Ranevskaya in the system of images of Chekhov's heroines
The play "The Cherry Orchard" became the swan song of A.P. Chekhov, occupying the stage of world theaters for many years. The success of this work was due not only to its subject matter, which is controversial to this day, but also to the images that Chekhov created. For him, the presence of women in the works was very important: “Without a woman, a story is like a car without steam,” he wrote to one of his acquaintances. At the beginning of the 20th century, the role of women in society began to change. The image of Ranevskaya in the play "The Cherry Orchard" became a vivid caricature of the emancipated contemporaries of Anton Pavlovich, whom he observed in large numbers in Monte Carlo.
Chekhov carefully worked out each female image: facial expressions, gestures, mannerisms, speech, because through them he conveyed an idea of the character and feelings that possess the heroines. Appearance and name also contributed to this.
The image of Ranevskaya Lyubov Andreevna has become one of the most controversial, and this is largely due to the actresses playing this role. Chekhov himself wrote that: “It is not difficult to play Ranevskaya, you just need to take the right tone from the very beginning ...”.
Her image is complex, but there are no contradictions in it, since she is true to her internal logic of behavior.
Ranevskaya's life story
The description and characterization of Ranevskaya in the play "The Cherry Orchard" is given through her story about herself, from the words of other characters and the author's remarks. Acquaintance with the central female character begins literally from the first lines, and the story of Ranevskaya's life is revealed in the very first act. Lyubov Andreevna returned from Paris, where she had lived for five years, and this return was caused by the urgent need to resolve the issue of the fate of the estate put up for auction for debts.
Lyubov Andreevna married "a barrister, a non-nobleman ...", "who made only debts", and also "drank terribly" and "died from champagne." Was she happy in this marriage? Unlikely. After the death of her husband, Ranevskaya "unfortunately" fell in love with another. But her passionate romance did not last long. Her young son died tragically, and feeling guilty, Lyubov Andreevna leaves forever abroad. However, her lover went after her "ruthlessly, rudely", and after several years of painful passions "he robbed ... abandoned, got together with another", and she, in turn, tries to poison herself. Seventeen-year-old daughter Anya comes to Paris for her mother. Oddly enough, but this young girl partly understands her mother and pities her. Throughout the play, the sincere love and affection of the daughter are visible. Having stayed in Russia for only five months, Ranevskaya immediately after the sale of the estate, taking the money intended for Anya, returns to Paris to her lover.
Characteristics of Ranevskaya
On the one hand, Ranevskaya is a beautiful woman, educated, with a subtle sense of beauty, kind and generous, who is loved by others, but her shortcomings border on vice and therefore are so noticeable. “She is a good person. Light, simple,” says Lopakhin. He sincerely loves her, but his love is so unobtrusive that no one knows about it. Almost the same thing is said by her brother: “She is good, kind, glorious ...” but she is “vicious. It is felt in her slightest movement. Absolutely all the characters speak of her inability to manage money, and she herself understands this very well: “I have always overspent money without restraint, like crazy ...”; “... she has nothing left. And my mother doesn’t understand! ”says Anya,“ My sister has not yet lost the habit of overspending money, ”Gaev echoes her. Ranevskaya is used to living without denying herself pleasures, and if her relatives try to cut down on their expenses, then Lyubov Andreevna simply does not succeed, she is ready to give her last money to a random passerby, although Varya has nothing to feed her household.
At first glance, Ranevskaya's feelings are very deep, but if you pay attention to the author's remarks, it becomes clear that this is only an appearance. For example, while waiting in excitement for her brother from the auction, she sings a lezginka. And this is a vivid example of her whole being. She, as it were, distances herself from unpleasant moments, trying to fill them with actions that can bring positive emotions. The phrase characterizing Ranevskaya from The Cherry Orchard: “You must not deceive yourself, you must at least once in your life look the truth straight in the eye,” says that Lyubov Andreevna is out of touch with reality, stuck in her own world.
