46 pages • 1 hour read
Anton ChekhovThe Cherry Orchard
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1904A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Socio-Historical Context: Russia at the Turn of the 20th Century
For centuries, Russian society was divided into the land-owning aristocracy and the peasantry who were called serfs. The serfs were enslaved to a parcel of land, and they were owned and sold along with that property. In the 19th century, Russia began to adopt cultural ideals from Western Europe; however, the practice of serfdom limited the development of a free market economy. Therefore, in 1861, Tsar Alexander II signed the Emancipation Reform and freed 23 million serfs—they made up 34.4 percent of the Russian population (Zenkovsky, Serge A. “The Emancipation of the Serfs in Retrospect.” The Russian Review, vol. 20, no. 4, 1961, pp. 280-93).
The Emancipation brought huge changes to Russian society. While the peasant class initially faced many obstacles to improving their position in society, the reform cleared the way for the growth of Russia’s middle class and the dissipation of the aristocracy’s power. Without access to the free labor the serfs provided, the land-owning class could no longer afford their lavish lifestyle, because of which many estates were parceled and sold. Written in 1903 and first performed in 1904, The Cherry Orchard is steeped in this historical context. Lubov is in denial about the changing social structure that makes her lavish lifestyle unsustainable. She can no longer pay the debts on the family estate, so her beloved home and cherry orchard are bought by Lopakhin, the son of serfs who once worked on the estate. He plans to divide the land and create villas to meet the housing demands of the growing middle class.
Authorial Context: Anton Chekhov and the Rise of Modern Theater
Anton Chekhov was a Russian doctor and writer born in 1860. His father was the son of a former serf who later ran a grocery store with his wife. Chekhov studied medicine at a university in Moscow. However, since his family was very poor, Chekhov had to support them while also paying his tuition. He managed this by writing humorous anecdotes about daily life, which he sold to newspapers and journals. After becoming a doctor, Chekhov continued to supplement his income with writing; he started working on short stories that were reflective and serious.
Chekhov’s first foray into theater nearly ended in disaster. His first play, The Seagull (1896), was initially poorly received; however, it was revived in 1898 by Konstantin Stanislavsky for the Moscow Art Theater and became a success. Stanislavsky also directed Chekhov’s other great successes, including Uncle Vanya in 1899, Three Sisters in 1901, and finally, The Cherry Orchard in 1904. Along with the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen and the Swedish August Strindberg, Chekhov is often credited with ushering theater out of romanticism and into modernism. Instead of the melodramatic, sentimental productions of the previous era, Chekhov’s works were more realistic and often deeply psychological. By the mid-20th century, they became important inspirations for playwrights like Eugene O’Neil, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller in the United States. Many of his plays, including The Cherry Orchard, are still performed around the world and are considered classics of the literary canon.
Chekhov died in 1904 after being sick with tuberculosis for many years. He was 44 years old.
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