Description of the garden in the play The Cherry Orchard. The beginning of a new era in the play “The Cherry Orchard”

Lyubov Andreevna lived abroad for five years, I don’t know what she’s become now... She’s a good person. An easy, simple person. I remember when I was a boy of about fifteen, my late father - he was selling in a shop here in the village - hit me in the face with his fist, blood came out of my nose... Then we came together to the yard for some reason, and he was drunk. Lyubov Andreevna, as I remember now, still young, so thin, led me to the washstand, in this very room, in the nursery. “Don’t cry, he says, little man, he’ll heal before the wedding...”

A peasant... My father, it’s true, was a peasant, but here I am in a white vest and yellow shoes. With a pig's snout in a Kalash row... Just now he's rich, a lot of money, but if you think about it and figure it out, then the man is a man... (Flips through the book.) I read the book and didn’t understand anything. I read and fell asleep.

You can hear two carriages approaching the house. Lopakhin and Dunyasha quickly leave. The stage is empty. There is noise in the neighboring rooms. Firs, who had gone to meet Lyubov Andreevna, hurriedly passes across the stage, leaning on a stick; he is in an old livery and a tall hat; He says something to himself, but not a single word can be heard. The noise behind the stage is getting louder and louder. Voice: “Let’s go here...” Lyubov Andreevna, Anya and Charlotte Ivanovna with a dog on a chain, dressed for travel. Varya in a coat and scarf, Gaev, Simeonov-Pishchik, Lopakhin, Dunyasha with a bundle and an umbrella, a servant with things - everyone is walking through the room.

She looked back at him.

I will just bow to you and leave immediately. (Kisses his hand warmly.) I was ordered to wait until the morning, but I didn’t have enough patience...

If a lot of remedies are offered against a disease, this means that the disease is incurable. I think, I’m racking my brains, I have a lot of money, a lot, and that means, in essence, none. It would be nice to receive an inheritance from someone, it would be nice to marry our Anya to a very rich man, it would be nice to go to Yaroslavl and try his luck with the aunt countess. My aunt is very, very rich.

Anya appears at the door.

She married a non-nobleman and behaved in a manner that cannot be said to be very virtuous. 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.

Surprisingly, something got into my right eye... I couldn’t see well. And on Thursday, when I was in district court...

The Cherry Orchard as the central image of the play

Action last work A.P. Chekhov takes place on the estate of Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya, which in a few months will be sold at auction for debts, and it is the image of the garden in the play “The Cherry Orchard” that occupies a central place. However, from the very beginning the presence of such a huge garden causes bewilderment. This circumstance was subjected to rather harsh criticism by I.A. Bunin, hereditary nobleman and landowner. He was perplexed how one could extol cherry trees, which are not particularly beautiful, have gnarled trunks and small flowers. Bunin also drew attention to the fact that in manorial estates there were never gardens of only one direction; as a rule, they were mixed. If you do the math, the garden covers an area of ​​approximately five hundred hectares! To care for such a garden, a very large number of people are needed. Obviously, before the abolition of serfdom, the garden was kept in order, and it is quite possible that the harvest brought profit to its owners. But after 1860, the garden began to fall into disrepair, since the owners did not have the money or desire to hire workers. And it’s scary to imagine what impassable jungle the garden has turned into over 40 years, since the play takes place at the turn of the century, evidence of which can be seen in the walk of the owners and servants not through beautiful bushes, but across a field.

All this shows that no specific everyday meaning of the image of the cherry orchard was intended in the play. Lopakhin singled out only its main advantage: “The only remarkable thing about this garden is that it is big.” But it is precisely the image of the cherry orchard in the play that Chekhov presented as a reflection of the ideal meaning of an object in artistic space, built from the words characters, which throughout stage history idealize and embellish old garden. For the playwright blooming garden became a symbol of ideal, but fading beauty. And this fleeting and destructible charm of the past, contained in thoughts, feelings and actions, is attractive to both the playwright and the audience. By connecting the fate of the estate with the characters, Chekhov connected nature with social significance by contrasting them, thereby revealing the thoughts and actions of his characters. He tries to remind us what the true purpose of people is, why spiritual renewal is necessary, what the beauty and happiness of existence lies in.

