South Atlantic Modern Language Association

Chekov's "" Author(s): Peter P. Remaley Source: South Atlantic Bulletin, Vol. 38, No. 4 (Nov., 1973), pp. 16-20 Published by: South Atlantic Modern Language Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3197077 Accessed: 28-11-2016 01:41 UTC

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This content downloaded from 37.8.23.143 on Mon, 28 Nov 2016 01:41:11 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms CHEKOV'S "THE CHERRY ORCHARD"

PETER P. REMALEY Eastern Kentucky University

In a letter to Madame Stanislavsky on September 15, 1903, Chekhov wrote of The Cherry Orchard that "the play has turned out not a drama, but a comedy, in parts even a farce."' This asser- tion has proved to be the central concern of numerous critics who have joined in the continuing debate about the essential nature of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. Is it indeed a comedy as Chekhov claimed, or a tragedy as so many producers and critics have chosen to interpret it? At best, the critical problems are complex. Those who ally themselves with the comic view of The Cherry Orchard readily accept Chekhov's assertion and largely base their arguments for such a view on his revelation of the ludicrous elements in human nature as manifested in the characters of the play. How- ever, those who hold that The Cherry Orchard is a tragedy argue that Chekhov's opinion need not be accepted as the definitive assessment of his work and summarily dismiss his statement. Apply- ing the abstract theorizing of W. K. Wimsatt in "The Intentional Fallacy,"' these critics submit that an author's intention and the completed work may be quite different things. In Chekhov's case, specific support for such an argument can be offered. When he wrote "The Steppe," Chekhov said that he was writing a novel, and with its completion, he believed that he had accomplished his purpose. However, critics then and now classify "The Steppe" as a . Who then is correct? Even the most ardent supporter of the tragic view of The Cherry Orchard must admit that the play does have comic elements. Considering the play from the viewpoint of structure, the basic problem or conflict with which the characters must come to grips is the impending sale of the estate. The pivotal question then is whether the sale of the property can be avoided; and the plot incidents are concerned with the various efforts to save the orchard. How the characters react to their serious plight is essential to an understanding of much of the comedy in The Cherry Orchard. Chekhov develops a comic incongruity between the serious situa- tion and the trivial response, an incongruity which emphasizes the ridiculous, ludicrous actions of the characters faced with the di- lemma. Mrs. Ranevsky's behavior is an example. To prevent the loss of her estate, she loans some of the little money she still has left to the indigent Pishchik; she gives a gold piece to a peasant beggar; she hires an orchestra and holds a ball on the day of her

This content downloaded from 37.8.23.143 on Mon, 28 Nov 2016 01:41:11 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms South Atlantic Bulletin 17 estate's auction. And in Act II when Lopakhin, who realizes that the only practical solution to the problem is to lease the orchard, puts the question squarely before Mrs. Ranevsky, she refuses to meet the problem: Lopakhin. You must make up your minds once and for all, time's running out. And anyway it's a perfectly simple mat- ter. Are you prepared to lease your land for summer cot- tages or aren't you? You can answer it in one word-yes or no. Just one single word. Mrs. Ranevsky. Who's smoking disgusting cigars round here?3 Thus, Mrs. Ranevsky's responses to the serious situation which confronts her assume the comic proportions of the ludicrous. Chekhov further emphasizes the ludicrous incongruity between situation and response, between the serious and the trivial, in the absurdly impractical schemes which Mrs. Ranevsky's brother, Leonid Gayev, hopes will save the cherry orchard. Among the numerous ridiculously ineffective schemes of Gayev's are the fol- lowing: that he might miraculously inherit a fortune, that a rela- tively uninterested rich aunt might somehow give him the neces- sary hundred thousand roubles out of the goodness of her par- simonious heart; that a fictional general may lend him the money on his signature; and finally that he will take a position in a bank and earn the money (at the rate of a few thousand roubles per year). In sum his impractical dream solutions not only indicate Gayev's essential ridiculousness but also serve to underline the ludicrous self-deception of which the entire family is guilty. In various other ways The Cherry Orchard assumes even farci- cal dimensions. For example Simon Yepikhodov, the family clerk, is a clumsy, self-conscious Chaplinesque buffoon. In Act I, when he first enters, his boots noticeably squeak with every step he takes. He then promptly drops the bouquet of flowers he is carrying, and when he turns to leave, he stumbles into a chair and overturns it. He exits from the play in the same clown-like manner by packing a suitcase on top of a hat box. Regardless of what he attempts to do, he inevitably does it wrong. As he tells us in Act II, he cannot even drink a glass of wine successfully, for even if he is able to avoid spilling the wine or breaking the glass, when he finishes his drink, he finds a bug at the bottom of the glass (p. 77). The other servants are also comic figures. Dunyasha, the maid, dresses and acts like a lady, and Yasha, Mrs. Ranevsky's personal servant, is a French fop who, though deeply offended by Lopakhin's inferior bottle of champagne ("Shockin' ignorance"), proceeds to drink the entire bottle himself. Chekhov also uses the device of the comic anticlimax to heighten the comedy of The Cherry Orchard. In Act III, for

