Indifference in the work of cherry orchard. "The Cherry Orchard": Analysis of Chekhov's Work, Images of Heroes
What is indifference and can there be anything worse than it? Indifference is absolute indifference to another person. It manifests itself in relation to everything that surrounds, to the feelings and fates of other people, to events. The indifferent is indifferent to what is happening around. All of us, in one way or another, are faced with this quality, so we are arranged that first our problems and then maybe we'll see what is happening around.
The topic of indifference is raised in many contemporary works of Russian literature.
So in the play by Alexei Maksimovich Gorky "At the Bottom", we will talk about the current scourge of society - indifference. All the characters gathered in the shelter are united by indifference to those around and even indifferent to each other. They do not feel sorry for the drunken actor and the dying girl, they laugh at Nastya, who enthusiastically reads novels. One bow somehow tries to cheer everyone up and find a kind word for everyone, but one in the field is not a warrior and understands that the indifference of others cannot be corrected: "... It always happens this way: a person thinks to himself - I'm doing well! Grab - and people are unhappy ... ". All the heroes of the work are in dark colors, everyone thinks about their problems: what to drink, what to eat, where to spend the night. I think that in this situation it may not be up to sympathy for another, who would have sympathized with themselves, but how, apparently, humanity is lost, and the positive qualities of people are lost.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov discusses indifference in his work "The Cherry Orchard". Lyubov Ranevskaya is a vivid image of indifference in the work. She wants to sell the house with a garden in which she spent her childhood, and she doesn't care who gets it, as long as there is profit. She thinks only about her problems: how to return quickly to Paris to her lover. But in childhood, many dreams of the heroine were associated with this very garden, she was not indifferent to him, looking into the garden she believed in a wonderful future. But when a house with a garden was sold, the merchant Lopakhin decided to cut down a beautiful garden at the root, society showed its indifference, no one cares about this. Knowing the heroine's attitude to the garden, Lopakhin gloats over the fate of the garden: "Hey, musicians, play, I wish to listen to you! Come all to watch how Yermolai Lopakhin has enough ax in the cherry orchard, as the trees fall to the ground!" , were feigned, and she was indifferent to him, more worried about her unfulfilled dreams. Lopakhin is simply an egoist, he pursues his personal interests in obtaining benefits.
So what could be worse than indifference? Maybe indifference, so this is the same as indifference, a state of complete disinterest. Worse than indifference can only be total indifference, indifference in general to everything: to the world, to the environment and to oneself as well. Such indifference destroys a person from the inside, his soul, he lives one day and ceases to be a person with his goals and dreams. Indifference will still manifest itself in our life in various situations, but it is worth at least sometimes to find a moment and help your neighbor, so that the soul remains alive.
Updated: 2017-11-28
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»Is very multifaceted and ambiguous. The depth and imagery of the characters are striking in their uniqueness. No less amazing is the artistic load placed on the landscape, thanks to which the play got its name. For Chekhov's landscape is not only a background, the cherry orchard, in my opinion, is one of the main characters.
The Cherry Orchard is a secluded, quiet corner, dear to the heart of everyone who grew up and lives here. He is handsome, handsome with that calm, sweet, cozy beauty that so attracts a person to his home. nature has always influenced the souls and hearts of people, if, of course, the soul is still alive in them and the heart has not hardened.
The heroes of The Cherry Orchard, Ranevskaya, Gaev and everyone whose life has been associated with the cherry orchard for a long time, love him: the delicate, subtle beauty of flowering cherry trees has left an indelible mark on their souls. The entire action of the play takes place against the backdrop of this garden. The cherry orchard is invisibly present on the stage all the time: they talk about its fate, they try to save it, argue about it, philosophize, dream about it, remember it.
