E.Yu. Vinogradova

THE DEATH OF A SYMBOL (The Cherry Orchard: Reality and Symbolism)

Strehler, director of the famous The Cherry Orchard, considered the image of the garden to be the most difficult in the play. “Not showing it, just implying it is a mistake. To show, to make one feel is another mistake. The garden must be, and it must be something that can be seen and felt.<...>but it cannot be just a garden, it must be all at once. This Chekhov symbol is special, completely different elements live in it on an equal footing - realities and mystics; it is both an object that has its own quite tangible shell, and a myth that stores the memory of the past. But its peculiarity is not only in this dual structure, but in its very destiny - the cherry orchard, as a symbol, lives exactly as long as its shell lives.

The Cherry Orchard is not a trifle, like Ox's Meadows. Let us recall that the argument about Luzhki easily turns into an argument about Skattay's "bridling". In vaudeville, whether the characters were talking about the land or the dog, that's not the point. The Cherry Orchard is a symbol indispensable in the play, since it is on it that the plot is built. But even if we compare the symbols in Chekhov's last play and, for example, in The Wild Duck or Ibsen's Doll's House, the difference in scale and function will also be visible. The image of the cherry orchard is comprehensive; the plot, characters, and relationships are focused on it. Ibsen's symbols have the function of semantic generalization, but are not plot-forming, as in The Cherry Orchard. This play is unique among other dramatic works of Chekhov.

In Chekhov's last play, all elements of the plot are concentrated on the symbol: the plot ("... your cherry orchard is being sold for debts, on August 22

auction is scheduled...”), culmination (“the cherry orchard is sold”) and, finally, the denouement (“Oh, my dear, my tender, beautiful garden! .. My life, my youth, my happiness, goodbye! ..” )2.

In The Cherry Orchard, the symbol constantly expands its semantics: the garden, white and blooming, is beautiful, it seems that only bright and happy memories are associated with it (“... the angels of heaven have not left you ...”), but nearby in the pond six years ago, the little son of Ranevskaya drowned. Lopakhin says that “the remarkable thing about this garden is that it is very large. Cherries are born once every two years, and even that has nowhere to go, no one buys ”(I act). Petya Trofimov convinces Anya: “All of Russia is our garden ... Think, Anya: your grandfather, great-grandfather and all your ancestors were feudal lords who owned living souls, and really, from every cherry in the garden, from every leaf, from every trunk, do they not look at you human beings, don’t you hear voices… It’s so clear that in order to start living in the present, you must first redeem our past, put an end to it…” (II act). And now, in Anya's words, a new hypothetical garden appears, which will be planted in place of the old, cut down one (III act). Chekhov combines so many contradictory features in the symbol, and none of them obscures the others, they all coexist and interact, as well as numerous allusions to other gardens.

Any symbol does not appear from scratch and has an extensive, "going back into the depths of centuries" pedigree. The meaning of the symbol is fundamentally dynamic, since it initially strives for ambiguity. “The structure of the symbol is aimed at immersing each particular phenomenon in the element of “originals” and giving through it a holistic image of the world”3. The archetypal basis of the Garden lies mainly in the fact that it is a “cultivated” space “with controlled entry and exit”4. “The concept of a garden, first of all, includes its belonging to the sphere of culture: a garden does not grow by itself - it is grown, processed, decorated.

The first gardener and caretaker of the garden is a god who can transfer his skill to a cultured hero5.<...>The aesthetic side of the garden requires that it be materially disinterested. This is not contradicted by the fact that a person derives benefit from the garden: it is secondary and exists only in combination with aesthetic pleasure. The mythological center of the garden is easily recoded into a spiritual value - be it stars and heavenly bodies, golden apples, the tree of life, or, finally, the garden itself as a carrier of a special mood and state of mind. Speaking of ancient poetry and the lyric poetry of the Renaissance oriented towards ancient samples, T. Tsivyan points to the mythological basis of the image of the garden, “since it is included in the mythopo-

ethical picture of the world.

The garden lives in its own separate time (vegetative cycle), which initially coincided with the time of the people involved in it, but later missed it. Christian culture has reinterpreted this eternal cycle: “Winter symbolizes the time preceding the baptism of Christ; spring is the time of baptism, which renews man at the threshold of his life; in addition, spring symbolizes the resurrection of Christ. Summer is a symbol of eternal life. Autumn is a symbol of the last judgment; this is the harvest time that Christ will reap in the last days of the world, when man will reap what he has sown. According to Chekhov, in the spring a man does not sow anything, and in the fall he is expelled from the garden, which is dying.

The time of the owners of the cherry orchard diverged from the time of the orchard, it is divided into before and after, and the critical point is August 22 - the date on which the auction is scheduled. The garden can no longer continue to exist separately from people (as it used to be); the garden is destined to submit to someone else's will.

The symbol is multi-valued, and the meanings contained within the symbol are capable of arguing with each other: another garden, a garden of the distant Christian past, is one of the reproachful ghosts of the cherry orchard.

But reality in the image of the cherry orchard was no less than symbolism. “Until the end of the century, notices of biddings and auctions were printed in Russian newspapers: ancient estates and fortunes floated away, went under the hammer. For example, the Golitsyn estate with a park and ponds was divided into plots and rented out as dachas”9. A good friend of Chekhov M.V. Kiseleva wrote in December 1897 about her estate Babkino, where the writer repeatedly rested in the summer: "... in Babkino, much is being destroyed, starting with the owners and ending with the buildings ..." (13; 482). It is known that Babkino was soon sold for debts, the former owner of the estate got a place on the board of the bank in Kaluga, where the family moved.

Chekhov's contemporary B. Zaitsev writes about this time in connection with The Cherry Orchard as follows: “The life of Anton Pavlovich was ending, a huge strip of Russia was ending, everything was on the threshold of a new one. No one then foresaw what this new thing would be, but that the former - lordly-intelligent, stupid, carefree and nevertheless created the Russian XIX century was coming to an end, many felt it. Chekhov too. And I felt my end.

The garden has long been overgrown with weeds, both in Russian life and in Russian literature. Only before it was not perceived tragically:

“While they were laying the bugger for me, I went to wander around a small, once fruity, now wild garden, which surrounded the outbuilding on all sides with its fragrant, juicy wilderness. Oh, how good it was in the free air, under the clear sky, where the larks fluttered, from where the silver beads of their sonorous voices poured! (I.S. Turgenev, “Living Powers”)11.

Sometimes Turgenev does not pay attention to the garden at all, which is often no more than a background detail: “They were not rich people; their very old house, wooden, but comfortable, stood on a hill, between a decayed garden and an overgrown courtyard”12 (“Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky district.”) For Turgenev,

as for all literature of the middle of the 19th century, an overgrown garden does not necessarily mean abandoned, orphaned. If the garden is “tidy”, then this is a clear sign of prosperity and love for the order of its owners:

Nikolskoye<...>there she had a magnificent, well-decorated house, a beautiful garden with greenhouses<...>The dark trees of the old garden adjoined the house on both sides;

“... this garden was large and beautiful, and kept in excellent order: hired workers scraped the paths with shovels; in the bright green of the bushes flashed red scarves on the heads of peasant girls armed with rakes”14 (“Nov”, Ch. VIII).