The Cherry Orchard is a means of revealing characters' personalities

The image of the cherry orchard in the plot development of the play has great importance. It is through the attitude towards him that one gets acquainted with the worldview of the heroes: their place in the historical changes that befell Russia becomes clear. The viewer is introduced to the garden in May, during the wonderful time of flowering, and its aroma fills the surrounding space. The owner of the garden returns from abroad after being absent for a long time. However, over the years that she traveled, nothing changed in the house. Even the nursery, which has not had a single child in it for a long time, bears the same name. What does a garden mean to Ranevskaya?

This is her childhood, she even imagines her mother, her youth and her not very successful marriage to a man, like her, a frivolous spender; the love passion that arose after the death of her husband; death youngest son. She fled from all this to France, leaving everything behind, hoping that escape would help her forget. But even abroad she did not find peace and happiness. And now she has to decide the fate of the estate. Lopakhin offers her the only way out - to cut down the garden, which does not bring any benefit and is very neglected, and give the freed land for dachas. But for Ranevskaya, brought up in the best aristocratic traditions, everything that is replaced by money and measured by it is gone. Having rejected Lopakhin’s proposal, she again and again asks for his advice, hoping that it is possible to save the garden without destroying it: “What should we do? Teach what? Lyubov Andreevna still does not dare to step over her convictions, and the loss of the garden becomes a bitter loss for her. However, she admitted that with the sale of the estate her hands were free, and without much thought, leaving her daughters and brother, she was going to leave her homeland again.

Gaev goes through ways to save the estate, but they are all ineffective and too fantastic: receive an inheritance, marry Anya to a rich man, ask for money from a rich aunt, or re-borrow from someone. However, he guesses about this: “... I have a lot of money... that means... not one.” He is also bitter about the loss of his family nest, but his feelings are not as deep as he would like to show. After the auction, his sadness dissipates as soon as he hears the sounds of his beloved billiards.

For Ranevskaya and Gaev, the cherry orchard is a link to the past, where there was no place for thoughts about the financial side of life. This is a happy, carefree time when there was no need to decide anything, there were no shocks, and they were the masters.

Anya loves the garden as the only bright thing in her life. “I’m home!” Tomorrow morning I’ll get up and run to the garden...” She is sincerely worried, but cannot do anything to save the estate, relying on the decisions of her older relatives. Although in fact, she is much more reasonable than her mother and uncle. Largely under the influence of Petya Trofimov, the garden ceases to mean the same to Anya as it did to the older generation of the family. She outgrows this somewhat painful attachment to her native land, and later she herself is perplexed that she has stopped loving the garden: “Why don’t I love the cherry orchard as before... it seemed to me that there was no better place like our garden." And in final scenes she is the only resident of the sold estate who looks into the future with optimism: “...We will plant new garden, more luxurious than this, you will see it, you will understand ... "

For Petya Trofimov, the garden is a living monument to serfdom. It is Trofimov who says that the Ranevskaya family still lives in the past, in which they were the owners of “living souls,” and this imprint of slavery is on them: “...you...no longer notice that you live in debt, at someone else’s expense...”, and openly declares that Ranevskaya and Gaev are simply afraid of real life.

The only person who fully understands the value of the cherry orchard is the “new Russian” Lopakhin. He sincerely admires it, calling it a place “there is nothing more beautiful in the world.” He dreams of clearing the territory of trees as soon as possible, but not for the purpose of destruction, but in order to transfer this land into a new form, which will be seen by “grandchildren and great-grandchildren.” He sincerely tried to help Ranevskaya save the estate and feels sorry for her, but now the garden belongs to him, and unbridled rejoicing is strangely mixed with compassion for Lyubov Andreevna.

