he has become so haggard and aged during this time. Petya, who is not yet thirty, is called “the shabby gentleman” by everyone. “You were such a little boy then, a sweet student, but now you have sparse hair and glasses. Are you still a student? - “Perhaps I will be an eternal student.”
Varya tells Yasha that his mother has arrived from the village and is already there. The second day is a date with my son. Yasha dismissively says: “It’s very necessary. I could come tomorrow.”
Gaev, left alone with Varya, “wracks his brains” about where he can get money in order to avoid selling the estate. It would be good, he reasons, to receive an inheritance from someone, it would be good to give Anya to a rich man, it would be good to go to Yaroslavl and try his luck with the aunt-countess. He knows that his aunt has a lot of money, but, alas, she does not like her nephews. Lyubov Andreevna married as a sworn attorney, not a nobleman, and she behaved one cannot say that she was very respectable.” Gaev advises Ani. go to his Yaroslavl grandmother, and she will not be refused. An angry Firs appears; he still follows the gentleman like a little boy: he reproaches him for “wearing the wrong trousers” and for not going to bed on time. And now the old man appeared to remind Leonid Andreevich that it was time to go to bed. Gaev calms the old servant: “You go, Firse. So be it, I’ll unwind myself... I’m going, I’m going... From both sides to the middle! I’m putting a clean one...” He goes, Firs trots after him.
Act two
A crooked, long-abandoned chapel. You can see the road to the house. Far, far away on the horizon, a city is vaguely visible. The sun will set soon. Charlotte, Yasha and Dunyasha are sitting on an old bench, lost in thought. Epikhodov plays the guitar. Charlotte talks about herself: she doesn't know how old she is because she doesn't have a real passport, her parents circus performers, and she herself knows how to “do different things”; after the death of her parents, a German family took her in and trained her to be a governess. “I really want to talk, but not with anyone... I don’t have anyone,” Charlotte sighs.
Epikhodov hums Dunyasha’s romance: “It would warm my heart with the heat of mutual love...”, but he also tries to please Yasha, telling him what a blessing it must be to visit abroad. Yasha replies importantly: “I can’t disagree with you,” and lights a cigar. Dunyasha, under some pretext, sends away Epikhodov and, left alone with Yasha, admits that she has lost the habit of a simple life, “she has become tender, so delicate,” and if Yasha, whom she passionately loved, deceives her, Dunyasha does not know, what will happen to her. To this, Yasha, yawning, thoughtfully remarks: “In my opinion, it’s like this: if a girl loves someone, then it turns out that she is immoral...”
Ranevskaya and Gaev appear with Lopakhin, who is trying to get an answer from them to the question: do they agree to give up the lands or not? The brother and sister pretend not to hear him. Lyubov Andreevna does not understand where the money is spent (“Yesterday there was a lot of money, but today there is very little”), she is offended that she spends it somehow absurdly, while Varya, saving, feeds everyone milk soup. Lopakhin again returns to the old topic, reports that the rich Deriganov will come to the auction. Gaev waves it off: the Yaroslavl aunt promised to send money, though not more than fifteen thousand. Lopakhin begins to lose patience. “I have never met such frivolous people like you, gentlemen,” he tells them. “I have never met such unbusinesslike, strange people. They tell you in Russian that your estate is for sale, but you don’t seem to understand.” Lyubov Andreevna agrees that something needs to be done, but “dachas and summer residents are so vulgar!” Lopakhin: “I’ll either burst into tears, or scream, or lose consciousness... You tortured me!”
Ranevskaya begins to feel anxious and talks about her “sins,” for which she apparently received punishment. She always spent money without counting it. Her husband died from champagne. Lyubov Andreevna fell in love with another, became friends with him, and it was at that time that her son drowned in the river; Lyubov Andreevna went abroad never to return. The man she loved followed her. She bought a dacha near Mentoni, treated him for three years, spent all her money, in the end they sold the dacha for debts, and this man left her and got along with someone else; Lyubov Andreevna wanted to poison herself... .