By the turn of the century, much had changed, a whole “class” of summer residents appeared, and “noble nests” fell into disrepair. The age-old manor culture was dying, its autumn came:

I was walking home<...>

all around the forest was full of colors,

But here on the pass, beyond the hollow,

The orchard turned red with leaves,

And he looked at the outbuilding as a gray ruin.

Gleb opened the doors to the balcony for me,

He spoke to me in a sedate pose,

A gentle and sad moan poured out.

I sat in an armchair, by the window, and, resting,

Watched him fall silent.

And I looked at the maples by the balcony,

On the cherry tree, reddening under the mound ...

And harpsichords darkened against the wall.

I touched them - and mournfully in the silence there was a sound. Trembling, romantic,

He was pathetic, but with my familiar soul I caught the melody of my own soul in him ...

A mute silence torments me.

The native nest is tormented by desolation.

I grew up here. But looks out the window Decayed garden. Smoldering flies over the house.

I'm waiting for the cheerful sounds of an ax,

Waiting for the destruction of audacious work,

I'm waiting for life, even in brute force,

Blossomed again from the dust on the grave.15

How strangely similar and at the same time unlike this description of the old estate to Ranevskaya's estate in the Cherry Orchard. Bunin wrote this poem at the end of 1903, and published it at the beginning of 1904 under the title Over the Eye. Subsequently, the poem was published under the title "Desolation"16. Did he know Chekhov's play then? It is known that when Chekhov arrived in Moscow in December 1903 to attend rehearsals at the Art Theater, they saw each other several times and had long conversations with Bunin. It is likely that at that time Bunin did not perceive this play by Chekhov in the way he began to treat it later.

It is known from the memoirs that Bunin did not approve of Chekhov's last play: “I thought and think that he should not have written about the nobles, about the landowners' estates - he did not know them. This was especially evident in his pied-

sah - in "Uncle Vanya", in "The Cherry Orchard". The landowners there are very bad... And where were the landowner's gardens, which consisted entirely of cherries? "Cherry Orchard" was only at Khokhlatsky huts. And why did Lopa-khin need to cut down this “cherry orchard”? To build a factory, perhaps, on the site of a cherry orchard?”17. Bunin knew estate life too well, kept so many memories of it, and, probably, it seemed to him impossible and blasphemous to perceive the image of the old landowner's garden as a symbol. Bunin, unlike Chekhov, could not be "cold as ice"18 when writing about his passing world. He did not like Chekhov's garden, apparently, for its abstract, symbolic generalization. Bunin's gardens are filled with play of flowers, smells of Antonov apples, honey and autumn freshness. The dense, decayed garden was not, like Turgenev’s, an indispensable evidence of the extinction of local life: “Aunt’s garden was famous for its neglect ...”19.

Another reminiscence, earlier, "Dead Souls" by Gogol. Let us recall the lengthy and poetic description of Plyushkin's garden:

“The old, vast garden stretching behind the house, overlooking the village and then disappearing into the field, overgrown and decayed, it seemed that alone refreshed this vast village and alone was quite picturesque in its picturesque desolation. Green clouds and irregular quivering domes lay on the celestial horizon, the connected tops of trees that had grown in freedom. A colossal white birch trunk, devoid of a top broken off by a storm or a thunderstorm, rose from this green thicket and rounded in the air, like a regular marble sparkling column; its oblique pointed break, with which it ended upwards instead of a capital, darkened against its snowy whiteness, like a hat or a black bird<... >In places, green thickets parted, illuminated by the sun, and showed an unlit depression between them, gaping like a dark mouth.<... >and, finally, a young branch of a maple, stretching its green la-

dust-sheets, under one of which, having climbed God knows how, the sun suddenly turned it into a transparent and fiery one, shining wonderfully in this thick darkness<...>In a word, everything was fine, as neither nature nor art can invent, but as happens only when they are united together, when, according to the heaped up, often useless, labor of man, nature will pass with its final cutter, lighten the heavy masses, destroy the grossly tangible correctness and beggarly gaps, through

which peeps through not a hidden, naked plan, and will give a wonderful warmth

everything that was created in the coldness of measured cleanliness and tidiness.

It is interesting that the description of Plyushkin's garden is preceded by a lyrical digression, which ends with the words “Oh my youth! O my freshness! (Later, Turgenev called one of his prose poems this way.) Intonally and semantically, this exclamation “rhymes” with the words of Ranevskaya when she “looks out the window at the garden”: “Oh my childhood, my purity!”

The important thing is that the garden in "Dead Souls", abandoned and not wanted by anyone, is beautiful. The fates of the garden and its owner are different, the garden seemed to be separated by a wall of weeds and weeds from the house, which lives the same life with the owner.

Chekhov's house and garden are semantically the same. Lopakhin is going to cut down not only the garden, but also to break the house, "which is no longer good for anything." For a new economy, a "new garden", this is necessary. The garden in Chekhov's last play is more than a garden, it is a house; a ghost belonging to the house appears in the garden (“the dead mother ... in a white dress”). The garden is connected to the house, as one link is connected to another in the "chain of being", and if the house gets sick, the garden gets sick too. Interestingly, despite the inseparability of the house and the garden, everyone looks at the garden from afar. It is a kind of symbolic projection of the house. “The fate of the garden is constantly discussed in the play, but the garden itself never becomes a direct place of action.

wiya.<...>The garden just does not fulfill its traditional function as an area of ​​unfolding events. His special, ideal nature is highlighted.

The inseparability of the destinies of the garden and people was metaphorically expressed in Hamlet, Chekhov's favorite Shakespearean play. E.V. Kharitonova, in her article on the motive of illness in the tragedy Hamlet, writes: “For Shakespeare, nature not only lost its former perfection, it turned out to be vulnerable, unprotected from adverse influences. This is due to the fact that nature is inseparable from man - it reflects all the painful processes that occur with him. In tragedy, nature is associated with the multi-valued image of the garden, which is included in the material and spiritual levels of the “disease motif”, the main and plot-forming motif in Hamlet.”22

The garden-world metaphor appears in Hamlet's first monologue (I, 2):

Despicable world, you are an empty garden

Worthless herbs empty property.

(Translated by A. Kroneberg);

A life! What are you? Garden, stalled

Under the wild, barren grasses...

(Translated by N. Polevoy).

The metaphor of the garden, combined with the motif of illness, runs through the whole tragedy. So, "... after the death of her father, Ophelia, as if for the first time, leaves the walls of the castle into the garden and there collects real flowers in bouquets." According to E. Kharitonova, the metaphor of a sick garden also affects the plot level: “The garden in which Ophelia finds herself infects her with her terrible disease”25; having hung the garden flowers, “garlands of daisies, nettles, buttercups and purple flowers ...”, which “strict virgins” call the “dead man’s hand” (IV, 7) (from the translation of K.R.), Ophelia dies.

In the famous scene of Hamlet's conversation with Gertrude, the metaphor of the "deserted garden" overgrown with weeds is once again recalled:

Don't fertilize bad grass

So that she does not grow in excess of strength ...

(translated by A. Kroneberg).

After tracing the development of the garden metaphor in Hamlet, E. Kharitonova concludes: “A garden is not only a model of the macrocosm, a garden also exists inside a person, and its wild state indicates chaos inside human consciousness”26.

