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¡°The Cherry Orchard¡± is a play by Anton Chekhov about the loss of a family¡¯s cherry orchard. Though the main plot, the losing of the orchard, may seem quite simple and plain, there is a more complex meaning within the story. The cherry orchard in fact, symbolizes many different themes, like memory, reality and so on.
The protagonist of the play is Mrs. Lyuba Ranevsky, a middle-age woman who owns a vast estate and a large cherry orchard. Mrs. Ranevsky seems to be a very soft, maybe even weak, character. She is a kind woman, as we can see from her kindness toward Lopakhin. But we can also notice many other aspects of her character throughout the play.
Ranevsky seems fragile, which is probably due to the two subsequent deaths of her husband and her son. She tries to avoid this reality by fleeing to Paris. She then returns to her estate after her lover in Paris provoked her to almost commit suicide. Though she comes back because of the sheer memory of her ideal childhood, she is instead reminded of the death of her son by meeting her son¡¯s ex-tutor.
Ranevsky is a character who continually tries to stay in the past. She keeps seeing her mother walking through the family¡¯s beloved cherry orchard. She wants to avoid the present by thinking of her happy past. However, as like the vision of her mother is not real, the happiness she tries to attain by hiding from the present and lingering in the past is also not real. She will eventually have to face the harsh reality and move on from the past to accept the truth.
This happens eventually, as the cherry orchard is sold to Lopakhin to be destroyed. Mrs. Ranevsky then moves again, but this time it is for the better. Finally, Mrs. Ranevsky can move away from her past and move on with her life. She finally faces the present she has tried to avoid by hiding in her cherry orchard.
Yermolay Lopakhin, a friend of Mrs. Ranevsky, is another key character who greatly influences the flow of the play. On the outside, he is a serious business man; continuously thinking of plans to save the estate. However, he, like Mrs. Ranevsky, also flees. But Lopakhin doesn¡¯t flee from the present; he flees from the past.
Lopakhin came from a very brutal, peasant background. Early in the play when he appears, he tells us about his childhood. His father had beaten him, and he was from a family of serfs. Mrs. Ranevsky, though kind to him, used to look down on him because of his peasant status.
However, now he is an active business man setting forth into the world. His present, which seems considerable bright compared to his harsh childhood, is what he focuses on. The cherry orchard on Ranevsky estate only reminds him of his cruel upbringings. Lopakhin, by cutting down the cherry orchard, gladly escapes from his past. He departs to Kharkov and readily leaves his past behind.
The cherry orchard, around which the whole play revolves, represents many different things to different character. To Mrs. Ranevsky, it is a seemingly safe, but illusory sanctuary; to Lopakhin, it is a scab that he wishes to scratch off without leaving any scars. It embodies many aspects of human emotion.
Though at first glance, the story of Chekhov¡¯s ¡°The Cherry Orchard¡± may seem utterly simple, it is actually a highly symbolic piece, showing the audience a wide array of what hinders people from being a part of society. Whether it may be positive or negative, real or fake, the cherry orchard in the play gives significant meaning to people, making us think of the kind of burdens we carry while we live our lives.
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