Firs arrives: he brought a coat for Gaev - because the air is humid. Firs recalls ancient times; then everything was clear: the men were with the popes, the gentlemen were with the men, but “now everything is scattered.” Gaev talks about his next project - they promised to introduce him to a general who lends money. Even his sister no longer believes him: “He’s delusional. There are no generals."
Trofimov appears. He resumes the conversation he started the day before with Gaivim and Ranevskaya. “We need to stop admiring ourselves,” he says. “We just need to work... Humanity moves forward, improving its strength. Everything that is unattainable for him now will someday become close and understandable, but he just has to work... Here in Russia, very few people work yet. The vast majority of the intelligentsia that I know are not looking for anything, are not doing anything and are not yet capable of work... Everyone is serious, everyone has carved faces, everyone talks about important things, philosophizes, and yet in front of everyone the workers eat disgustingly ... everywhere there is stench, dampness, moral impurity... all our beautiful conversations are only to avert the eyes of ourselves and others... There is only dirt, vulgarity, Asian stuff... I'm afraid serious conversations...We’d better keep quiet!” Lopakhin, agreeing with the “eternal student” that there are few honest people, believes, however, that Petya’s words do not concern him: he, Lopakhin, works from morning to night.
Gaev, as if reciting, is trying to deliver a touching speech: “O naturally strange one, you shine with eternal radiance...” and further in the same spirit. Trofimov ironically remarks to him: “You are better than a yellow doublet in the middle.” Everyone falls silent. You can only hear Firs quietly muttering. Suddenly a distant sad sound is heard, which fades away, like the sound of a jet bursting. Lyubov Andreevna shudders. Firs says that before the “misfortune” (that is, before the peasants received their freedom) there was: the owl was screaming, and the samovar was humming...” A drunk passer-by appears and asks for “thirty kopecks”; Lyubov Andreevna, taken aback, gives him a gold one. To Varya’s reproaches (“People have nothing to eat at home, but you are golden to him”), Rapevska answers in confusion: “What should I do with me, stupid!” - and invites everyone to dinner.
Petya and Anya are left alone. Petya assures the girl that they are above love, that the goal of their life is to bypass those small and deceptive things that prevent them from being free and happy, calls on her to continuously go “to the bright star that burns there in the distance”: “All of Russia is our garden. The earth is great and beautiful... Think, Anya: your grandfather, great-grandfather and all your ancestors were. kriposniks who owned living souls. And don’t human beings look at you from every cherry tree 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 living now. So your mother, you, and uncle no longer notice that you are living on credit, at other people’s expense, at the expense of those people whom you do not allow further than the hallway... We are at least two hundred years behind. We have nothing at all, no definite relationship to the past, we only philosophize, complain about melancholy or drink vodka. It’s so clear: in order to begin to live in modern times, we must first redeem our past, put an end to it, and we can redeem it only through suffering, only through unusual, continuous labor.” He calls on Anya to believe him, “throw the keys to the farm into the well” and be “free like the wind.”
Epikhodov can be heard playing a sad song on the guitar. The moon is rising. Somewhere nearby, Varya is calling Anya... Petya Trofimov talks about happiness: “...I can already hear his steps. And if we don’t see him, don’t recognize him, then what kind of trouble is it? Others will see him!”
Act three
There is a ball in the living room of Ranevskaya's house. The chandelier is burning brightly, the orchestra is playing, couples are dancing. Firs in a tailcoat carries seltzer water on a tray. Varya sighs bitterly: they hired musicians, but there is nothing to pay. Pishchik, as always, is looking for someone to borrow money from: “I’m now in such a situation that at least make counterfeit pieces of paper...” Charlotte shows Petya and Pishchik card tricks and demonstrates how to draw cards.
