Anton Chekhov(안톤 체홉, 1860-1904)
• Russian playwright
• Four-act realistic plays
• The Cherry Orchard (1904)
『벚꽃 동산』
• Three Sisters 『세자매』
• Uncle Vanya 『반야삼촌』
• The Seagull 『갈매기』
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Chekhovian drama
• Chekhov uses the drama neither as a vehicle for
individualistic self-realization (Ibsen) nor as a means of
exorcistic self-expression (Strindberg) but rather as a
form for depicting that fluid world beyond the self, with
the author functioning only as an impartial witness.
• His plays reflect both his sympathy for human suffering
and his outrage at human absurdity, alternating between
moods of wistful pathos and flashes of ironic humor
which disqualify them from being mere slices of life.
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Life and works
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKKYtByZlx8
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Plays
"The Swan Song”
"The Proposal"
"Ivanoff"
"The Boor"
"The Sea-Gull (film clip)
"The Tragedian in Spite of Himself”
"The Three Sisters" (film clip)
"Uncle Vanya"
"The Cherry Orchard"
1889
1889
1889
1890
1896
1899
1901
1902
1904
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Chekhovian drama (continued)
• For if Chekhov is a detached realist, permitting life to
proceed according to its own rules, he is also an
engaged moralist, arranging reality in a particular way in
order to evoke some comment on it.
• . . . his conviction that ‘life as it is’ is life as it should not
be. (Brustein, 1991: 138, 139)
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Chekhovian drama (continued)
• Chekhov will introduce political, social, and
philosophical discussions into his work, because these
are threads in the fabric of reality. But he is careful
neither to take sides nor to hint at solutions.
• “It is the duty of the judge to put the questions to the jury
correctly,” he observes, employing his favorite
courtroom metaphor, “and it is for members of the jury to
make up their minds, each according to his taste.”
(Brustein, 1991: 145)
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Chekhovian drama (continued)
• Chekhov’s impersonality is a surface characteristic; and
beneath this surface is a satiric, admonitory moralist . . .
• Chekhov the realist pretends to have no other aim than
the faithful representation of reality; but Chekhov the
moralist is always conscious of a higher purpose than
mere imitation. (Brustein, 1991: 147)
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Chekhovian drama (continued)
• Chekhov’s revolt is directed against the quality of
contemporary Russian life. (Brustein, 1991: 148)
• The conflict between the cultured upper classes and
their stupefying environment – between the forces of
light and the forces of darkness – provides the basic
structure of most of Chekhov’s plays (Brustein, 1991:
149-150)
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The Cherry Orchard (1904)
• Premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre, directed by
Constantin Stanislavski
• Chekhov intended this play as a comedy; however,
Stanislavski directed it as a tragedy → the dual
nature of the play
• Has become a classic work of dramatic literature
• The play’s influence on many dramatists including
Eugene O’Neill, Bernard Shaw, and Arthur Miller
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The Cherry Orchard (1904) – synopsis
• The play concerns an aristocratic Russian woman
(Madame Ranevskaya) and her family (including her 17year old daughter Anya) as they return to the family’s
estate (which includes a large and well-known cherry
orchard) just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage.
• While presented with options to save the estate, the family
essentially does nothing and the play ends with the estate
being sold to the son of a former serf (Yermolai Lopakhin),
and the family leaving to the sound of the cherry orchard
being cut down.
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The Cherry Orchard (1904)
• Act One opens in May, when
the cherry trees in the
Ranevskaya orchard
are
blooming.
• Trofimov – a young student
who acted as tutor to
Ranevskaya’s son, Grisha,
who drowned five years prior to
the beginning of the play.
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The Cherry Orchard (1904) – themes
• The effect social change has on people, the theme of
identity, the themes of cultural futility – both the futility of
the aristocracy to maintain its status and the futility of the
bourgeoisie to find meaning in its newfound materialism.
• In reflecting the socio-economic forces at work in Russia
at the turn of the 20th century, including the rise of the
middle class after the abolition of serfdom in the mid-19th
century (1861) and the sinking of the aristocracy, the play
reflects forces at work around the globe in that period.
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The Cherry Orchard (BBC Television 1980)
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJjtQugPW-0