The closest genealogy of the cherry orchard goes back, of course, to the gardens of Russian literature and culture and does not include the Hamletian connotation of ugliness; the cherry orchard is beautiful. However, in its symbolic essence, the last garden of Chekhov's play is close to the metaphor of the garden-world in Hamlet. The “broken connection of times” is the reason for the desolation and then the death of the garden-house, and, as once in Hamlet, death precedes this decay between past, present and future. In Chekhov's play, this is the death of a child, after which the mother, Ranevskaya, fled, leaving everything behind; and return proved impossible. There will be no "new garden" for Ranevskaya and Gaev. Lopakhin, with less faith than Anya, hopes for the existence of other country gardens. But the cherry orchard, the most remarkable "in the whole province" and in Russian literature, will disappear, and with it the memory of everything with which the garden was associated and that it kept.

Hamlet's famous metaphor "the time is out of joint"27 could be the epigraph of The Cherry Orchard. Although we must make a reservation: Chekhov would never put such an epigraph - too pathetic for a comedy. The sound of a broken string - "fading, sad ... as if from the sky" - non-verbally expresses the same feeling of time torn from tension.

The sale of the estate is terrible not only in itself, but as the loss of that “general idea” that Treplev did not have, in which his uncle was disappointed

Vanya, whom the three sisters searched in vain and whom Ranevskaya and Gaev saw (or were accustomed to seeing) in their white cherry alleys. This "general idea" is illusory and does not seem to contain anything specific within itself, its meaning is inexpressible. Chekhov did not like to give definite answers to "eternal" questions. In order not to say "God", his heroes spoke - "general idea"28. Two and a half months before his death (April 20, 1904), Chekhov wrote to O.L. Knipper: “You ask: what is life? It's like asking: what is a carrot? A carrot is a carrot, and nothing else is known.

Andrey Bely in his article “Chekhov”, comparing the Chekhov theater and Maeterlinck's theater, writes about the tendentiousness of the latter's symbols: “... he subordinates the presence of insight to trends. Such tendentiousness only then receives its full justification when the revelation of the artist spills over beyond the limits of art into life. Chekhov's revelations never left life, so his images were never perceived as speculative. The symbol of the cherry orchard is saturated not only with myths, but, above all, with reality, life. And "true symbolism coincides with true realism<...>both about the real”30. The central symbol of Chekhov's last play seems to consist of two layers joined together; using Bely's definition, "... in it Turgenev and Tolstoy come into contact with Maeterlinck and Hamsun"31.

The symbolism of the garden is due to its tangible embodiment, and it disappears after the garden is cut down. It's like an instrument and music, one is impossible without the other. People are deprived not only of the garden, but also through its beautiful three-dimensionality - the past and God. After the death of the garden, they begin a lonely life in a cold world, where there are no living, not invented, but given, as it were, symbols from above. Reality no longer hears

echo of the past. The present turns out to be an isolated time compartment into which a person without a “general idea” falls. The cherry orchard is dying, and its symbolism is dying, linking reality with eternity. The last sound is the sound of a breaking string.

I Strehler J. "The Cherry Orchard" by Chekhov (1974) // Chekhoviana. The sound of a broken string: To the 100th anniversary of the play "The Cherry Orchard". M., 2005. S. 225.

All quotes from the works of A.P. Chekhov and references to notes are given according to the following edition: Chekhov A.P. Complete collection of works and letters: In 30 volumes. T. 13. M., 1986.

3 Aesthetics: Dictionary. M., 1989. S. 312

4 Tsivyan T.V. Verg. Georg. I.Y. 116-148: To the mythology of the garden // Text: semantics and structure. M., 1983. S. 148.

5 Ibid. S. 141.

6 Ibid. S. 147.

7 Ibid. pp. 149-150.

8 Likhachev D.S. Poetics of ancient Russian literature. L., 1967. S. 159.

9 Gromov M. Chekhov. M., 1993. S. 355-356.

10 Zaitsev B. Zhukovsky; Life of Turgenev; Chekhov. M., 1994. S. 497.

II Citation. according to the edition: Turgenev I.S. Hunter's Notes. M., 1991. S. 238. (Literary monuments).

12 Ibid. S. 196.

13 Turgenev I.S. the day before; Fathers and Sons; Steppe King Lear. L., 1985. S. 194, 196. (Classics and contemporaries).

14 Turgenev I.S. Smoke; Nov; Spring waters. M., 1986. S. 209.

15 Bunin I.A. Collected works: In 8 vols. T. 1. M., 1993. pp. 115-117.

16 The similarity of this poem by Bunin and The Cherry Orchard by Chekhov was noted in the article: Kuzicheva A.P. Echo of the “broken string” in the poetry of the “Silver Age” // Chekhoviana: Chekhov and the “Silver Age” M., 1996. P. 141-142. Kuzicheva also mentions that Chekhov most likely read "Over the Eye", since the poem was published together with Bunin's story "Chernozem", about which Chekhov expressed his opinion to the author. The researcher quite rightly notes that “the plot and poetic echo of the two works<...>typologically interesting - regardless of whether Bunin's poem was inspired by meetings and conversations with Chekhov or not. This mood and intonation distinguish Bunin's previous works” (Ibid., p. 142).

17 Bunin I.A. Poetry and prose. M., 1986. S. 360.

Bunin recalls that Chekhov once told him: "You only need to sit down to write when you feel as cold as ice ...". There. S. 356.

19 Bunin I.A. Sobr. cit.: In 8 vols. Vol. 2. Antonovskie apples. M., 1993. S. 117.

20 Gogol N.V. Collected works: In 9 vols. T. 5. M., 1994. S. 105-106.

21 Goryacheva M.O. The Semantics of the "Garden" in the Structure of Chekhov's Artistic World // Russian Literature. 1994. No. XXXV-II (February 15). P. 177.

Kharitonova E.V. The concept of a tragic motive in Shakespeare's dramaturgy: "the motive of illness" in the tragedy "Hamlet" // English -1. M., 1996. S. 57-58.

23 The Yalta Chekhov Museum has three translations of Hamlet - by Kroneberg and Polevoi, with pencil marks in the margins, and by K.R. Apparently, the first two books

accompanied Chekhov since the 80s. In 1902, the author presented Chekhov with a three-volume set of works by K.R., including the translation of Hamlet.

24 The problem of Shakespearean images in The Cherry Orchard was considered in detail in the article by A.G. Golovacheva: Golovacheva A.G. "The sound of a broken string." Unread pages of the history of the "Cherry Orchard" // Literature at school. 1997. No. 2. S. 34-45.

25 Ibid. S. 58.

26 Ibid. S. 62.

27 The connection of times has fallen (Kroneberg's translation), The chain of times has broken (K.R.'s translation). Field translation omitted the time is out of joint.

28 The professor in "A Boring Story" said: "Each feeling and every thought lives in me separately, and in all my judgments about science, theater, literature, students and in all the pictures that my imagination draws, even the most skillful analyst will not find that , which is called the general idea, or the god of the living man. And if this is not there, then it means that there is nothing.”

