The Cherry Orchard and the Rise of Bolshevism
Anton Chekhov uses The Cherry Orchard, to openly present the decline of an aristocratic Russian family as a microcosm of the rapid decline of the old Russia at the end of the nineteenth century--but also provides an ominous foreshadowing of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in the disparate ideals of his characters, Trofimov and Lopakhin, however unintentionally. The Gayev family and their plight is intended as a symbolic microcosm of the fall of the aristocracy in society at large. Though the merchant Lopakhin is presented as the character who holds values of the new, post-aristocratic age, the student Trofimov espouses the political sentiments that will ultimately replace both the
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The most prominent of these symbols is the sound of a snapped string that occurs twice in the play. That this symbolizes the end of the Russian aristocracy is obvious; after all, it is the one unrealistic device in the largely realistic Cherry Orchard. Also, the elderly servant Firs informs everyone that similar sounds were heard when the serfs were emancipated in the previous social upheaval. Characters' reactions to the sound in Act II are telling. True to his being the archetypal modern man, the merchant Lopakhin is unfazed. The sound comes from "somewhere very far away" (804), he says. Since he is naturally destined for the new Russia, recognizing the sound is not important for him; he is already living in the new age.
The symbolism of the string snapping is even more clear at the end of Act IV, when old Firs is left alone to die. The stage directions state that, after the sound of a "snapped string dying mournfully away" is heard, "[a] stillness falls, and nothing is heard but the thud of an ax on a tree far away in the orchard" (815). With the orchard (the status of aristocracy) in the hands of Lopakhin (the new commercial class), the old days are forever gone. All that is left to hear is the destruction of the orchard as the new class builds its world from the remains of the old. However, in 1917, the Bolsheviks would succeed in altering Russia in a more lasting way, and this small revolution would be subsumed by Communism.
The mood of the speaker changes to guilt as the speaker and her mother realize they would "crawl" with "shame" and leave an "emptiness" in their father's heart and yard. The author negatively connotes "crawl," "shame," and "emptiness" to invoke a more serious and shameful tone. The beginning of the conveyed a more matter-of-fact and pragmatic tone, but changes into a more sentimental one by the end to convey family is more important than the money. The symbol of the tree represents the family, and connects it to their father's hard work and dedication to the family. If they were to cut it down, it would be symbolic of their betrayal. Imagery of the tree is used to describe the freedom and beauty of the tree as it "swings through another year of sun and leaping winds, of leaves and bounding fruit." The tree represents their family bond and how strong it is even through the "whip-crack of the mortgage."
This was showcased through dancing with one another older couple to younger couple. The stage was very plain, yet it gave off a home feel containing a bed placed, a dresser, refrigerator, and a kitchen table. On the floors of the home were leaves that had fallen from the peach tree, symbolizing the couple’s expectations of their future together. The peaches would go and come just like the years of their relationship. The sound and video production throughout this play were sometimes loud and dark allowing the cast to mirror their past. The dark lighting help the audience to depict the stages of life each actor was going through.
In the rehearsal scene, there were references to the sound technician. This was a Brechtian technique of the audience being aware of a play within a play. Most sound effects were specific and recorded, like the city hustle and bustle, the screams and the voices when reading things aloud. However, the one sound that stood out to me was the music box. Being the only live sound we hear, relates to the naturalism of the nursery and how Jennet Humfrye’s love for her son is infinite. Music boxes were commonly a gift for a child, or a token of love for a partner in the Victorian times. The idea of love is additionally demonstrated when Kipps is reading a letter alongside Stella. This shows his remembrance of her voice and how much he misses her. The ticking of the clock at the beginning of the play reminds the audience of a countdown, a signal that something is about to happen. This relates to the rhythmic rocking of the chair, similar to a heartbeat, echoing around the house, resembling Nathaniel’s pulse. This again adds humanity to the nursery. When Kipps stops the chair from rocking, everything is silent which signifies the death of Nathaniel and how in reality he is gone. Contrasting to the naturalism, there is repetition of the Woman’s screams. These created an abstract soundscape that made the audience feel frightened, mimicking the discomforting feeling of the horror genre. The ‘Pony and Trap’ sounds came
In The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal, a wounded soldier asks Simon for forgiveness for a terrible crime he committed during the Holocaust. He is on his deathbed, and asks a nurse to bring a Jewish person to him. The nurse brings Simon and Simon doesn’t forgive him, instead walking out without saying anything. After reading The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal along with multiple essays responding to it, I believe Simon should have forgiven the man because he was manipulated into thinking what he was doing was right.