Symbolic image of the cherry orchard

The play “The Cherry Orchard,” written at the turn of the era, became a reflection of the changes taking place in the country. The old has already gone, and is being replaced by an unknown future. For each of the participants in the play, the garden is its own, but symbolic image the cherry orchard - like the passing of the past for everyone except Lopakhin and Trofimov, one. “The earth is great and beautiful, there are many wonderful places on it,” says Petya, thereby showing that people new era The people he belongs to are not typically attached to their roots, and this is alarming. People who loved the garden easily abandoned it, and this is frightening, because if “All Russia is our garden,” as Petya Trofimov says, what will happen if everyone gives up on the future of Russia in the same way? And remembering history, we see: after just a little more than 10 years, such upheavals began to occur in Russia that the country really became a mercilessly destroyed cherry orchard. Therefore, we can draw an unambiguous conclusion: main image The play became a true symbol of Russia.

The image of the garden, an analysis of its meaning in the play and a description of the attitude of the main characters towards it will help 10th grade students when preparing an essay on the topic “The image of the garden in the play “The Cherry Orchard” by Chekhov.”

Work test

A.P. Chekhov, as a Russian writer and Russian intellectual, was concerned about the fate of the Motherland on the eve of social changes felt by society. The figurative system of the play “The Cherry Orchard” reflects the writer’s view of the past, present and future of Russia.

Figurative system “The Cherry Orchard”— author's features

It is, in particular, that in his works it is practically impossible to single out one main character. is important for understanding the issues that the playwright raises in the play.

Thus, the images of the heroes in “The Cherry Orchard” represent

• on the one hand, the social strata of Russia on the eve of the turning point (nobility, merchants, common intelligentsia, partly peasantry),
• on the other hand, these groups uniquely reflect the past, present and future of the country.

Russia itself is represented by the image of a large garden, which all the heroes treat with tender love.

Images of heroes of the past

The personifications of the past are the heroes of Ranevskaya and Gaev. This is the past of noble nests leaving the historical arena. There is no selfish calculation in Gaev and Ranevskaya: the idea of ​​​​selling a cherry orchard for land to summer residents is completely alien to them. They subtly sense the beauty of nature

(“To the right, at the turn of the gazebo, a white tree bent over, looking like a woman”...).

They are characterized by a certain childishness of perception: Ranevskaya has a childish attitude towards money, does not count it. But this is not only childishness, but also the habit of living without regard to expenses. Both Gaev and Ranevskaya are kind. Lopakhin remembers how in ancient times Ranevskaya took pity on him. Ranevskaya also feels sorry for Petya Trofimov with his instability, and Anya, who was left without a dowry, and the passerby.

But the time of the Gaevs and Ranevskys has passed. Their intelligence, inability to live, carelessness turn into callousness and selfishness.

Ranevskaya squanders her fortune, leaving her daughter in her care adopted daughter Varya leaves for Paris with her lover, having received money from her Yaroslavl grandmother intended for Anya, she decides to return to Paris to the man who practically robbed her, while she does not think about how Anya’s life will turn out next. She shows concern for the sick Firs, asking if he was sent to the hospital, but she cannot and does not want to check this (Ranevskaya is a man of word, but not of action) - Firs remains in the boarded up house.

The result of the life of the nobles is the consequence of a life in debt, a life based on the oppression of others.

Images of the future

New Russia is Ermolai Lopakhin, merchant. In it, the author emphasizes the active principle: he gets up at five o’clock in the morning and works until the evening; work brings him not capital, but also joy. Ermolai Lopakhin is a self-made man (his grandfather was a serf, his father a shopkeeper). A practical calculation is visible in Lopakhin’s activities: he sowed the fields with poppy seeds - both profitable and beautiful. Lopakhin proposes a way to save the cherry orchard, which should bring benefits. Lopakhin appreciates and remembers goodness, such is his touching attitude towards Ranevskaya. He has a “thin, gentle soul", according to Petya Trofimov. But the subtlety of his feelings is combined with the benefit of the owner. Lopakhin could not resist and bought a cherry orchard at auction. He repents to Ranevskaya, consoles her and immediately declares:

“The new owner of the cherry orchard is coming!”