“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 ... ”- with these words, Ranevskaya welcomes the garden after a long separation, a garden without which she“ does not understand her life ”, with which linked her childhood and youth. And it seems that Lyubov Andreevna loves her estate, and cannot live without it, but she does not try to make any attempts to save it, thereby betraying it. For most of the play, Ranevskaya hopes that the issue of the estate will be resolved by itself, without her participation, although it is her decision that is the main one. Although Lopakhin's proposal is the most realistic way to save him. The merchant foresees the future, saying that it is quite possible that "the summer resident ... will take care of the household, and then your cherry orchard will become happy, rich, luxurious", because at the moment the garden is in a state of disrepair, and does not bring any benefit, nor nailed to its owners .
For Ranevskaya, the cherry orchard meant her inseparable connection with the past and her ancestral attachment to the Motherland. She is part of him, just as he is part of her. She realizes that the sale of the garden is an inevitable payment for a past life, and this can be seen in her monologue about sins, in which she realizes them and takes them upon herself, asking the Lord not to send big trials, and the sale of the estate becomes their kind of atonement: “My nerves better… I sleep well.”
Ranevskaya is an echo of the cultural past, thinning literally before our eyes and disappearing from the present. Perfectly aware of the perniciousness of her passion, realizing that this love is pulling her to the bottom, she returns to Paris, knowing that "this money will not last long."
Against this background, love for daughters looks very strange. The adopted daughter, who dreams of going to a monastery, gets a job as a housekeeper to her neighbors, since she does not have at least a hundred rubles to donate, and her mother simply does not attach any importance to this. The native daughter Anya, left at the age of twelve in the care of a careless uncle, in the old estate is very worried about the future of her mother, and is saddened by the imminent parting. "... I will work, help you..." - says a young girl who is not yet familiar with life.
The further fate of Ranevskaya is very unclear, although Chekhov himself said that: "Only death can calm down such a woman."
Characteristics of the image and description of the life of the heroine of the play will be useful for students of grade 10 when preparing an essay on the topic “The Image of Ranevskaya in the play “The Cherry Orchard” by Chekhov”.
Artwork test
"The Cherry Orchard" is the last work of A.P. Chekhov, which completed his creative biography, his ideological and artistic searches. This play embodies the new stylistic principles worked out by the writer, new methods of plot construction and composition.
Having started work on the play in March 1903, Chekhov sent it to the Art Theater in October, on the stage of which the first performance of The Cherry Orchard took place on January 17, 1904. The premiere of the performance coincided with the writer's stay in Moscow, with his name day and birthday, and the theater actors arranged a solemn celebration of their beloved playwright.
Consider one of the main images of the play - the image of Ranevskaya.
The action of the play, as the author informs in the very first remark, takes place on the estate of the landowner Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya. This is a real “noble nest”, with a cherry orchard surrounded by poplars, with a long alley that “goes straight, straight, like an outstretched belt” and “glitters on moonlit nights”.
The Cherry Orchard is a symbolic image in the play. He brings together very different characters, each of which has his own idea of him. But the cherry garden will separate all the characters at the end of the play.
The Cherry Orchard as a beautiful home for Ranevskaya exists only in her beautiful past. It is associated with the memory of childhood, of youth.
Ranevskaya appears in her house, where she has not been for five years. And this is her last, farewell visit to the Motherland. The heroine comes from abroad, from a man who robbed her, but whom she still loves very much. At home, Ranevskaya thought to find peace. Nature itself in the play seems to remind her of the need for spiritual renewal, beauty, and the happiness of human life.
Ranevskaya, devastated by love, returns to her estate in the spring. In the cherry orchard - "white masses of flowers", starlings sing, the blue sky glistens over the garden. Nature is preparing for renewal - and hopes for a new, clean, bright life awaken in Ranevskaya's soul: “All, all white! O my garden! After a dark, miserable autumn and a cold winter, you are young again, full of happiness, the angels of heaven have not abandoned you. If only I could remove a heavy stone from my chest and shoulders, if only I could forget my past!”