Today the auction was supposed to take place in the city, and Ranevskaya is looking forward to her brother, who went there with Lopakhin. The Yaroslavl aunt sent Gaev an order for him to buy the estate in her name, Ani. But this meager fifteen thousand, unfortunately, would not even be enough to pay the interest on the debts. Trofimov teases Varya, calling her “Madame Lopakhina.” Lyubov Andreevna picks up this topic: why shouldn’t Varya really marry Ermolai Alekseevich, he’s kind, interesting person. Varya, almost crying, replies that it is not for her to confess to him: “For two years now everyone has been telling me about him, everyone is talking, but he is either silent or joking...” Petya complains to Ranevskaya about Varya: and all summer she didn’t give him and Anya peace because she was afraid that “a romance wouldn’t work out” between them, but she and Anya were “higher than love.” Lyubov Andreevna hardly hears him; her thoughts are only occupied with the fact that the estate has been sold. She tells Petya that he is young, has not had time to suffer” and therefore cannot understand her: she was born here, her ancestors lived here, she cannot imagine her life without the cherry orchard... “I would willingly give Anya for you, I swear to you , only, my dear, you have to study, you have to finish the course. You do nothing, only fate throws you from place to place...”
Lyubov Andreevna takes out her handkerchief, and a telegram falls to the floor. She admits to Petya that he “ bad person“He’s sick again, calls her to Paris, bombards her with telegrams. What can you do, she loves him. She understands that this is a “stone on her neck,” but she goes to the bottom with it and cannot live without this stone. Petya, through tears, reminds Ranevskaya that that man is a petty scoundrel, he ripped her off, but she does not want to hear this, closes her ears and angrily tells Trofimov that at his age you should already have a mistress, that he is just a “clean”, incompetent. Petya, horrified by what he heard, walks away.
In the hall, a figure in a gray top hat and checkered trousers is waving his arms and jumping - this is entertaining the guests, Charlotte Ivanovna. Epikhodov talks to Dunyasha. “You, Avdotya Feodorovna, don’t want to see me... as if I’m some kind of insect,” he sighs. “Of course, maybe you’re right... But if you look from your point of view, then you, let me put it this way, forgive me for my frankness, they completely brought me into a state of mind...” Dunyasha, playing with a fan: “I beg you, we’ll talk later, but now give me peace. Now I'm dreaming..."
Finally Gaev and Lopakhin arrive. Lyubov Andreevna, worried, rushes to them: “Well? Was there any bidding? Gaev, without answering anything, waves his hands; he's almost crying. When asked by Ranevskaya who bought the cherry orchard, Lopakhin briefly answers: “I bought it.” There is a pause. Lyubov Andreevna is shocked and almost falls; Varya takes the keys from her belt, throws them on the floor and leaves.
Lopakhin laughs with joy: “My God, Lord, my cherry orchard!.. If only my father and grandfather had risen from their graves and looked at everything that had happened, how their Ermolai, beaten, illiterate Ermolai bought an estate, the most beautiful of which there is nothing in the world.” light. I bought an estate where my father and grandfather were slaves, where they were not even allowed into the kitchen. I’m dreaming, I’m only imagining this, it’s only seeming... We’ll set up dachas, and our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will see here new life...Musician, play!”
Lyubov Andreevna is crying bitterly. Music plays quietly. Anya approaches her mother and kneels in front of her: “My dear, kind, good mother!.. The cherry orchard has been sold, it’s no longer there... but don’t cry, mom, you still have a life ahead of you, your kind, pure soul remains ... We will plant a new garden, which will be more luxurious for this, you will see it, you will understand, and joy, quiet, deep joy will descend on your soul, like the sun in the evening, and you will smile, mother!..”
Act four
There are no curtains or paintings in the “children’s room”; the furniture that remains is pushed into a corner. It feels empty. Suitcases are stacked at the door. When leaving they pack their things. To hear Gaev’s voice: “Thank you, brothers, thank you,” the men came to say goodbye. Lyubov Andreevna, saying goodbye, gives them her wallet. "I could not! I could not!" - she says to her brother making excuses.