“After all, I was born here,” says Ranevskaya, “my father and mother, my grandfather lived here, I love this house, I don’t understand my life without a cherry orchard, and if you really need to sell, then sell me and the garden. .. "
For Ranevskaya and Gaev, the cherry orchard is an inseparable part of the family nest, a small homeland where their childhood and youth passed, their best dreams and hopes were born and faded here, the cherry orchard became a part of themselves. The sale of the cherry orchard symbolizes the end of their aimlessly lived life, from which only bitter memories remain. These people, possessing subtle spiritual qualities, perfectly developed and educated, cannot preserve their cherry orchard, the best part of their life,
Anya and Trofimov also grew up in the cherry orchard, but they are still very young, full of vitality and energy, so they leave the cherry orchard with ease, with joy.
Another hero, Ermolai Lopakhin, looks at the garden from the point of view of the “circulation of the case”. He busily offers Ranevskaya and Gayev to split the estate into summer cottages, and cut down the garden.
While reading the play, you begin to be imbued with the concerns of its heroes, worry about the fate of the cherry orchard itself. The question involuntarily arises: why is the cherry orchard still dying? Was it really impossible to do at least something in order to save the garden, which is so dear to the characters in the work? Chekhov gives a direct answer to this: you can. The whole tragedy lies in the fact that the owners of the garden are not capable of this by their nature, they either live in the past, or are too frivolous and indifferent to the future.
Ranevskaya and Gaev worry not so much about the fate of the cherry orchard, but about their own unfulfilled dreams and aspirations. They talk much more about experiences, but when the cherry orchard is solved, they easily and quickly return to their usual way of life and their real worries.
Anya and Trofimov are completely focused on the future, which seems to them bright and carefree. For them, a cherry orchard is an unwanted burden that must be gotten rid of in order to plant a new, progressive cherry orchard in the future.
Lopakhin perceives the cherry orchard as an object of his business interests, the opportunity to conduct a profitable deal, he does not care about the fate of the garden itself. For all his penchant for poetry, business and benefit come first for him.
So who is to blame for the loss of the cherry orchard? The answer is simple and categorical - all characters are guilty. Inaction of some, frivolity and indifference of others - this is the reason for the death of the garden. From the very beginning, it is clear that in the image of a dying garden Chekhov displays the old noble Russia and asks the reader the same question: who is to blame for the fact that the old society, the old way of life is becoming a thing of the past under the onslaught of new business people? The answer is still the same - the indifference and inaction of society.
Ranevskaya in the system of images of Chekhov's heroines
The play "The Cherry Orchard" became the swan song of A.P. Chekhov, occupying the stage of world theaters for many years. The success of this work was due not only to its subject matter, which causes controversy to this day, but also to the images that Chekhov created. For him, the presence of women in his works was very important: “Without a woman, a story that there is a machine without vapors,” he wrote to one of his acquaintances. At the beginning of the 20th century, the role of women in society began to change. The image of Ranevskaya in the play "The Cherry Orchard" became a vivid caricature of the emancipated contemporaries of Anton Pavlovich, whom he observed in large numbers in Monte Carlo.
Chekhov carefully worked out every female image: facial expressions, gestures, manners, speech, because through them he conveyed the idea of the character and feelings of the heroines. The appearance and name also contributed to this.
The image of Ranevskaya Lyubov Andreevna has become one of the most controversial, and this is largely due to the actresses who play this role. Chekhov himself wrote that: "It's not difficult to play Ranevskaya, you just need to take the right tone from the very beginning ...".
Her image is complex, but there are no contradictions in it, since she is true to her internal logic of behavior.
Ranevskaya's life story
Description and characteristics of Ranevskaya in the play "The Cherry Orchard" is given through her story about herself, from the words of other heroes and author's remarks. Acquaintance with the central female character begins literally from the first remarks, and the story of Ranevskaya's life is revealed in the very first act. Lyubov Andreevna returned from Paris, where she lived for five years, and this return was caused by the urgent need to resolve the issue of the fate of the estate put up for auction for debts.