This content downloaded from 37.8.23.143 on Mon, 28 Nov 2016 01:41:11 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 18 Chekov example, just as Lopakhin is about to enter the house and proudly proclaim that he, the former serf, has bought the estate at auction, Varya, who has just chased Yepikhodov from the premises, thinks that Yepikhodov is returning and proceeds to beat the triumphant Lopakhin with a stick, an action which prompts superb under- statement from Lopakhin, who says, "Thank you very much. ... Thank you for such a warm welcome" (p. 98). Another case of a comic anticlimax occurs in the scene where Mrs. Ranevsky and Peter Trofimov engage in a verbal quarrel which could quite easily have become tragic, for both characters are harshly truthful in their accusations of each other. But at the height of the quarrel, when the outraged Trofimov turns to leave the house, he termi- nates the tragic direction the quarrel has taken by suddenly trip- ping on the stairs and tumbling all the way down them. The next moment finds him happily dancing with Mrs. Ranevsky and all is forgotten (pp. 93-95). Another source of humor in The Cherry Orchard is Chekhov's carefully crafted misuse of language throughout the play. One excellent example of this type of comedy is the application of the device of the non sequitur. An example is the billiard terminology with which Gayev liberally sprinkles his conversation. One in- stance of this occurs in Act I after Gayev has completed his lengthy apostrophe (comical in itself) to the antique bookcase: Dear and most honoured book-case. In you I salute an exis- tence devoted for over a hundred years to the glorious ideals of virtue and justice. In the course of the century your silent summons to creative work has never faltered, upholding through tears in several generations of our line confidence and faith in a better future and fostering in us the ideals of virtue and social consciousness. (p. 69) Then, "somewhat embarrassed," as Chekhov tells us in the stage directions, Gayev follows with the non sequitur: "In off on the right into the corner. Screw shot into the middle" (p. 69). Along with Gayev, the servant Firs frequently uses the non sequitur. Very old and consequently hard of hearing, Firs often speaks when not spoken to, mumbles to no one in particular, and answers ques- tions which are not asked. In Act I, after Firs has served coffee to Mrs. Ranevsky, the following dialogue occurs: Mrs. Ranevsky. .. . I must drink my coffee. Thank you, Firs. Thank you, dear old friend. I'm so glad you're still alive. Firs. The day before yesterday. (p. 66) The comic effect of such conversation is obvious. And Chekhov employs this device repeatedly throughout the whole of the play.

This content downloaded from 37.8.23.143 on Mon, 28 Nov 2016 01:41:11 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms South Atlantic Bulletin 19

