Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism | The Cherry Orchard - Harvey Pitcher (essay date 1973)

Harvey Pitcher (essay date 1973)

[Pitcher is an English critic who has written extensively about Russian literature. In the following excerpt, he contrasts The Cherry Orchard with Chekhov's other plays.]

What most clearly distinguishes the content of The Cherry Orchard from its predecessors is that it has by far the simplest of Chekhov's plots. The play's 'shape' is no more than a straight line, which passes through the threat to the estate, ineffectual attempts to save it, the sale, and the dispersal of the family. It is the simplest and also the least dramatic of Chekhov's plots, in which for the first time, as he himself noted, 'there isn't a single pistol shot'. A certain amount of suspense is generated in Act III, but whether or not the estate has been sold seems trivial when compared, for example, with the outcome of the duel in Three Sisters. The final act may be very poignant, but again it has none of that deep...

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