But there is some kind of anguish in Lopakhin, otherwise where would the longing for another life come from? At the end of the play he says:

“If only our awkward, unhappy life would change!”

Images of the future - Petya Trofimov and Anya. Petya Trofimov -eternal student, he is full of optimism, in his speeches there is a conviction that he, it is he, who knows how to make life beautiful

(Humanity is moving towards the highest truth, towards the highest happiness that is possible on earth, and I am in the forefront! ").

It is he who says to Anya:

“All of Russia is our garden!”

But his image is ambiguous. Petya Trofimov in the play is also more likely a man of words rather than deeds. In practical life, he is a klutz, like the rest of the characters in the play. The image of Anya is perhaps the only image in the play in which there is a lot of feeling of light. Anya looks like Turgenev's girls who are ready to go to new life and give her all of himself without a trace, so Anya has no regret about the loss of the cherry orchard.

Secondary images

The secondary characters of the play highlight the fates of Gaev and Ranevskaya. Simeono-Pishchik is a landowner who is ready to adapt to life, which makes him different from Ranevskaya and Gaev. But he also lives practically on debt. The image of Charlotte emphasizes the disorder and practical homelessness of Ranevskaya.

The patriarchal peasantry is represented by images of servants. This is Firs, in whom the main feature of the old servants has been preserved - devotion to the master. How Firs looks after Gaev for a small child. His fate is tragic and symbolic: he is forgotten, in general abandoned by those who spoke so much about loving him and did so little for him. Dunyasha and Yasha are servants of the new generation. Dunyasha repeats “subtlety of feelings”, exaggerating his mistress. Yasha absorbed the egoism of the masters.

Image of a cherry orchard

As already mentioned, the role of the cherry orchard in figurative system plays. It is around the cherry orchard that an external conflict arises; all the characters in the play express their attitude towards the orchard. Therefore, the viewer and reader feel his fate in a humanly tragic way:

“... and you can only hear how far away in the garden an ax is being knocked on a tree.”

Chekhov and the writer are characterized by sensitive listening to the beat everyday life, the ability to find the most important things in this life social problems and build your work so that these problems become the property of your compatriots.

“The Cherry Orchard” is the pinnacle of Russian drama of the early 20th century, a lyrical comedy, a play that marked the beginning of a new era in the development of Russian theater.

The main theme of the play is autobiographical - a bankrupt family of nobles sells their family estate at auction. The author, as a person who went through such life situation, with subtle psychologism describes the mental state of people who will soon be forced to leave their home. The innovation of the play is the absence of division of heroes into positive and negative, into main and secondary ones. They are all divided into three categories:

• people of the past - noble aristocrats (Ranevskaya, Gaev and their lackey Firs);
• people of the present - their bright representative, the merchant-entrepreneur Lopakhin;
• people of the future - the progressive youth of that time (Petr Trofimov and Anya).

History of creation

Chekhov began work on the play in 1901. Due to serious health problems, the writing process was quite difficult, but nevertheless, in 1903 the work was completed. First theatrical performance The play took place a year later on the stage of the Moscow art theater, becoming the pinnacle of Chekhov's work as a playwright and a textbook classic of the theatrical repertoire.

Play Analysis

Description of the work

The action takes place on the family estate of landowner Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya, who returned from France with her young daughter Anya. They are met at the railway station by Gaev (Ranevskaya's brother) and Varya (her adopted daughter).

The financial situation of the Ranevsky family is nearing complete collapse. Entrepreneur Lopakhin offers his own version of a solution to the problem - to divide the land into shares and give them to summer residents for use for a certain fee. The lady is burdened by this proposal, because for this she will have to say goodbye to her beloved cherry orchard, with which many warm memories of her youth are associated. Adding to the tragedy is the fact that her beloved son Grisha died in this garden. Gaev, imbued with his sister’s feelings, reassures her with a promise that their family estate will not be put up for sale.