29 Bely A. Chekhov // Bely A. Symbolism as a worldview. M., 1994. S. 374-375 For the first time A. Bely published the article “A.P. Chekhov" in the magazine "In the World of Arts" (1907. No. 11-12). V. Nabokov had a similar perception of Chekhov's symbols, who called Chekhov's symbols "unobtrusive" (see: Nabokov V. Lectures on Russian Literature. M., 1996, p. 350). Modern Chekhov scholars V.B. Kataev and A.P. Chudakov, often recalling Bely's articles, noted the peculiarity of the Chekhov symbol, which "belongs to two spheres at once -" real "and symbolic - and none of them to a greater extent than the other" (Chudakov A.P. Poetics Chekhov, Moscow, 1971, p. 172). See also: Kataev V.B. Literary connections of Chekhov. M., 1989. S. 248-249. You can also name the monograph by A.S. Sobennikova: Sobennikov A.S. Artistic symbol in the dramaturgy of A.P. Chekhov: Typological comparison with the Western European "new drama". Irkutsk, 1989. Many Western scholars also wrote about Chekhov's special symbolism, for example: Chances E. Chekhov's Seagull: Ethereal creature or stuffed bird? // Chekhov's art of writing. A collection of critical essays / Ed. P. Debreczeny and T. Eekman. Columbus, Ohio. 1977.

30 Bely A. Decree. op. S. 372.

The Cherry Orchard is a complex and ambiguous image. This is not only a specific garden, which is part of the estate of Gaev and Ranevskaya, but also an image-symbol. It symbolizes not only the beauty of Russian nature, but, most importantly, the beauty of the life of the people who grew this garden and admired it, that life that perishes with the death of the garden.

The image of the cherry orchard unites all the heroes of the play around itself. At first glance, it seems that these are only relatives and old acquaintances who, by chance, gathered at the estate to solve their everyday problems. But it's not. The writer connects characters of different ages and social groups, and they will have to somehow decide the fate of the garden, and hence their own fate.

The owners of the estate are Russian landowners Gaev and Ranevskaya. Both brother and sister are educated, intelligent, sensitive people. They know how to appreciate beauty, they feel it subtly, but due to inertia they cannot do anything to save it. For all their development and spiritual wealth, Gaev and Ranevskaya are deprived of a sense of reality, practicality and responsibility, and therefore are not able to take care of themselves or their loved ones. They cannot follow Lopakhin's advice and rent out the land, despite the fact that this would bring them a solid income: "Dachas and summer residents - it's so vulgar, sorry." They are prevented from going to this measure by special feelings that connect them with the estate. They treat the garden as a living person, with whom they have a lot in common. The cherry orchard for them is the personification of a past life, a bygone youth. Looking out the window at the garden, Ranevskaya exclaims: “Oh my childhood, my purity! I slept in this nursery, looked at the garden from here, happiness woke up with me every morning, and then it was exactly like that, nothing has changed. And further: “O my garden! After a dark rainy autumn and a cold winter, you are young again, full of happiness, the angels of heaven have not left you ... ”Ranevskaya speaks not only about the garden, but also about herself. She seems to compare her life with "dark rainy autumn" and "cold winter." Returning to her homestead, she again felt young and happy.

The feelings of Gaev and Ranevskaya are not shared by Lopakhin. Their behavior seems strange and illogical to him. He wonders why they are not affected by the arguments of a prudent way out of a difficult situation, which are so obvious to him. Lopakhin knows how to appreciate beauty: he is fascinated by the garden, "more beautiful than which there is nothing in the world." But he is an active and practical man. He cannot simply admire the garden and regret it without trying to do something to save it. He sincerely tries to help Gaev and Ranevskaya, constantly convincing them: “Both the cherry orchard and the land must be leased for summer cottages, do it now, as soon as possible - the auction is on the nose! Understand! But they don't want to listen to him. Gaev is only capable of empty oaths: “By my honor, whatever you want, I swear that the estate will not be sold! By my happiness, I swear! ... then call me a trashy, dishonorable person if I let me go to the auction! I swear with all my being!”

However, the auction took place, and Lopakhin bought the estate. For him, this event has a special meaning: “I bought an estate where my grandfather and father were slaves, where they were not even allowed into the kitchen. I’m sleeping, it only seems to me, it just seems ... ”Thus, for Lopakhin, the purchase of an estate becomes a kind of symbol of his success, a reward for many years of work.

He would like his father and grandfather to rise from the grave and rejoice at how their son and grandson succeeded in life. For Lopakhin, the cherry orchard is just land that can be sold, mortgaged or bought. In his joy, he does not even consider it necessary to show an elementary sense of tact in relation to the former owners of the estate. He starts cutting down the garden without even waiting for them to leave. In some ways, the soulless footman Yasha is akin to him, in which such feelings as kindness, love for his mother, attachment to the place where he was born and raised are completely absent. In this he is the direct opposite of Firs, in whom these qualities are unusually developed. Firs is the oldest person in the house. For many years he faithfully serves his masters, sincerely loves them and is fatherly ready to protect them from all troubles. Perhaps Firs is the only character in the play endowed with this quality - devotion. Firs is a very integral nature, and this integrity is fully manifested in his attitude towards the garden. The garden for an old lackey is a family nest, which he seeks to protect in the same way as his masters. Petya Trofimov is a representative of a new generation. He does not care at all about the fate of the cherry orchard. “We are above love,” he declares, thereby confessing his inability to have a serious feeling. Petya looks at everything too superficially: not knowing true life, he tries to rebuild it on the basis of far-fetched ideas. Outwardly, Petya and Anya are happy. They want to go to a new life, decisively breaking with the past. The garden for them is "the whole of Russia", and not just this cherry orchard. But is it possible, without loving your home, to love the whole world? Both heroes rush to new horizons, but lose their roots. Mutual understanding between Ranevskaya and Trofimov is impossible. If for Petya there is no past and no memories, then Ranevskaya is deeply grieving: “After all, I was born here, my father and mother lived here, my grandfather, I love this house, without a cherry orchard I don’t understand my life ...”

The cherry orchard is a symbol of beauty. But who will save beauty if people who are capable of appreciating it are unable to fight for it, and energetic and active people look at it only as a source of profit and profit?

The Cherry Orchard is a symbol of the past dear to the heart and the native hearth. But is it possible to go forward when the sound of an ax is heard behind your back, destroying everything that was previously sacred? The cherry orchard is a symbol of goodness, and therefore such expressions as “cut roots”, “trample a flower” or “hit a tree with an ax” sound blasphemous and inhuman.

Chekhov gave his last play a subtitle - a comedy. But in the first production of the Moscow Art Academic Theatre, during the life of the author, the play appeared as a heavy drama, even a tragedy. Who is right? It must be borne in mind that drama is a literary work designed for stage life. Only on the stage will drama acquire a full-fledged existence, reveal all the meaning inherent in it, including genre definition, so the final word in answering the question will belong to the theater, directors and actors. At the same time, it is known that the innovative principles of Chekhov the playwright were perceived and assimilated by theaters with difficulty, not immediately.

Although the Mkhatov’s traditional interpretation of The Cherry Orchard as a dramatic elegy, consecrated by the authority of Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, was entrenched in the practice of domestic theaters, Chekhov managed to express dissatisfaction with “his” theater, their dissatisfaction with their interpretation of his swan song. The Cherry Orchard depicts the farewell of the owners, now former, with their family noble nest. This topic was repeatedly covered in Russian literature of the second half of the 19th century and before Chekhov, both dramatically and comically. What are the features of Chekhov's solution to this problem?

