The Cherry Orchard | Daniel Charles Gerould (essay date 1958)
Daniel Charles Gerould (essay date 1958)
[Gerould is an American playwright, critic, and educator who has written and edited several works about drama. In the following essay, he argues that The Cherry Orchard is a true comedy rather than a tragedy, social drama, or problem play.]
Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard often occupies a peculiar position in the general education curriculum. Since it is included in many anthologies of world drama, The Cherry Orchard is readily available for use in those humanities courses which would consider such works as Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Jonson's Volpone, along with two or three plays by Shakespeare, as the appropriate texts for a study of the drama. The critical reputation of Chekhov's play, coupled with this accident of availability, leads those who feel that modern drama should somehow be represented in a humanities course to select The Cherry Orchard for this purpose. Thus...
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