Lyubov Andreevna married "a sworn attorney, a non-nobleman ...", "who only did debts," he also "drank terribly" and "died of champagne." Was she happy in this marriage? Unlikely. After the death of her husband, Ranevskaya "unfortunately" fell in love with another. But her passionate romance did not last long. Her young son died tragically, and, feeling guilty, Lyubov Andreevna went abroad forever. However, her lover went after her “mercilessly, rudely”, and after several years of painful passions “he robbed ... threw, got along with another,” and she, in turn, tries to poison herself. Seventeen-year-old daughter Anya comes to Paris for her mother. Oddly enough, this young girl partly understands her mother and takes pity on her. Throughout the play, the daughter's sincere love and affection are visible. After spending only five months in Russia, Ranevskaya immediately after the sale of the estate, taking the money intended for Anya, returns to Paris to her lover.
Characteristics of Ranevskaya
On the one hand, Ranevskaya is a beautiful woman, educated, with a subtle sense of beauty, kind and generous, who is loved by others, but her shortcomings border on vice and therefore are so noticeable. “She's a good person. Easy, simple, ”says Lopakhin. He truly loves her, but his love is so unobtrusive that no one knows about it. Her brother says almost the same: “She is good, kind, glorious ...” but she is “vicious. You can feel it in her slightest movement. " Absolutely all the characters speak about her inability to manage money, and she herself perfectly understands this: “I have always littered with money without restraint, like a madwoman ...”; “… She has nothing left. And my mother does not understand! ”, Says Anya,“ Sister has not yet lost the habit of wasting money, ”Gayev echoes her. Ranevskaya is used to living without denying herself pleasure, and if her relatives are trying to squeeze their expenses, then Lyubov Andreevna simply does not succeed, she is ready to give the last money to a random passer-by, although Varya has nothing to feed the household.
At first glance, Ranevskaya's experiences are very deep, but if you pay attention to the author's remarks, it becomes clear that this is only an appearance. For example, while waiting in excitement for her brother from the auction, she hums lezginka. And this is a vivid example of her whole being. She seems to distance herself from unpleasant moments, trying to fill them with actions that can bring positive emotions. The phrase that characterizes Ranevskaya from The Cherry Orchard: “You must not deceive yourself, you must at least once in your life look the truth straight in the eye,” says that Lyubov Andreevna is cut off from reality, stuck in her world.
“Oh, my garden! After a dark, rainy autumn and a cold winter, you are young again, full of happiness, the heavenly angels have not left you ... "- with these words the Ranevskaya Garden greets after a long separation, the garden, without which she" does not understand her life ", with which she is inseparable her childhood and youth are connected. And it seems that Lyubov Andreevna loves her estate and cannot live without it, but she does not try to make any attempts to save him, thereby betraying him. For most of the play, Ranevskaya hopes that the estate issue will be resolved by itself, without her participation, although it is her decision that is the main one. Although Lopakhin's proposal is the most realistic way to save him. The merchant foresees the future, saying that it is quite possible that "the summer resident ... will take care of the farm, and then your cherry orchard will become happy, rich, luxurious", because at the moment the garden is in a state of disrepair, and does not bring any benefit or nailed to its owners ...
For Ranevskaya, the cherry orchard meant her inseparable connection with the past and her ancestral attachment to the Motherland. She is a part of him, just as he is a part of her. She realizes that the sale of the garden is an inevitable payment for a past life, and this is evident in her monologue about sins, in which she realizes them and takes upon herself, asking the Lord not to send great trials, and the sale of the estate becomes their kind of atonement: “My nerves better ... I sleep well. "
Ranevskaya is an echo of the cultural past, which is literally thinning before our eyes and disappearing from the present. Perfectly aware of the perniciousness of her passion, realizing that this love is pulling her to the bottom, she returns to Paris, knowing that "this money will not last long."
Love for daughters looks very strange against this background. An adopted daughter, dreaming of going to a monastery, gets a job as a housekeeper for neighbors, since she does not have at least a hundred rubles to donate, and her mother simply does not attach any importance to this. His own daughter Anya, left at the age of twelve in the care of a careless uncle, in the old estate is very worried about the future of her mother, and is saddened by the imminent separation. "... I will work, help you ..." - says a young girl who is not yet familiar with life.