In many ways, it is determined by Chekhov's attitude to the nobility that is disappearing into social oblivion and the capital that is coming to replace it, which he expressed in the images of Ranevskaya and Lopakhin, respectively. In both estates and their interaction, Chekhov saw the continuity of the bearers of national culture. Noble nest for

One of the secrets... of the Cherry Orchard
was that it was necessary to look at what was happening
eyes ... of the garden itself.
L. V. Karasev

In dramatic works written "before Chekhov", as a rule, there was a center - an event or a character around which the action developed. There is no such center in Chekhov's play. In its place is the central image-symbol - the cherry orchard. In this image, both the concrete and the eternal, the absolute are combined - this is a garden, “there is nothing more beautiful in the world”; this is beauty, past culture, all of Russia.

Three scenic hours in The Cherry Orchard absorb five months (May-October) of the life of the heroes and almost a whole century: from the pre-reform period to the end of the 19th century. The name "The Cherry Orchard" is associated with the fate of several generations of heroes - past, present and future. The fates of the characters are correlated with the fates of the country.

According to the memoirs of K. S. Stanislavsky, Chekhov once told him that he had found a wonderful name for the play - “The Cherry Orchard”: “From this I only understood that it was about something beautiful, dearly loved: the charm of the name was not conveyed in words , but in the very intonation of Anton Pavlovich's voice. A few days later, Chekhov announced to Stanislavsky: "Listen, not the Cherry, but the Cherry Orchard." “Anton Pavlovich continued to savor the title of the play, emphasizing the gentle sound “ё” in the word Cherry, as if trying with its help to caress the former beautiful, but now unnecessary life, which he destroyed with tears in his play. This time I understood the subtlety: The Cherry Orchard is a business, commercial, income-generating garden. Such a garden is needed now. But the "Cherry Orchard" does not bring income, it keeps in itself and in its blooming whiteness the poetry of the former aristocratic life. Such a garden grows and blooms for a whim, for the eyes of spoiled aesthetes. It is a pity to destroy it, but it is necessary, since the process of the country's economic development requires it.

At the same time, the garden in Chekhov's work is significant not only as a symbol, but also as an independent natural, extremely poetic image. I. Sukhikh rightly asserts that Chekhov’s nature is not only a “landscape”, or a psychological parallel to the experiences of the characters, but also the original harmony of the “unspoiled” person J. J. Rousseau (“back to nature”). “For Chekhov, nature is a kind of independent element that exists according to its own special laws of beauty, harmony, freedom ... It ... is ultimately fair, contains the stamp of regularity, supreme expediency, naturalness and simplicity, often absent in human relations. It is necessary not to “return” to it, but to rise, join, comprehending its laws. The words of the playwright himself from his letters are consistent with this statement: “Looking at the spring, I really want to see paradise in the next world.”

It is the garden that is the ontological basis of the plot of Chekhov's play: "the story of the garden as a living being is the first link ... in the chain of transformations" of the play. “This is a kind of subsoil of the text, the foundation from which the whole world of its ideology and style grows ... The garden is doomed not because its enemies are strong - merchants, industrialists, summer residents, but because it really is time to die ".

The play is dominated by the motives of "breaking", rupture, separation. So, the billiard cue broken by Epikhodov in the third act remains declared “unclaimed” at the plot level, as Yasha tells with a laugh.

This motif continues in the final remark of the play: “A distant sound is heard, as if from the sky, the sound of a broken string, fading, sad. There is silence, and only one can hear how far in the garden they knock on wood with an ax. The clarification “just from the sky” indicates that the main conflict of the play is found outside the stage framework, to some kind of force from the outside, in front of which the characters of the play are powerless and weak-willed. The sound of a broken string and an ax remains the sound impression that Chekhov spoke about the need for in any work (he, I recall, believed that a literary work “should give not only thought, but also sound, a certain sound impression”). “What does a broken string have in common with the death of a garden? The fact that both events coincide or in any case overlap in their “form”: a break is almost the same as a cut. It is no coincidence that in the finale of the play the sound of a broken string merges with the blows of an ax.

The finale of The Cherry Orchard leaves a really ambiguous, vague impression: sadness, but also some kind of bright, albeit vague, hope. “The resolution of the conflict is in accordance with all the specifics of its content. The finale is colored by a double sound: it is both sad and bright... The arrival of the best does not depend on the elimination of private interferences, but on the change of all forms of existence. And as long as there is no such change, each individual is powerless before the common fate. In Russia, according to Chekhov, a premonition of a revolution was ripening, but vague and vague. The writer recorded the state of Russian society, when there was only one step left from general disunity, listening only to oneself to general enmity.

In accordance with the literary tradition, Chekhov's work belongs to the literature of the 19th century, although the life and creative path of the writer ended in the 20th century. His literary heritage became, in the full sense of the word, a link between the literary classics of the 19th century and the literature of the 20th century. Chekhov was the last great writer of the outgoing century, he did what, for various reasons, was not done by his brilliant predecessors: he gave new life to the short story genre; he discovered a new hero - a salaried official, an engineer, a teacher, a doctor; created a new kind of drama - the Chekhov theater.

State budgetary professional educational institution

Kizelovsky Polytechnic College

METHODOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

open lesson on academic discipline

Russian language and literature

Symbols in comedy

A.P. Chekhov. "The Cherry Orchard"

Developer:

Zueva N.A.

teacher

Russian language and literature

2016

Content:

	Section of methodical development	Page numbers
	Explanatory note
	Technological map of the lesson
	Applications

Explanatory note.

This lesson is a study on the topic “Symbols in A.P. Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard should be carried out at the final stage of studying A.P. Chekhov's play The Cherry Orchard.

Classical literature is, at first glance, the most studied branch of literary criticism. However, a number of works, including "The Cherry Orchard" by A.P. Chekhov, remain unsolved and relevant to this day. Despite the many literary works that reveal different points of view on this play, unresolved issues remain, in particular, there is no clear classification of the symbols of The Cherry Orchard. Therefore, the advantage of the presented lesson is the meticulous selection by students of the dominant groups of symbols, their classification and the table compiled at the end of the lesson, which gives a clear interpretation of each symbol found in the work.

In this lesson, students are actively involved in research activities, which allows them to most effectively and consistently make a turn from the traditional approach to teaching to a new one, aimed at developing such universal learning activities as:

Ability for self-development;

Development of orientation skills in information flows;

Developing problem solving and problem solving skills.

This allows you to develop the intellectual potential of the individual: from the accumulation of knowledge and skills to self-expression in creativity and science.

Technological map of the lesson

Subject. Symbols in comedy by A.P. Chekhov "The Cherry Orchard"

Chapter.Russian literature of the second half of the 19th century

Discipline. Russian language and literature.

Group.CCI-16

Well. First

Educational: get acquainted with the concept of a symbol, comedy; make a table of symbols based on the play "The Cherry Orchard"

Developing: improving the skills of analysis and interpretation of a literary work;

Educational: create conditions for research activities of students.

Predicted result.

Formed universal learning activities:

Personal: readiness and ability for education, including self-education, throughout life; conscious attitude to continuous education as a condition for successful professional and social activities;

Meta-subject: possession of the skills of cognitive, educational and research activities, the ability and readiness to independently search for methods for solving practical problems, the use of various methods of cognition.

