THE CHERRY ORCHARD– ANTON CHEHOV

The Cherry Orchard

MY COMMENTS :

Written by author Anton Chekhov, the work tells the story of a wealthy Russian family who eventually get rid of their famous house with a cherry orchard due to their extravagance and desire for luxury.

The work begins with the return of the main character named Ranevskaya, who constantly envies the West and spends all her wealth to live like them and travel in Europe, as in Recaizade Mahmut Ekrem's work Araba Sevdası, from a tour of France.

Radevskaya, who has loved the cherry orchard on the land where their house is located since her childhood, continues to spend her money lavishly on many people around her, despite their financial difficulties. On the one hand, the farm owner tries to relieve his emotional emptiness in this way, on the other hand, despite the auction date of the farm being set, he still does not take the possibility of it being sold seriously.

Although his merchant acquaintances, Lopahin, repeatedly told him that they could earn a significant amount of money annually by adding summer houses to the farm, the landlord, who was unwilling to do so, began to lament and lament when the cherry orchard was sold on the day of the auction. Lopahin, whose father was a former farm slave, bought the farm at the auction and decided to put his plan into action himself.

At the end of the work, after the sale, all the household members decide to pack up their belongings and move abroad with the money from the sale while the trees in the cherry orchard are being cut down.

As can be seen, the work also draws a portrait of the Russian society at the end of the 19th century. It can be said that some bitter experiences in the westernization process in Tsarist Russia were experienced by the Russians as well as the Ottomans. The Russian people, who began to lose their own essence and tried to imitate the West and broke away from themselves, became enemies of their own values. In the work, some of the advice given by the character Firs, a former slave and servant of the house, regarding production and what needs to be done seem like nonsense to everyone, and no one takes his experience seriously.

Again, especially the farm owner and his family are very careless about what is happening and only think of going to Europe and continuing their lives in their orderly civilization.

In the work where the Russian intellectuals are mentioned, the words of the character Lopakhin in the quotes show that one of the biggest problems of the Russian intellectuals, which has continued until today, was also experienced in the neighboring country during the Ottoman and later republican periods. The group called the intellectuals, as Cemil Meriç said, thought that since they obtained their only income and profit from being wealthy, emulating the West and imitating them was enough to be intellectuals. However, it is clearly understood from our recent past that only a formal understanding of Westernism, without looking like them and understanding them, caused our country to lose years. It is understood that the same issue was also the case in the last periods of Tsarist Russia and that the real collapse came due to cultural collapse.

In the work, which contains very similar and important social analyses by the author, other period problems are also touched upon in a very impressive way, in addition to the theme of extravagance.

In conclusion, the work deserves to be read as one of the most important theater works for Chekhov lovers in understanding Russia of the period.

MY QUOTATIONS(*) :

1. Gayev: “ If more than one treatment is recommended for a disease, it means that there is no cure for that disease .”

2. Anya “ The less you talk, the more peace you will find .”

3. Yepihodov “ I am an enlightened person, I read different and remarkable books, but I can never decide which direction I want to go, whether I want to live or shoot myself; that is why I always carry a gun with me, just in case .”

4. Charlotte: " All this smart team is so stupid that there's no one to talk to ..."

5. Lopakhin: " For money, Germans make French out of Russians ."

6. Trofimov: " Humanity is advancing by perfecting its powers. What is unattainable to man at present will one day become attainable and understandable; all that is necessary for this is to work and to assist with all one's might those who seek the truth. We, in Russia, have very few people who are doing decent work at the moment. Most of the intellectuals I know do not do any research. They sit around without moving a muscle; and they do not seem to work very hard. On the one hand they pretend to be intellectuals, on the other hand they address their servants as "you", they treat the peasants like animals; they are not well educated, they do not read anything serious, they do absolutely nothing. And it turns out that all the fine talk we do is only to deceive ourselves and others ."

7. “ It is enough to start doing something to realize how few honest, decent people there are .” Lopahin

8. Trofimov: " We have fallen behind by at least two hundred years, we have not made a single bit of progress; we do not even have a clear perspective on the past, we only philosophize and complain or drink vodka. It is clear that in order to begin to live now, we must first pay the price for the past, we must come to terms with it; and we can do this only through suffering, only through constant, great effort ."

MY EVALUATIONS:

Subject : The work tells the story of a wealthy Russian family who finally get rid of their house with a famous cherry orchard due to their extravagance and desire for luxury.

Style: Written in the theater genre, the work also includes a plot similar to event-based novels. In this way, the messages to be given are clearly conveyed to the reader through the characters in the dialogues.

Originality : The work should be considered as one of the books that does not have any concerns about originality due to its genre and subject.

Character : The character scheme in the work has been created as it should be, without being too crowded. In this way, in addition to the messages that are intended to be given, it should also be noted that there is no distraction for the reader as a result of too many characters.

Fluency : The work clearly shows that it has a fluent narrative when the issues mentioned in the style and character sections are taken into account. However, it should also be stated that it is not a gripping theater work due to the treatment of its subject and plot.

General : In the evaluation made out of 10 according to the criteria stated above:

Subject: 8

Style: 8

Originality: 4

Characters: 8

Fluency: 7.5

The overall average of the work, which received 7.1 points, is 7.1 . Considering that the work passed the 7 threshold and the social messages it conveys, it can be considered one of the Chekhov classics that are recommended to be in the library.

(*) : All parts under the title My Quotations:

THE CHERRY ORCHARD

Author : Anton Chekhov

Publisher : Koridor Publications

Edition : Istanbul - 2023

The photo used on the cover was used as a quote from the book.