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Lopakhin And Ranevsky In Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard

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How does money influence the behaviour and motivation of Lopakhin and Ranevsky in Anton Chekhov’s ‘The Cherry Orchard’? At its core, Chekhov’s play ‘The Cherry Orchard’ depicts the relentless continuity of time and how the social, cultural and economic changes in Russia influence the behaviour and motivation of the characters. The play intensely reflects the forces at work in Russia at the turn of the 20th century, especially the rise of the bourgeoisie and the crumbling of ancient Russian aristocracy. It focuses on how time and the change that comes with it affect the characters that are exposed to it. In this play, Chekhov manages to display money as a symbol and how money can be of incredible value for certain people, as well as how much money can influence people; mainly those who underestimate its power. Over the course of the play, these themes and symbols are explored particularly through the characters of Ranevsky …show more content…

She remains generous with her friends, and even with strangers, living the life of a kind and wealthy aristocrat, even though the power of the aristocracy no longer ensures her any wealth, and the few assets that she has are declining quickly. She tells herself that she can control her purse and abandon her horrible lover, yet she cannot keep even these most fundamental of resolutions. Even after losing the cherry orchard, Madame Ranevskya remains sadly unable to change and she continues to surround herself with expensive luxurious items. Lopakhin is the other lead character in “The Cherry Orchard”. He is a neighbor of Madame Ranevskya, perhaps in his thirties, unmarried. His father and grandfather were servants on the cherry orchard estate all of their lives. Although he was born into a family of servants, Lopakhin has managed to use the liberation of the servants to his full advantage and is now a wealthy landowner and

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