The further fate of Ranevskaya is very unclear, although Chekhov himself said that: "Only death can calm such a woman."
Characteristics of the image The description of the life of the heroine of the play will be useful to pupils of the 10th grade when preparing an essay on the theme "The image of Ranevskaya in the play" The Cherry Orchard "by Chekhov."
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Let us recall Chekhov's stories. Lyrical mood, piercing sadness and laughter ... Such are his plays - unusual plays, and even more so, seemed strange to Chekhov's contemporaries. But it was in them that the "watercolors" of Chekhov's colors, his heartfelt lyricism, his piercing accuracy and frankness were most vividly and deeply manifested.
Chekhov's dramaturgy has several plans, and what the characters say is by no means what the author himself hides behind their remarks. And what he hides, perhaps, is not at all what he would like to convey to the viewer ...
From this multidimensionality - the difficulty with the definition of the genre. For example, the play
As we know from the very beginning, the estate is doomed; the heroes - Ranevskaya, Gaev, Anya and Varya - are also doomed - they have nothing to live on, nothing to hope for. The way out proposed by Lopakhin is impossible for them. Everything for them symbolizes the past, some kind of old, wonderful life, when everything was easy and simple, and they even knew how to dry cherries and send them to Moscow in wagons ... But now the garden has grown old, fruitful years are rare, the method of making cherries is forgotten ... Constant trouble is felt behind all the words and actions of the heroes ... And even the hopes for the future expressed by one of the most active heroes - Lopakhin - are unconvincing. Petya Trofimov's words are also unconvincing: "Russia is our garden," "we must work." After all, Trofimov himself is an eternal student who in no way can start any serious activity. The trouble is both in the way the relations between the heroes develop (Lolakhin and Varya love each other, but for some reason they do not marry), and in their conversations. Everyone talks about what interests him at the moment, and does not listen to others. Chekhov's heroes are characterized by tragic "deafness", therefore important and petty, tragic and stupid get in the way of dialogues.
Indeed, in The Cherry Orchard, as in human life, tragic circumstances (material difficulties, the inability of the heroes to act), dramatic (the life of any of the heroes) and comic (for example, Petya Trofimov's fall from the stairs at the most tense moment) are mixed. There is discord everywhere, even in the fact that the servants behave like masters. Firs says, comparing the past and the present, that "everything is in disarray." The existence of this person seems to remind the young that life began long ago, even before them. It is also characteristic that he is forgotten on the estate ...
And the famous “sound of a broken string” is also a symbol. If a stretched string is readiness, decisiveness, efficiency, then a broken string is the end. True, there is still a vague hope, after all, the neighboring landowner Simeonov-Pischik was lucky: he is no better than others, but they found clay, then a railway passed ...
Life is both sad and cheerful. She is tragic, unpredictable - this is what Chekhov says in his plays. And that is why it is so difficult to define their genre - after all, the author simultaneously shows all aspects of our life ...
