ANTON CHEKHOV, "THE CHERRY ORCHARD---LITERATURE

Firs, Gayev and Lyubov are stuck in the past and are constantly trying to avoid reality, reminiscent of Gayev playing imaginary billiards and going into long monologue about nature, "O nature, wonderful nature". .
             In the second passage Trofimov goes into a long monologue about how people who call themselves intelligent aren't really because nothing is being done to look after the peasants. Loparhkin then makes a remark about how much he works, "I get up before five in the morning, I work from morning to evening," this is totally unrelated to what Trofimov says. This highlights Loparhkin uncaring attitude of what Trofimov has to say, and his one track mind of time, figures and money," I"m dealing the whole time with money, my own and others". .
             In the third passage Lyubov and Trofimov have a misunderstanding. Lyubov calls him a "big booby" for saying he is "above love," and he should find himself a mistress. Lyubov "s tone is angry, so the audience feels she is sincere, yet when Trofimov leaves because he feels hurt, she apologises by dismissing the insults as a mere joke. .
             Trofimov then falls down the stairs; Lyubov calls him a, "strange man" and then continues to dance with him. This complete confusion and disconnection between the characters, is used to bring humour to the closing stages of Lyubov's life, which is quite sad and oppressive. .
             During the time Chekhov wrote the play, "The Cherry Orchard," Russia was undergoing a vast social change. The landed gentry, the landowners once thought of as the rich, were now having to re-evaluate their lives and what place they now held in society. The decline of rural economy offset the rise of industrialism and the working class merchants. .
             Loparkhin is part of the new entrepreneurial class that is fixated on making money and has a preoccupation with time, "constantly checking his watch." . This practical attitude involves his plans to save the estate," cut down the old cherry orchard" which leave no understanding for the emotions of landed gentry (Lyubov, Gayev, Anya, Varya).