The narrator's vision of her ancestors expanding a plentiful life is emphasized with the picturesque “blue fields…with leaves and vines and orchards.” This then strikes the narrator with the realization that cutting down the tree would be a betrayal to their ancestors, their dreams and the demise of the heritage of the
What inherent value does forgiveness hold? Who benefits from forgiveness? Must forgiveness be explicitly stated, or can a person be forgiven silently? When does someone have the right to forgive an individual? In the book The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal, the author, a Holocaust survivor, recounts an experience with an SS soldier, named Karl, on his deathbed asking Wiesenthal, a Jewish prisoner, for forgiveness for his inhumane actions, telling his tale with brutal detail. Wiesenthal neither forgives nor condemns the dying man, but instead leaves wordlessly. This experience has discomforted Wiesenthal greatly, and he grappled with if what he had done was the right choice or not. At the end of the book, Wiesenthal poses a question, what
The Battle of Franklin was fought on November 30, 1864, at Franklin, Tennessee, as part of the Franklin-Nashville Campaign of the American Civil War. It was one of the worst disasters of the war for the Confederate States Army. Confederate Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee conducted numerous frontal assaults against fortified positions occupied by the Union forces under Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield and was unable to break through or to prevent Schofield from a planned, orderly withdrawal to Nashville.
Furthermore, in Leo Tolstoy‘s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and analysis will demonstrate that the character Ivan Ilyich struggles throughout his life to achieve the ideals of liberty, life and the pursuit of happiness. It is through Ivan’s death and his friend’s narration of Ivan’s life that the reader comes to the realization the the middle-class Ivan has few strength’s besides his hard work to drive him towards his ideals for wealth and property. Ivan lived his whole life with the purpose of enjoying himself. He did this through winning power at work, spending money, buying things to impress his friends, throwing parties, and playing bridge. His pursuit of happiness in material things and pleasures is so great that his deliberately avoids anything unpleasant. This means that when he settled down with a family, which was expected of him, he never grows close to them.
Within this essay I will look at how I as a director will approach directing Chekhov, commenting on how I went about choosing the sections of the script I wish to use, why I chose these sections and how. I will then reference Katie Mitchell’s twelve golden rules on working with actors to demonstrate how I will approach my rehearsals and working with the actors. I will then go on to mention how and where the piece will be performed, continuing on to how I will use there lighting, sound and setting finishing with costume.
Moreover, the next example of symbolism is the muted thunder that occurs when the peach blossoms beat against the drum. This important event occurs once Joby has changed his pitiful views based on himself, so inferences can be made to say that the muted thunder represents a new dawn and tranquility. Cited from the story on line 199-200, “He lay next to it, his arm around it, feeling the tremor, the touch, the muted thunder as…”, we can draw inferences that Joby has turned over a new leaf in terms of his emotional and mental state.
Tolstoy’s shows in this novel what can happen when you live life by your own rules and what can happen when you live by societies rules such as Ivan Ilyich. He shows that both choices come with major consequences. In this story Ivan Ilyich had two brothers one older and one younger. The older
The past is constantly mentioned by the characters in this play. Even the cherry orchard as property, is a symbol of the Old Russian regime. The end of the Old Regime therefore, is portrayed by Chekhov when at the end of the play Lohpakin becomes the owner of the estate and cuts the cherry orchard. Chekhov, as a contemporary observer, uses his play to criticize some aspects of the emancipation of 1861. The message he leaves is that although the emancipation was an important step towards freedom, it was not the only one to be made. This message, besides being given throughout the novel, is also stated by Trofimov, an idealist student who realizes how far Russia is from achieving real freedom. At the end of Act 2, Trofivom tells Anya, Madame Ranevskaya’s 17-year-old daughter: “...In order to start living in the present, we first have to redeem our past, make an end of it, and we can only do that through suffering…” .
A few weeks ago in class, I read a piece by Stephen King that invoked my interest in controversial, infamous literature. “Flowers in the Attic,” A novel by V.C. Andrews, is notorious for being bad fiction, something that people roll their eyes at the mere mention of. Why would someone want to read something regarded as trashy and holding a bad reputation? I believe that we can all learn some lessons in writing from Flowers in the Attic, and despite the incestuous theme and overzealous dialogue, the novel surprised me in more ways than one. Overall, the condensed plot is about a family of four children who are sent to live with their grandmother in the wake of their father’s passing. However, their mother has kept pieces of their past hidden from them, which leads to consequences, and confinement in a small room attached the attic.
That ideas in the story provides an example for the Marxist belief that this system itself cannot last and do well. The only group of people that thrives in this story are the Chalikovs -- the impoverished unemployed clerk and beggar and his pregnant
For example, ¡§The action which they all share by analogy, and which informs the suffering of the destined change of the Cherry Orchard, is "to save the Cherry Orchard": that is, each character sees some value in it¡Ðeconomic, sentimental, social, cultural¡Ðwhich he wishes to keep.¡¨ii[ii] Chekhov divided the people of the orchard in different ways so that the orchard and its being sold carry a symbolic meaning for each group. Basically, there are three kinds of groups in The Cherry Orchard. The first group is the characters that dominate money and power; Ranevskaya and Lopahin are the kind of persons. The orchard, to them, is merely a tool for investment. The second group is a sort of person to understand the change of situation but they have no power to prevent the orchard from being sold. These learned people have their sense of duty. Trofimov is a topical one. As to the third type, neither do they have knowledge nor power but they could feel what is happening and sorry about it. Firs is such kind of person.