The Cherry Orchard

After reading the play The Cherry Orchard its subtitle A Comedy in Four Acts did not seem fitting to me. At no point during the play did I find myself laughing or finding any of the situations comical. However, I recalled how I didn’t seem to think that The Importance of Being Earnest was funny until I analyzed it more closely and ultimately saw a clip of it in lecture. Therefore, I looked back at some of the features of comedy we had discussed last week in class to see if they applied to this play. I found that quick development and inversions were both present in the script.

One example of quick development happened in Act I. While Anya and Liubov are just being reacquainted with their home, friends and family after a long time away the plot quickly turns when Lopakhin reveals they are going to lose their house. This information quickly turns the conversation from updates on who has passed away to how they should handle the situation. This sets up the underlying conflict of what they are going to do about the orchard throughout the first two acts. The comedic feature of inversion was present at the conclusion of the play. Lopakhin whose grandparents were owned by the Ranevesky family before freedom was given to the serfs and was a peasant growing up on the Ranevsky’s estate ended up buying the Cherry Orchard. And the rich Ranevesky family loses their home and goes off into the world with uncertainty at the end of the play. After looking at the presence of these features and rereading parts of the script I can see how this play can be considered a comedy.