Subject:

the formation of skills of various types of analysis of literary works;

possession of the ability to analyze the text in terms of the presence in it of explicit and hidden, main and secondary information;

the ability to identify images, themes and problems in literary texts and express one's attitude towards them in detailed, reasoned oral and written statements;

possession of the skills of analyzing works of art, taking into account their genre and generic specificity.

Lesson type: combined.

Methods of organizing educational activities: information, research.

Forms of organization of educational activities: frontal, steam room, individual.

Methodological teaching aids:text of the play, video lecture by Dmitry Bykov, excerpt from the TV show "The Cherry Orchard" 1976, presentation, dictionaries, student's worksheet.

Interdisciplinary connections:history, social science.

Internet resources:

TV show "The Cherry Orchard". ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsigUjw68CA)

One hundred lectures with Dmitry Bykov. The Cherry Orchard ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ4YQg71txk)

During the classes

№ n\n	Stage name	Time	Teacher activity	Student activities
	Organizing time		Introductory word. Positive attitude towards the lesson. Introduces the topic of the lesson.	Perception of information
	goal setting		Suggests, using the topic of the lesson and auxiliary words, to formulate the objectives of the lesson	Students discuss and draw conclusions. Educational: get acquainted with the concept of a symbol, make a table of symbols based on the play "The Cherry Orchard" Developing:improving the skills of analysis and interpretation of a literary work.
	Actualization of students' knowledge		Conducting the game. Distribution of roles with the task to determine the characters through dialogue.	Acting in roles. Heroes are defined
	Learning new material		Offers to work with dictionaries. Find and write down the definition of the symbol. Offers to find characters in the text of the play by category	Working with dictionaries. Find symbols and explain their meaning.
	Analysis of work results		Offers to draw conclusions from the lesson	Watching an excerpt from the video lecture. Make a conclusion about the topic of the lesson.
	Homework		Explains homework.	Write down homework. Ask questions about homework.
	Reflection		Offers to analyze their work in the lesson, using auxiliary words	Self-analysis of activities in the classroom. Self-esteem.

Appendix 1.

Text cards:

Your role: VARYA IncludedVarya Varya. Well, thank God, they arrived. You are at home again.(caressing.) Anya. I suffered. Varya. I imagine! Anya. I left on Holy Week, when it was cold. Charlotte talks all the way, doing tricks. And why did you force Charlotte on me... Varya. You can't go alone, my dear. At seventeen!

Your role: ANIA IncludedVarya, on her belt she has a knitting of keys. Varya. Well, thank God, they arrived. You are at home again.(caressing.)My darling has arrived! Beauty has arrived! Anya. I suffered. Varya. I imagine! Anya. I left on Holy Week, when it was cold. Charlotte talks all the way, doing tricks. And why did you force Charlotte on me... Varya. You can't go alone, my dear. At seventeen!

Gaev. Yes... It's a thing...(Feeling closet.)Dear, dear closet! I salute your existence, which for more than a hundred years has been directed towards the bright ideals of goodness and justice; your silent call to fruitful work has not weakened for a hundred years, supporting(through tears)in the generations of our kind cheerfulness, faith in a better future and educating in us the ideals of goodness and social self-consciousness.

YOUR ROLE IS DUNYASHA Dunyasha. Yasha (kisses her). Dunyasha.

YOUR ROLE IS YASHA Dunyasha. I became anxious, all worried. I was taken to the masters as a girl, now I have lost the habit of a simple life, and now my hands are white, white, like a young lady's. She became tender, so delicate, noble, I'm afraid of everything ... It's so scary. And if you, Yasha, deceive me, then I don't know; what will happen to my nerves. Yasha (kisses her). Cucumber! Of course, every girl should remember herself, and I don’t like it more than anything if a girl has bad behavior. Dunyasha.I passionately fell in love with you, you are educated, you can talk about everything.

YOUR ROLE IS TROFIMOV Trofimov. (Lopakhin takes out his wallet.) Lopakhin. Will you get there? Trofimov . I will. (Pause.) Lopakhin.

YOUR ROLE IS LOPAKHIN Trofimov. Your father was a peasant, mine is a pharmacist, and absolutely nothing follows from this. (Lopakhin takes out his wallet.) Leave it, leave it... Give me at least two hundred thousand, I won't take it. Im free person. And everything that you all, rich and poor, value so highly and dearly, has not the slightest power over me, just like fluff that rushes through the air. I can do without you, I can pass you, I am strong and proud. Humanity is moving towards the highest truth, the highest happiness possible on earth, and I am in the forefront! Lopakhin. Will you get there? Trofimov . I will. (Pause.) I will get there, or I will show others the way how to get there. Lopakhin. Well, goodbye, little dove. It's time to go. We tear up our noses in front of each other, but life, you know, passes. When I work for a long time, without getting tired, then my thoughts are easier, and it seems that I also know what I exist for. And how many, brother, there are people in Russia who exist for no one knows why. Well, anyway, circulation is not the point. Leonid Andreevich, they say, has accepted a job, will be in the bank, six thousand a year... But he won't sit still, he's very lazy...

Appendix 2

Student Worksheet

The symbol is ____________________________________________________________________________________________

