Comedy

by Kathleen Murphy

Created on: November 23, 2010   Last Updated: November 24, 2010

Anton Chekhov called The Cherry Orchard "a comedy in four acts."  Of course he inexplicably called The Seagull a comedy, too, but I think The Cherry Orchard really is a comedy.  It's a comedy in both the classical and modern senses.

It's a comedy in the classical sense that, even though things look bad for a while, they all work out in the end.  No one dies tragically, although Firs, the ancient servant, dies peacefully in the place that he loves.  And, although Mrs. Ranevsky and her brother Gayev carry on about their home and the cherry orchard as though they're prepared to throw themselves off a bridge at the loss, they soon reconcile themselves to the idea.  Once they know the property is gone for good, they seem to have no problem making new plans; Mrs. Ranevsky returns to Paris to take care of her hapless lover, and Gayev quickly secures a job at a bank.

They even pass up the chance to save their house by selling the land for summer cottages, a plan proposed by their friend Lopakhin.  Lopakhin is a wealthy businessman whose father was a serf under Mrs. Ranevsky's father.  Ironically the tables have turned, and Lopakhin can't help pointing it out  after he buys the cherry orchard and the rest of the estate, although he's a kind man.  "I've bought the estate where my father and grandfather were slaves, where they weren't even allowed in the kitchen," he declares.  How times have changed.  

And although Mrs. Ranevsky and Gayev  mourn the loss of their childhood home with all its beauty and happy memories, they know that its time is gone and it's a new era now.  Serfs have become rich by commerce and the children of past gentry must get by as best they can.  Mrs. Ranevsky asks her daughter, "Are you very pleased?  You are, aren't you?" and Anya answers, "Oh, yes, I am.  This is the start of a new life, Mother."  Gayev adds, "It's quite true, everything's all right now."

The Cherry Orchard is also a comedy in the modern sense that it's funny.  It's full of wonderful, wacky Chekhov characters.  There's Yepikhodov the clerk who complains constantly, always adding, however, "not that I complain."  There's Pischik, a neighbor, who has a great penchant for borrowing money and swallows a whole bottle of Mrs. Ranevsky's pills as a joke.  There's Yasha, the servant who fancies himself educated, and pronounces that the old servant Firs has a case of "anno domini."

Best of all there's Gayev, a good-natured man, but one who loves to make speeches as much as everyone else hates to hear them.  "Nature, glorious nature," he begins, "glowing with everlasting radiance, so beautiful, so cold-"  His nieces quickly cut him off, even faster than they did when he made a similar speech to a bookcase.

The Cherry Orchard is about how life changes, and how hard it is to accept the changes sometimes.  It's also about how resilient people can be in the face of new situations.  And although a thread of sadness runs through the play, its characters are drawn with Chekhov's gentle humor.  We're left with the comforting thought that everyone is going to be all right.    

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