The Cherry Orchard Character Analysis

The Cherry Orchard play by Anton Chekhov is a mini history lesson about the changing of Russian society at the turn of the 20th century. The abstract concept of freedom within the play is not straightforward, especially for its characters. Indeed, the serfs may have been freed in Russia, but the characters of the play are not truly free. The central symbol, the cherry orchard embodies time, past, present, and future particularly in relationship to its characters. The characters associate the orchard with past memories, and as a consequence, some are connected to the past in such a way that they are unable to move ahead with their lives, where as others move steadfastly ahead and away from the past. There are many examples throughout the text

One such character, Lyubov Ranevsky is reflective about her childhood memory of the beautiful cherry orchard. She states, “…my purity! I slept in this nursery, looked from here out into the orchard, happiness awoke with me every morning, and the orchard was just the same then, nothing has changed!” (15). For her, the orchard signifies the happiness and innocence she felt as a child, unlike the sadness and grief she is experiencing in her adult life. She has lost her son and husband, and is presently in debt. She cannot escape the pain and therefore agonizes, “If I could take this heavy stone off my chest, and off my shoulders, if I could forget my past!” (15). The childhood memory of the orchard only causes her more agony and misery as she deals with her present situation. Additionally, Lyubov associates the memory of her late mother to the orchard. She can envision her mother in a white dress walking through the orchard. This image is serene and a reminder of her grand childhood. Her mother is likened to the “little white tree that’s bent over…it looks like a woman” (16). Lyubov is emotionally connected to the orchard. It symbolically means a past of wealth and status to her and she wishes, “if it must be sold, then sell me with the orchard” (39). Tragically, Lyubov cannot detach herself from the orchard and what it symbolizes

He blames the current state of Russia on the aristocratic serf-owners, or the landowning class. He advocates for political change and insightfully illustrates, “behind each cherry tree in the orchard, behind each leaf, behind each trunk, there are human beings looking out at you…your mother, you, your uncle don’t even notice that you are living in debt,…at the expense of those people who weren’t allowed to go further than your threshold” (33). Trofimov believes that the serf-owning bureaucracy has trapped both the serf-owners and peasantry class in the past. His solution is that, “to start to live in the present, we must begin to atone for our past, to finish with it” (33). Trofimov is prevailing and optimistic. He represents the future; he declares forget about the past, throw the keys to the estate away, and “be free like the wind” (34). Chekov’s symbol of the cherry orchard, its relationship to the past, present and future, and his concept of freedom, all mold and mature his characters. The orchard has good and bad connotations for different characters, but ultimately, it acts as a conduit for past memories to change the present. Not until “the sound of a snapping string, dying away, sad,” and “ the faraway sound of the axe chopping the trees in the orchard is heard,” do the characters change. At this point, at the very