The Cherry Orchard Criticism
The Cherry Orchard, written by Anton Chekhov, is widely regarded as one of his greatest plays, offering a poignant depiction of a family of Russian aristocrats who face the loss of their ancestral estate amidst the socio-economic changes of late nineteenth-century Russia. The play’s realism and artistry reveal the human condition through the plight of the Ranevskaya family, as highlighted by Virginia Woolf's observation that Chekhov presents life "as it is, without veils." The narrative centers around the Ranevskayas and their associates as they grapple with the imminent sale of their home and cherry orchard. Lopakhin, the son of a former serf, advises them to develop the land for profit, yet the family remains indecisive, ultimately leading to Lopakhin acquiring the estate himself.
The play skillfully interweaves tragedy and comedy, portraying the Ranevskayas in a comic light despite the ostensibly tragic loss of their home. Chekhov subtitled the play "A Comedy," capturing the absurdity and ineffectuality of his characters, which underscores a central theme: the triumph of ignorance and vulgarity over nobility and tradition. Critics like Daniel Charles Gerould perceive it as a true comedy, while others, like Francis Fergusson, admire Chekhov's reduction of dramatic art to its essentials, fostering new growths in drama.
Critical reception of The Cherry Orchard has evolved since its initial staging by the Moscow Art Theater, co-directed by Constantin Stanislavsky, who interpreted it as a tragedy. Despite early mixed reviews, Stanislavsky’s tragic interpretation gained prominence. Dorothy Sayers noted the play's tragicomic nature, asserting that "the whole tragedy of futility is that it never succeeds in achieving tragedy." Joseph Wood Krutch praises Chekhov’s ability to weave delicate threads into a compelling whole, demonstrating the play's subtlety and Chekhov’s mastery as a dramatist. The play’s structure and themes reflect the complexities of a society in transition, balancing humor with poignant social commentary, as seen in J.L. Styan's analysis of its act development and John Tulloch's thematic exploration of social mobility.
Contents
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Cherry Orchard, The
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Ghosts and The Cherry Orchard: The Theater of Modern Realism
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In the excerpt below, Fergusson illuminates the carefully built structure underlying the seemingly plotless Cherry Orchard.
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"The Cherry Orchard" as Comedy
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In the following essay, Latham assembles evidence for her contention that The Cherry Orchard is not a tragedy, as it was commonly viewed, but rather a comedy, as Chekhov insisted. Latham states: "In his revelation of the ludicrous in human nature Chekhov successfully achieves a very rare blend of sympathetic and judicial comedy" in the play.
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Chekhov: The Cherry Orchard
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In this essay, Gaskell examines Chekhov's 'uniquely honest and sensitive vision of life' in The Cherry Orchard.
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Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard
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In the essay below, Hahn interprets The Cherry Orchard as a comedy in the classical sense, with social and cultural significance. Hahn asserts: "The often comic characters in the play inhabit a world that is nonetheless felt to be humanly and historically serious."
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The Goddess of Love and the Tree of Knowledge: Some Elements of Myth and Folklore in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard
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In the following essay, the critics argue that "archetypes from myth and folklore" inform The Cherry Orchard and exert significant influence on its plot.
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Chekhov and the Drama of Social Change: The Cherry Orchard
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In this essay, Watson examines a number of factors contributing to the life-like quality of The Cherry Orchard.
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Critical Reception
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In the essay below, Rayfield surveys European and American responses to, and interpretations of, The Cherry Orchard throughout the twentieth century.
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Ghosts and The Cherry Orchard: The Theater of Modern Realism
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The Cherry Orchard (Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism)
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Review of The Cherry Orchard
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One of the most prominent figures in twentieth-century literature, Woolf rebelled as a novelist against traditional narrative techniques, developing a highly individualized style employing the stream-of-consciousness mode. She was also esteemed for her critical essays, which cover a broad range of topics and contain some of her finest prose. In the following review of a performance of The Cherry Orchard, Woolf asserts that the play is foreign to English sensibilities yet is emotionally moving regardless.
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The Cherry Orchard
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In the following review of a performance of The Cherry Orchard, Krutch offers the play as evidence of Chekhov's genius and singularity as a dramatist. He discusses the production's limitations yet praises the intelligence of the direction and the play, highlighting Chekhov's unique contributions to theater.
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Irving Deer (essay date 1958)
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In the following essay, he perceives the dialogue in The Cherry Orchard both as a manifestation of the characters' inner turmoil and as a means of avoiding action.
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The Cherry Orchard: A True Comedy
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In the following essay, he argues that The Cherry Orchard is a true comedy rather than a tragedy, social drama, or problem play.
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The Cherry Orchard: Historical Allegory and Structural Symmetry
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In the following essay, Kelson argues that the superficially formless plot of The Cherry Orchard is undergirded by extensive patterns of historical allegory, structural symmetry, and myth.
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The Cherry Orchard
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In the following excerpt, he undertakes a detailed explication of the fourth act of The Cherry Orchard in order to reveal the development toward the climax and subsequent denouement of the play. The Cherry Orchard is a play which represents an attitude to life under stress and a way of life in transition. The orchard itself summarizes the hopes and regrets, the desires and ideals of this way of life. Just as the orchard with the town on the horizon epitomizes all Russia, so the play in its structure at once encompasses the range of social class from landowner to domestic serf, and brings the past hard against the future in its three or four generations. It achieves in its design as wide a statement as a naturalistic play could hope to do. In the last act of the play, this structure of change and decay is welded into a firm whole, both because its parts are here drawn together and because the sympathies of the audience are under careful restraint and precise control. In this act the crescendo of finely chosen discords is heard and felt with inimitable impact. The following account is written, not to repeat what is well known, but to discover how the impact is caused.
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The Cherry Orchard
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In the following excerpt, Kerr discusses the merits of Chekhov's and Stanislavsky's respective conceptions of The Cherry Orchard.
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Dynamics of Drama: Theory and Method of Analysis
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In the following essay, he contrasts dramatic analysis and literary interpretations of The Cherry Orchard, maintaining that most critics fail to acknowledge the distinction.
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The Cherry Orchard
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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, noting its simpler plot and lack of dramatic tension compared to Chekhov's earlier works.
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The Cherry Orchard
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In the following excerpt, Tulloch analyzes the thematic and symbolic structure of The Cherry Orchard, noting that it is a play about social mobility and change, contrasting it with Chekhov's earlier works that focus on the problem of choice among the intelligentsia.
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Linguistic and Phonic Patterns in The Cherry Orchard
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In the following essay, Anderson proposes that linguistic and phonic patterns reinforce the structure and meaning of The Cherry Orchard.
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Review of The Cherry Orchard
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- Further Reading