Real symbols.
Sound symbols
color symbols
Conclusion:	The cherry orchard is

Comedy is ___________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Table

Real symbols.	Keys - a symbol of the mistress of the house. “Varya enters, she has a bunch of keys on her belt” (acts I and II), “Trofimov. If you have the keys ... drop it and go ... ”(act III). Purse - a symbol of the owner of the house. "... looks in the purse ..." (act II), "Gaev. You handed over your wallet…. You can not do it this way! Lyubov Andreevna. I could not! I couldn't" (act IV), "Lopakhin (takes out his purse)" (act IV). Bouquet of flowers - a symbol of unity with nature. "Epikhodov. ... Here the gardener sent, he says, put it in the dining room ”(action I).
Word symbols	lowing - anticipates the future behavior of Lopakhin. "Me-e-e" (act I). "Parge is over..." - speaks of a break with the past nomadic life (act II). "Yes…" - surprise at childishness and contemptuous condemnation of frivolity (act II). “Yes, the moon is rising. (Pause) Here it is happiness ... " - belief in the triumph of truth, although the moon is a symbol of deceit (act II). "All Russia is our garden" - personifies love for the motherland (act II). "We will plant a new garden, more luxurious than this" - symbolizes the creation of a new life on new principles (act III). "On the road!... Farewell, old life!" - shows the true attitude of Ranevskaya to her homeland, to the estate, in particular, to Charlotte and Firs. Played and quit (act III),
Sound symbols	Owl cry - poses a real threat. "Firs. It was the same way before the disaster; and the owl screamed, and the samovar hummed endlessly” (act II). The sound of the flute - background design of tender feelings experienced by the character. “Far beyond the garden, a shepherd is playing his flute. ... Trofimov (in emotion) My sun! My spring! (action I). The sound of a broken string - the embodiment of impending disaster and the inevitability of death. “Suddenly ..., the sound of a broken string, fading, sad" (act II). Ax sound - symbolizes the death of noble estates, the death of old Russia. “I can hear how they knock on wood with an ax in the distance” (act IV).
color symbols	White color - a symbol of purity, light, wisdom. “Gaev (opens another window). The garden is all white" (act I), Lyubov Andreevna. All, all white! O my garden! (action I), color spots - details of the costume of the characters. "Lopakhin. True, my father was a peasant, but here I am in a white waistcoat ”(act I), "Charlotte Ivanovna in a white dress ... passage through the stage" (act II), Lyubov Andreevna. Look ... in a white dress! (action I), "Firs. Puts on white gloves” (act I).
Title symbols	The Cherry Orchard - a business commercial garden that generates income. The Cherry Orchard - does not bring income, keeps in its blooming whiteness the poetry of aristocratic life. Blooms for a whim, for the eyes of pampered aesthetes. All elements of the plot are concentrated on the image - the symbol of the garden: plot - “.. your cherry orchard is being sold for debts, on the twenty-second Auctions are scheduled for August ... ". climax - Lopakhin's message about the sale of the cherry orchard. denouement - “Oh, my dear, my gentle, beautiful garden! ... My life, my youth, my happiness, goodbye! ... " The symbol constantly expands the semantics. For Ranevskaya and Gaev garden - this is their past, a symbol of youth, prosperity and former elegant life. “Lyubov Andreevna (looks out the window at the garden). Oh, my childhood, my purity! … (Laughs with joy). … Oh, my garden! After a dark, rainy autumn and a cold winter, you are young again, full of happiness, the angels of heaven have not left you ... ". For Lopakhin garden - source of profit. “Your estate is only twenty miles from the city, a railway passed nearby, and if the cherry orchard and the land are divided into summer cottages and then leased out for summer cottages, then you will have at least twenty thousand a year income.” For Petya Trofimov garden - a symbol of Russia, Motherland. "All Russia. Our garden. The earth is great and beautiful, there are many wonderful places on it ... " Blooming garden - a symbol of a pure, immaculate life. cutting down the garden - care and end of life.

Appendix 3

Symbol in a work of art.

A symbol is a multi-valued allegorical image based on the similarity, similarity or commonality of objects and phenomena of life. A symbol can express a system of correspondences between different aspects of reality (the world of nature and human life, society and the individual, real and unreal, earthly and heavenly, external and internal). In a symbol, identity or similarity with another object or phenomenon is not obvious, not fixed verbally or syntactically.

The image-symbol is multi-valued. He admits that the reader may have a variety of associations. In addition, the meaning of the symbol most often does not coincide with the meaning of the word - metaphor. The understanding and interpretation of a symbol is always wider than the similitudes or metaphorical allegories from which it is composed.

The correct interpretation of symbols contributes to a deep and correct reading of literary texts. Symbols always expand the semantic perspective of the work, allow the reader, based on the author's hints, to build a chain of associations that connects various phenomena of life. Writers use symbolization in order to destroy the illusion of lifelikeness that often arises among readers, to emphasize the ambiguity, the great semantic depth of the images they create.

In addition, the symbols in the work create more accurate, capacious characteristics and descriptions; make the text deeper and more multifaceted; allow you to touch on important issues without advertising it; evoke individual associations in each reader.

The role of a symbol in a literary text cannot be overestimated.

MEEE

1 group. Real symbols .

Real symbols include everyday details, which, repeated many times, acquire the character of symbols.

In the play "The Cherry Orchard" it is a symbol of the keys. So, in the first act, the author points to a seemingly insignificant detail in the image of Varya: “Varya enters, she has a bunch of keys on her belt.” In the above remark, Chekhov emphasizes the role of the housekeeper, housekeeper, mistress of the house, chosen by Varya. She feels accountable for everything that happens on the estate.

It is no coincidence that Petya Trofimov, calling Anya to action, tells her to throw away the keys: “If you have the keys to the household, then throw them into the well and leave. Be free as the wind” (second act).

Chekhov skillfully uses the symbolism of the keys in the third act, when Varya, having heard about the sale of the estate, throws the keys on the floor. Lopakhin explains this gesture of hers: “She threw away the keys, she wants to show that she is no longer the mistress here ...” According to T. G. Ivleva, Lopakhin, who bought the estate, took it from the housekeeper.

There is another real symbol of the owner in the Cherry Orchard. Throughout the play, the author mentions Ranevskaya's purse, for example, "Looks in the purse" (second act). Seeing that there is little money left, she accidentally drops it and scatters the gold. In the last act, Ranevskaya gives her wallet to the peasants: “Gaev. You gave them your wallet, Lyuba! You can not do it this way! Lyubov Andreevna. I could not! I could not!" In the same act, the wallet appears in Lopakhin's hands, although the reader knows from the very beginning of the play that he does not need money.

In the artistic world of Chekhov's dramaturgy, one can single out a number of images-symbols that are inextricably linked with the idea of ​​home, these symbols begin to perform not the function of unification, but separation, disintegration, break with the family, with the house.

Real symbols.

In the play "The Cherry Orchard", real symbolism is also widely used to increase the ideological and semantic significance, artistic persuasiveness and emotional and psychological tension. It lurks both in the title and in the setting. The blooming garden of the first act is not only the poetry of noble nests, but also the beauty of all life. In the second act, a chapel surrounded by large stones, which were apparently once gravestones, and the distant outlines of a large city, which "visible only in very good, clear weather"symbolize the past and the future, respectively. The ball on the day of the auction (third act) indicates the frivolity and impracticality of the owners of the garden. The circumstances of the departure, the emptiness of the house, the remnants of the furniture, which “is stacked in one corner, as if for sale”, the suitcases and bundles of the former owners characterize the liquidation of the noble nest, the final death of the obsolete nobility-serf system.

2 group. Word symbols.

Revealing the socio-psychological essence of the characters, showing their internal relations, Chekhov often turns to the means of the indirect meaning of the word, to its ambiguity, ambiguity. While honing his deeply realistic images into symbols, the writer often uses the methods of verbal symbolism.

For example, in the first act, Anya and Varya are talking about selling the estate, and at this time Lopakhin looks in the door, mumbles("me-e-e")and right thereleaves. This appearance of Lopakhin and his playful mockingly mocking lowing is clearly significant. It, in fact, anticipates all the future behavior of Lopakhin: after all, it was he who bought the cherry orchard, became its sovereign owner and rudely refused Varya, who was patiently waiting for his offer. Somewhat later, Ranevskaya, having taken telegrams from Paris from Varya, tears them up without reading them, and says: “It’s over with Paris ...” With these words, Lyubov Andreevna says that she decided to end her nomadic life outside her native land, and that she irrevocably broke with his "keeper". These words are a kind of result of Anya's story about the bohemian lifestyle of her mother in Paris. They demonstrate the joy with which Ranevskaya returns home. The same Lopakhin, after Gaev’s speech addressed to the closet, says only “Yes ...” But in this word there is both surprise at Gaev’s naive childishness, and contemptuous condemnation of his frivolity, stupidity.