Lopakhin reminds them that it’s time to get ready for the station. He himself is also leaving for the winter in Kharkov: “I kept hanging around with you, I’m tired of doing nothing... I can’t do it without difficulty, I don’t know what to do with my hands...” Petya Trofimov is going back to Moscow, to the university, and Lopakhin offers him money for travel, but he refuses: “Give me at least two hundred thousand, I won’t take it. I am a free person... I can do without you, I can pass by you, I am strong and proud. Humanity is moving towards the highest truth, towards the highest happiness that is possible on earth, and I am in the forefront,” Lopakhin: “Will you get there?” Trofimov: “I’ll get there or I’ll show others how to get there.” You can hear an ax knocking on a tree in the distance. Lopakhin, saying goodbye to Petya, reports that Gaev has received a position at the bank, with a salary of six thousand a year, “but he can’t sit still because he’s very lazy...”
Dunyasha is constantly busy with things; Left alone with Yasha, she, crying, throws herself on his neck: “You are going... leaving me...” Yasha, drinking a glass of champagne for the road that Lopakhin bought, says importantly: “This is not for me, not I can live.... Nothing can be done... I've seen enough of ignorance - I've had enough. Why cry? Behave decently, then you won’t cry.” Lyubov Andreevna, Gaev, Anya and Charlotte Ivanovna enter, Ranevskaya is worried, they sent the sick Firs to the hospital, Anya assures her: “Yasha said that the old man was taken away in the morning.” Lyubov Andreevna says goodbye to her daughter: “My girl, we’ll see you soon... I’m going to Paris, I’ll live there with the money that your Yaroslavl grandmother sent to buy the estate - long live grandma! “And this money won’t last long.” Apya, kissing her mother’s hand, reassures her: she will pass the exam at the gymnasium, will work and help her mother: “We will read in the autumn evenings, we read a lot of books, and a new, wonderful world will open up before us,” Anya dreams. “Mom, come.” ..”
Charlotte, cradling a bundle that looks like a baby's swaddling clothes and quietly humming a song, complains that she now has nowhere to live. Lopakhin promises to find a place for her too. Suddenly, short of breath Simeonov-Pishchik appears and begins to repay everyone’s debts. It turns out that “the most unusual event” happened: the British found white clay on his land, he gave them the plot for twenty-four years and now has money.
“Well, now we can go,” Lyubov Andreevna concludes. True, she still has one more “sadness” left - Varya’s unsettled situation. Ranevskaya begins a conversation with Lopakhin on this topic: “She loves you, you like her, and I don’t know, I don’t know why you seem to be kissing each other.” Lopakhin replies that he is “at least ready now.” Lyubov Andreevna arranges a face-to-face meeting for Lopakhina and Varya. Some strange and awkward conversation takes place between them: Varya is looking for something among the things, says that she has gone to work as housekeepers for the Ragulins; Lopakhin says something about the weather, reports that he is going to Kharkov. There is a pause. At this time, someone calls Lopakhin, and he, supposedly waiting for this call, leaves without making an offer. Varya, sitting on the floor, quietly sobs, resting her head on a bundle of clothes.
Lyubov Andreevna enters, already prepared for the journey, followed by all the household and servants. Epikhodov is busy with a circle of things. Gaev, afraid to cry, excitedly mutters: “Train... station... Croise in the middle, white doublet in the corner...” Left alone, Ranevskaya and Gaev, supposedly waiting, rush to each other and restrainedly, quietly sob. “My sister, my sister...” - “Oh my dear, my tender, beautiful garden! My life. My. youth, my happiness, goodbye!.. Farewell!..” From afar, the excited voices of Anya and Petya Trokhimov sound, they are calling... The door to the house is locked with a key... You can hear the carriages driving away. There is silence.
A sick Firs appears, whom everyone had forgotten in the house. He sighs worriedly: “...Leonid Andreevich, apparently, didn’t put on a fur coat, he went in a coat... Life passed, as if he had never lived...” he mutters. “To hear a distant sound, as if from the sky, the sound of a string that has broken, sad, it freezes. There is silence, and you can only hear how far away. garden they knock on a tree with an ax.”