Thus, even from this rather cursory examination of The Cherry Orchard, it is obvious that there is a great deal of comedy in the play. However, one may still object that although there are in- stances of comedy in The Cherry Orchard, such instances do not alter the fact that the play viewed in its entirety is nonetheless essentially tragic. One wonders of Mrs. Ranevsky (and of all the characters of the family), in spite of her absurd, ludicrous responses to her situation, whether her sufferings and failures are really all that amusing. Daniel Gerould succinctly states this argument in an article in which he takes up the problem of comedy in The Cherry Orchard: . . . Won't it still be possible to assert that the spectacle of this group of foolish, bungling, impractical characters being dispossessed and cast out into a world with which they are not fit to cope is not a comic one? A perceptive reader may be willing to grant that the characters are . . . incompetent . . . and that their actions are futile and inappropriate, but he will insist that the effect of seeing lonely, irresponsible people come to an unhappy end is one of sadness, not comedy.4 Further, even though Chekhov might have believed that it was a necessary and fundamentally good thing that the old aristocratic order be replaced by the new bourgeois social order (as he asserted a number of times), one might still legitimately posit that the concluding scene of The Cherry Orchard in which Firs is forgotten and left behind (to die a symbolic death) casts the pall of tragedy over the entire proceedings of the play. Consequently, I return to the question which I originally asked in beginning this paper: is there no alternative but to choose between the comic Chekhov or the tragic one? In an attempt to resolve this problem, it is perhaps best to turn to Chekhov himself, who insisted that his plays be understood as descriptions of life, nothing more or less: Take my Cherry Orchard. Is it my Cherry Orchard? With the exception of two or three parts nothing in it is mine. I am describing life, ordinary life, and not bleak despondency. . They [contemporary producers] invent something about me out of their own heads, anything they like, something I never thought of or dreamed about.5 The implications of Chekhov's complaint here cannot be stressed too strongly. He insists that the reader understand that his play is a description of life, and the single, all-important fact which screams for attention is that life contains both the comic and the tragic, both the ludicrous and the serious, both the painless and the painful. Thus, The Cherry Orchard presents a Weltanschauung,

This content downloaded from 37.8.23.143 on Mon, 28 Nov 2016 01:41:11 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 20 Chekov a view of life, which every artistically coherent work must possess. Chekhov's Weltanschauung in The Cherry Orchard is all-inclusive, encompassing both the tragic and comic dimensions which exist simultaneously in life. This world-view of The Cherry Orchard is what one must scrutinize when he attempts to judge Chekhov's work. The overview of the play cannot be determined by this or that detail within its structure, for the valid critical appeal is to the whole fictional world created by Chekhov in its awareness of complexities, its inclusiveness, its catholic scope. Chekhov impatiently insists that the critic commits a serious error when he emphasizes either the somber, pessimistic dimension or the lighter, comic dimension in his dramatic creations, for both dimensions are equally evident in life and must be equally evident in any artistic endeavor which hopes to achieve verisimilitude with life. In fact, in many cases, one cannot distinguish between the comic and the tragic. In The Cherry Orchard, when the family is leaving the estate for the last time, Gayev, who is greatly agitated, says, "The train. The station." And then, fearful that he may burst into tears over the departure, he hopelessly, pitifully re- treats into his make-believe world of billiard games with "In off into the middle, double the white into the corner" (p. 111). We may smile at the meaningless remark, but we do so with tears in our eyes. For all practical purposes, the comic and the tragic appear indistinguishable. Ionesco commented on the same kind of re- sponse when he wrote that "it all comes to the same thing anyway; comic and tragic are merely two aspects of the same situation, and I have now reached the stage when I find it hard to distinguish one from another."6 Contributing to the depth and complexity of the drama in The Cherry Orchard, comedy exists simultaneously with overtones of pathos and tragedy, which after all is a rather faithful description of life.

NOTES 1. , The Life and Letters of Anton Tchekhov, ed. and trans. S. S. Koteliansky and Philip Tomlinson (New York, n. d.), p. 290. 2. W. K. Wimsatt, Jr., "The Intentional Fallacy," in The Verbal Icon (Lexington, University of Kentucky Press, 1954), pp. 3-18. 3. Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard in Chekhov: and The Cherry Orchard, trans. Ronald Hingley (New York, 1965), p. 78. All subsequent references to The Cherry Orchard are from this publication and pagination is incorporated into the text. 4. Daniel Charles Gerould, "The Cherry Orchard as a Comedy," Journal of General Education, XI (1958), 119. 5. David Magarshack, Chekhov the Dramatist (New York, 1960), p. 14. 6. Quoted by Robert Corrigan in "Comedy and the Comic Spirit" in Comedy: Meaning and Form, ed. Robert W. Corrigan (San Francisco, 1965), p. 9.

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