In the second act, Anya and her mother thoughtfully repeat one phrase: "Epikhodov is coming," but each puts into it a completely different, meaningful meaning associated with their understanding of life and thoughts about it. Trofimov's words are clearly significant, really symbolic: “Yes, the moon is rising.(Pausea.) Here it is, happiness, here it comes, coming closer and closer, I can already hear its steps. Trofimov does not mean here his personal happiness, but the approaching happiness of the whole people, he expresses faith in the imminent triumph of truth. But the appearance of the changeable moon, which has always been a symbol of deception, leads him to think about the well-being of the people. This shows the unfulfillment of the student's hopes. Such words as "bright star", "duty" also have a real-symbolic meaning in his mouth. Trofimov puts a particularly deep meaning into his statement: “All Russia is our garden” (second act). These words revealed his fiery love for the Motherland, his admiration for everything that is great and beautiful in it, the desire to change it for the better and devotion to it.

Trofimov’s statement is clearly echoed by Anya’s words in the third act: “We will plant a new garden, more luxurious than this.” With these words, the heroine speaks of creating life on completely new principles, where there will be no selfish struggle for one's personal, where all people will be equal and happy, enjoying a common garden that will bloom and bear fruit for the joy of every person.

Sound symbols.

In the works of A.P. Chekhov, not only things, objects and phenomena of the surrounding world acquire symbolic overtones, but also audio and visual range. Due to sound and color symbols, the writer achieves the most complete understanding of his works by the reader.

So, the cry of an owl in the second act carries a real threat. An illustration of this can be the words of the old footman Firs: “Before the misfortune, it was also: the owl screamed, and the samovar buzzed endlessly.”

A large place in Chekhov's dramaturgy is occupied by the sounds of music. Such, for example, is the sound that completes the first act: “Far beyond the garden, a shepherd is playing the flute. Trofimov walks across the stage and, seeing Varya and Anya, stops.<…>Trofimov (in emotion). My sun! Spring is mine! The high, clear and gentle sound of the flute is here, first of all, the background design of the tender feelings experienced by the character.

T. G. Ivleva notes that "the semantic significance of the sound remark in Chekhov's last comedy becomes, perhaps, the highest." The drama is filled with sounds. A flute, a guitar, a Jewish orchestra, the sound of an ax, the sound of a broken string accompany almost every significant event or image of a character.

In the second act, the heroes are alarmed by an unexpected sound - "as if from the sky, the sound of a broken string." Each of the characters in their own way tries to determine its source. Lopakhin believes that it was far away in the mines that the tub broke off. Gaev thinks it's

cry of a heron, Trofimov - an owl. Ranevskaya felt uncomfortable, and this sound reminded Firs of the times “before misfortune”.

But the strange sound is mentioned a second time in the final note to the play. It obscures the sound of an ax, symbolizing the death of old Russia.

Thus, the sound of a broken string and the sound of an ax serve as the embodiment of impending disaster and the inevitability of death and play an important role in Chekhov's play. With the help of sounds, those facets of stage action that cannot be conveyed verbally are revealed.

3rd group. Color symbols.

Of all the variety of colors in the play The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov uses only one - white, applying it in different ways throughout the first act.

“Gaev (opens another window). The garden is all white.

At the same time, the garden in the play has only just been named, it is shown only outside the windows, as the potential possibility of its death is outlined, but not specified. White color is a premonition of a visual image. The heroes of the work repeatedly talk about him: “Lyubov Andreevna. All, all white! O my garden! To the right, at the turn to the gazebo, a white tree leaned over, like a woman... What an amazing garden! White masses of flowers.

Despite the fact that the garden itself is practically hidden from us, its white color appears throughout the first act in the form of color spots - details of the costumes of characters that are directly connected with it and whose fate completely depends on the fate of the garden: “Lopakhin. True, my father was a peasant, but here I am in a white vest”; Firs enters; he is in a jacket and a white waistcoat”; "Firs puts on white gloves"; “Charlotte Ivanovna, in a white dress, very thin, pulled together, with a lorgnette on her belt, passes through the stage.”

T.G. Ivlev, referring to the letters of the writer K.S. Stanislavsky, comes to the conclusion that "This feature of the stage realization of the image of the garden - the play of colors - was probably assumed by Chekhov himself." Through color spots, the unity of the characters with the garden and dependence on it is shown.

Title symbolism.

The very title of the work is symbolic. Initially, Chekhov wanted to name the play "Inand shnevy garden", but then rearranged the accent. K. S. Stanislavsky, recalling this episode, told how Chekhov, having announced to him about the change of the title, savored it, “pressing on the gentle sound ё in the word“ cherry ”, as if trying with its help to caress the former beautiful, but now unnecessary life, which he tearfully destroyed in his play. This time I understood the subtlety: "Inand shnevy garden" is a business, commercial garden that generates income. Such a garden is needed now. But the "Cherry Orchard" does not bring income, it keeps in itself and in its blooming whiteness the poetry of the former aristocratic life. Such a garden grows and blooms for a whim, for the eyes of spoiled aesthetes.

But why is the symbol of the outgoing, obsolete - the cherry orchard - the personification of poetry and beauty? Why is the new generation called upon to destroy rather than use the beauty of the past? Why is this beauty associated with "klutzes" - Ranevskaya, Gaev, Simeonov-Pishchik? The title "The Cherry Orchard" refers to the useless beauty of the obsolete, as well as the narrowly possessive, selfish aspirations of its owners. The garden, which previously brought a huge income, has degenerated. Anya overcomes this selfishness in herself: "I no longer love the cherry orchard, as before." But the future also takes on the image of a garden, only more luxurious, capable of bringing joy to all people, and not just the chosen ones. The title contains both concrete and generalized poetic content. The Cherry Orchard is not only a characteristic affiliation of a noble estate, but also the personification of the Motherland, Russia, its wealth, beauty, and poetry. The motive for the death of the garden is the leitmotif of the play: “Your cherry orchard is being sold for debts” (first act), “August 22, the cherry orchard will be sold” (second act), “The cherry orchard is sold”, “Come, everyone, watch how Yermolai Lopakhin will grab an ax for cherry orchard" (third act). The garden is always in the center of attention, most of the images in the play are revealed through the attitude towards it. For the old Firs, he symbolizes the lordly expanse, wealth. In his fragmentary reminiscences of the time when the cherry orchard gave income (“There was money”) (the first act), when they knew how to pickle, dry, boil cherries, there is a slavish regret about the loss of the master's well-being. For Ranevskaya and Gaev, the garden is also the personification of the past, as well as the subject of noble pride (and this garden is mentioned in the “encyclopedic dictionary”) (first act), contemplative admiration, a reminder of bygone youth, lost carefree happiness. For Lopakhin, in the garden “it is wonderful ... only that it is very large”, “in capable hands” will be able to generate a huge income. The Cherry Orchard also evokes memories of the past in this hero: here his grandfather and father were slaves. But Lopakhin also has plans for the future connected with him: to break the garden into plots, to rent it out as summer cottages. The garden is now becoming for Lopakhin, as before for the nobles, a source of pride, the personification of his strength, his dominance. The nobility is being squeezed out by the bourgeoisie, it is being replaced by democrats (Anya and Trofimov), this is the movement of life. For a student, the cherry orchard is a symbol of the serf way of life. The hero does not allow himself to admire the beauty of the garden, parted with it without regret and inspires young Anya with the same feelings. His words “All Russia is our garden” (second act) speak of the hero’s concern for the fate of his country, Trofimov’s attitude to its history. The Cherry Orchard is to some extent symbolic for each of the characters, and this is an important characteristic point.