The action of the second part takes place on the street, in the courtyard of the estate. Lopakhin, with his characteristic pragmatism, continues to insist on his plan to save the estate, but no one pays attention to him. Everyone turns to the teacher Pyotr Trofimov who has appeared. He delivers an excited speech dedicated to the fate of Russia, its future and touches on the topic of happiness in a philosophical context. The materialist Lopakhin is skeptical about the young teacher, and it turns out that only Anya is capable of being imbued with his lofty ideas.

The third act begins with Ranevskaya using her last money to invite an orchestra and organize a dance evening. Gaev and Lopakhin are absent at the same time - they went to the city for an auction, where the Ranevsky estate should go under the hammer. After a tedious wait, Lyubov Andreevna learns that her estate was bought at auction by Lopakhin, who does not hide his joy at his acquisition. The Ranevsky family is in despair.

The finale is entirely dedicated to the departure of the Ranevsky family from their home. The parting scene is shown with all the deep psychologism inherent in Chekhov. The play ends with a surprisingly deep monologue by Firs, whom the owners in a hurry forgot on the estate. The final chord is the sound of an axe. The cherry orchard is being cut down.

Main characters

A sentimental person, the owner of the estate. Having lived abroad for several years, she got used to a luxurious life and, by inertia, continues to allow herself many things that, given the deplorable state of her finances, according to the logic of common sense, should be inaccessible to her. Being a frivolous person, very helpless in everyday matters, Ranevskaya does not want to change anything about herself, while she is fully aware of her weaknesses and shortcomings.

A successful merchant, he owes a lot to the Ranevsky family. His image is ambiguous - he combines hard work, prudence, enterprise and rudeness, a “peasant” beginning. At the end of the play, Lopakhin does not share Ranevskaya’s feelings; he is happy that, despite his peasant origins, he was able to afford to buy the estate of his late father’s owners.

Like his sister, he is very sensitive and sentimental. Being an idealist and romantic, to console Ranevskaya, he comes up with fantastic plans to save the family estate. He is emotional, verbose, but at the same time completely inactive.

Petya Trofimov

An eternal student, a nihilist, an eloquent representative of the Russian intelligentsia, advocating for the development of Russia only in words. In pursuit of the “highest truth,” he denies love, considering it a petty and illusory feeling, which immensely upsets Ranevskaya’s daughter Anya, who is in love with him.

A romantic 17-year-old young lady who fell under the influence of the populist Peter Trofimov. Recklessly believing in better life After the sale of her parents' estate, Anya is ready for any difficulties for the sake of shared happiness next to her lover.

An 87-year-old man, a footman in the Ranevskys' house. The type of servant of old times, surrounds his masters with fatherly care. He remained to serve his masters even after the abolition of serfdom.

A young lackey who treats Russia with contempt and dreams of going abroad. A cynical and cruel man, he is rude to old Firs and even treats his own mother with disrespect.

Structure of the work

The structure of the play is quite simple - 4 acts without dividing into separate scenes. The duration of action is several months, from late spring to mid-autumn. In the first act there is exposition and plotting, in the second there is an increase in tension, in the third there is a climax (the sale of the estate), in the fourth there is a denouement. Characteristic feature the play is the lack of genuine external conflict, dynamism, unpredictable turns storyline. The author's remarks, monologues, pauses and some understatement give the play a unique atmosphere of exquisite lyricism. Artistic realism The play is achieved through the alternation of dramatic and comic scenes.

(Scene from a modern production)

The development of the emotional and psychological plane dominates in the play; the main driver of the action is the internal experiences of the characters. The author expands art space works using input large quantity characters who never appear on stage. Also, the effect of expanding spatial boundaries is given by the symmetrically emerging theme of France, giving an arched form to the play.

Final conclusion

Chekhov's last play, one might say, is his “swan song.” The novelty of her dramatic language is a direct expression of Chekhov's special life concept, which is characterized by extraordinary attention to small, seemingly insignificant details, focusing on the inner experiences of the characters.

In the play “The Cherry Orchard,” the author captured the state of critical disunity of Russian society of his time; this sad factor is often present in scenes where the characters hear only themselves, creating only the appearance of interaction.