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, like other writers, was interested in the Essay on the topic of human happiness, love, harmony. In most of the writer's works: "Ionych", "Gooseberry", "About Love", the heroes fail in love. They cannot make up their own happiness, let alone others. In the story "The Lady in the Dog" - everything is different. When Gurov and Anna Sergeevna part, she returns to her city S., and he returns to Moscow. “A month would pass, and it seemed to him that Anna Sergeevna would be covered in a fog in his memory, and only occasionally would he dream with a touching smile, as others dreamed. But more than a month passed, a deep one, and everything was clear in memory, as if he had parted with Anna Sergeyevna only yesterday. And the memories were warming up more and more. " Here is a twist in the development of the plot. Love does not grow weak? does not perish from collision with life, does not turn out to be insolvent. On the contrary, it evokes in Gurov a disgust for a drowsy, philistine prosperous existence, a desire for a different, new life. The familiar environment causes an almost squeamish disgust in the hero. He clearly sees the hypocrisy and vulgarity of those around him. “- Dmitry Dmitrich! - What? - And just now you were right: the sturgeon is smelly! These words, so ordinary, for some reason suddenly angered Gurov, seemed humiliating and unclean to him. What wild morals, what faces! What stupid nights, what uninteresting days! Furious game of cards, gluttony, drunkenness, constant talk all about one thing ... a short, wingless life ... and you cannot leave, as if you are sitting in a madhouse or in prison companies. " What a storm and range of feelings love creates in Gurov! Its cleansing power is beneficial. It never occurs to the writer to condemn the heroes for "sinful feelings." They are both married, breaking their vows. But the reader's idea is clear to the author that life without love is even more sinful. Anna Sergeevna and Gurov love each other - this is their consolation, an incentive to live, because everyone has the right to happiness. “Anna Sergeevna and he loved each other as very close, dear people ... it seemed to them that fate itself intended them for each other, and it was not clear why he was married, and she was married ... And it seemed that more a little - and a solution will be found, and then a new, wonderful life will begin; and it was clear to both of them that the end was still far away and that the most difficult and difficult thing was just beginning. This is an almost romantic story of a realist Chekhov about love, its great strength and purity. Reading the story, you understand that only with a loved one you can understand all the beauty of the world, feel the fullness of life and that it is necessary to protect this
Before us is a play with the prosaic title "The Cherry Orchard". I wonder what the author meant by a cherry orchard? “All Russia is our garden,” says one of the characters in the play, Petya Trofimov.
It is interesting that Anton Pavlovich Chekhov himself grew a garden in Melikhovo. In Crimea, near his house, on a high elevation, the writer laid out a southern garden, which became his brainchild. He raised it according to a well thought out plan and created it as a work of art.
The cherry orchard in the play is the embodiment of all that is beautiful, the personification of beauty and poetry. This is one of the heroes of the play. He arises in her constantly, as if reminding of himself. Introduced into the cues of the characters, the garden becomes a participant in the action.
The magnificent Chekhov's garden is connected in the play with the destinies of three generations: past, present and future. Thus, Chekhov very widely pushes the time captured in his play. The garden itself embodies past culture and beauty. This is how Ranevskaya and Gaev perceives him. For them, it is associated with childhood. According to Ranevskaya, “happiness woke up” with her every morning when she looked out of the window at these trees.
For Lopakhin, the garden is wonderful only as a good “location”. According to him, “the only remarkable thing about this garden is that it is very large”. For him, this is a business commercial site. He believes that cherries “do not bring any income now,” but a poppy field is another matter! He is about to cut down the old cherry orchard, and now the threat hangs over the trees like a sword of Damocles.
Lopakhin feels like the master of life. "Come all to watch how Yermolai Lopakhin will stop with an ax in the cherry orchard, how the trees will fall to the ground!" How much cynicism and courage are in these words! "We will set up summer cottages!" - he blurts out. At the end of the play, the threat is triggered: the ax knocks, the trees fall.
Indifference to what is happening is felt in the words of Petya Trofimov. He approaches the eternal human value - beauty - from a narrow class position and begins to discredit the cherry orchard, seeing for some reason behind every tree a tortured serf slave. “The earth is great and beautiful, there are many wonderful places on it,” he soothes Anya.
Only Anya, bright, gentle and enthusiastic, aspiring to the future, is ready to plant a new garden more beautiful than the previous one. She alone is worthy of the beauty that is contained in the cherry orchard.
The play presents, as it were, two worlds: the world of dreams and the world of reality. Ranevskaya and Lopakhin live in different worlds. Therefore, they do not hear each other. Lyubov Andreevna lives in dreams, she is all in her love, in her fantasies. She seems to be not here: part of her remained in Paris, despite the fact that at first she did not even read the messages from there, and part returned to this house, to this garden, but not today, but to the one that she remembers from childhood ... From her shell, filled with the pink ether of dreams, she sees life, but cannot feel it for what it really is. Her phrase: “I know, they wrote to me”, referring to the death of the nanny, her attitude to Varvara is not cruelty, not indifference at all. It's just that Ranevskaya is not here, she is in her own world.
It is customary to argue that Gaev, Ranevskaya's brother, is, as it were, a distorted image of her. There is a clear stretch in this. He is just on the border of these two worlds. He is not an idle dreamer, but, apparently, his existence is not quite real, if at his age they say about him "young-green".
But Lopakhin is perhaps the only person in reality. But it’s not that simple. Lopakhin combines both reality and a dream. But his “dreams” lead to action: the memory of all the good that Ranevskaya did for him makes him look for a way out of the situation in which they found themselves. But the deal ends with the purchase of a cherry orchard.
It seems very accurate to compare the director Efros, who said, while working at the Taganka Theater on this performance, that all the characters in the play are children playing in a minefield, and only Lopakhin, a serious person, warns of danger, but children carry him away with their play, he is forgotten, but soon remembers again, as if waking up. Only he alone constantly remembers the danger. One Lopakhin.
The question of the relationship between dreams and reality in the play "The Cherry Orchard" was reflected in the debate about the genre. It is known that Chekhov himself called the play a comedy, but Stanislavsky staged it as a drama. Nevertheless, let us listen to the opinion of the author. Chekhov's play "The Cherry Orchard" is rather a sad thought about the fate of Russia than a revolutionary appeal, as they sometimes try to present it.
There are no ways of rearranging life, no concrete actions in the play. It is generally accepted that Chekhov saw the future of Russia in the images of Trofimov and Anya. But the owners of the garden are hereditary nobles Gaev and Ranevskaya. This garden has belonged to their family for many, many years. And the author is deeply sympathetic to these people, despite the idleness and idleness. And here the question arises about the ambiguity of the play.
Take, for example, the image of the owner of the garden - Ranevskaya. It is known that Chekhov worked with great enthusiasm on this role and intended it for the actress OL Knipper, his wife. This image has always caused conflicting rumors and became one of Chekhov's mysteries. In response to the question of how this image should be played, Chekhov replied: “Fingers, fingers in rings; she clings to everything, but everything falls out of her hands, and her head is empty. " This is the key to the image, suggested by the author himself.
Ranevskaya has such wonderful character traits as kindness, devotion to the feeling of love. She is busy with arranging for her adopted daughter Varya, takes pity on Firs's servant, gives her wallet to the peasants who came to say goodbye to her. But sometimes this kindness is simply the result of the wealth that she possesses and which reveals itself in the sparkling of the rings on her fingers. She herself admits her extravagance: "I have always littered with money without restraint, like a madman."
Ranevskaya does not bring her concern for people to its logical conclusion. Varya is left without a livelihood after the sale of the estate and is forced to go to strangers. Firs remains in the locked house, because Lyubov Andreevna forgot to check whether he was sent to the hospital.
Ranevskaya is characterized by frivolity, a quick change of feelings. So, she turns to God and begs to forgive her sins, but at the same time offers to arrange an “evening”. The duality of feelings is also reflected in relation to Russia. She loves her homeland, the cherry orchard, her old house with huge windows, into which naughty branches climb. But this feeling is unstable. As soon as she receives a telegram from her ex-lover who robbed her, she forgets the grievance and goes to Paris. One gets the impression that Ranevskaya is devoid of an inner core. Her frivolity and carelessness lead to the fact that the garden is sold, the estate goes into the wrong hands.
Will Lopakhin become the new owner? It is clear that we are faced with a representative of a new class, and this class is pushing the tribal nobility out of Russian life. Lopakhin both attracts and frightens Chekhov. The writer makes it clear that Lopakhin is only a temporary master of life. He introduces himself to Ranevskaya as a grateful friend, and he himself begins to chop down the garden even before her departure. No, he is not the owner of the cherry orchard, but only its temporary owner
"The Cherry Orchard" is the last play in Chekhov's work, his "swan song". In the play, the cherry orchard united all the main characters and became a symbol of the beautiful, unchanging and indestructible. He became a symbol of the country. Russia. True, the writer's dream has not yet come true that the whole of Russia would be a garden. But it depends on us whether it remains a dream or comes true.