But the past does not allow itself to be forgotten, since Ranevskaya herself lives with a sense of the past. She is the creation of a noble culture, which disappears before our eyes from the present, remains only in memories. A new class takes its place, new people - the emerging bourgeois, businessmen, ready to do anything for the sake of money. Both Ranevskaya and the garden are defenseless against the threat of death and ruin. When Lopakhin offers her the only real means to save the house, Ranevskaya replies: "Dachas and summer residents - it's so vulgar, I'm sorry."
It turns out that, on the one hand, Ranevskaya does not want to cut down the garden, as it is a symbol of her happy youth, her aspirations, hopes. Yes, besides, the garden in the spring is simply magnificent in its color - it's a pity to cut down such beauty because of some dachas. But, on the other hand, the author shows us Ranevskaya's indifference to the fate of the cherry orchard, and to the fate of loved ones. All her spiritual strength, energy was absorbed by love passion, which gradually enslaved the will of this woman, drowned out her natural responsiveness to the joys and misfortunes of the people around her.
Emphasizing the feeling of Ranevskaya's indifference, Chekhov shows us the attitude of the heroine towards the telegrams from Paris. This ratio is directly dependent on the degree of threat hanging over the garden. In the first act, while they are only talking about the possibility of selling, Ranevskaya "tearing the telegram without reading it." In the second act, the buyer is already known - Ranevskaya reads and tears the telegram. In the third act, the bidding took place - she confesses that she decided to go to Paris to the man who robbed and abandoned her. In Paris, Ranevskaya is going to live on the money that her grandmother sent to buy the estate.
The heroine completely forgot all the insults caused to her by her former lover. In Russia, she leaves everyone to the mercy of fate. Varya, the adopted daughter of Ranevskaya, is forced to become a housekeeper to the Ragulins. Lyubov Andreevna does not care about her fate at all, although she made an attempt to marry Varya to Lopakhin. But this attempt was unsuccessful.
Ranevskaya is impractical, selfish, careless. She forgets about Firs, the servant who has worked for them all his life. She does not like the life of her daughters - neither Ani nor Varya, forgetting about them in the heat of her passion. It is not known for what whim, Ranevskaya arranges a ball, while auctions are going on in the city, although she herself understands the inappropriateness of what is happening: “And the musicians came inopportunely, and we started the ball inopportunely ... Well, nothing ... (Sits down and cries softly) ".
But, at the same time, the heroine is kind, sympathetic, her sense of beauty does not fade. She is ready to help everyone, ready to give the last money. So, Ranevskaya gives the last gold to the drunkard. But this also shows its impracticality. She knows that at home Varya feeds everyone with milk soup, and the servants with peas. But such is the nature of this heroine.
The image of Ranevskaya is very contradictory, one cannot say whether she is good or bad. In the play, this image is not unambiguously regarded, since it is a living, complex and contradictory character.
>Characteristics of heroes Cherry Orchard
Characteristics of the hero Ranevskaya
This heroine is accustomed to luxury, and does not know how to deny herself anything. Even when it comes to saving her childhood home, she can't go against her lifestyle. The newly minted merchant Lopakhin offers her to set up summer cottages on the site of the garden and rent them out in order to pay off debts on the estate. Thus, she will be able to save her father's house. But she and her brother Gaev oppose the idea. They consider renting summer cottages to be vulgar, and they don’t want to cut down the cherry orchard either. This garden is dear to her not only for childhood memories, but as a symbol of the motherland and nobility.
To the last, she does not believe that they can deprive her of the cherry orchard, she still hopes for the help of her relatives. Sometimes it seems to her that everything will work out by itself. However, fate decrees otherwise. During the auction, Lopakhin himself buys their estate with a garden. Now nothing keeps her at home, and heartbroken, she returns to Paris. The character of Ranevskaya absorbed the features of the true Russian nobility, which was primarily characterized by tribal traditions.
Ranevskaya in the system of images of Chekhov's heroines
The play "The Cherry Orchard" became the swan song of A.P. Chekhov, occupying the stage of world theaters for many years. The success of this work was due not only to its subject matter, which is controversial to this day, but also to the images that Chekhov created. For him, the presence of women in the works was very important: “Without a woman, a story is like a car without steam,” he wrote to one of his acquaintances. At the beginning of the 20th century, the role of women in society began to change. The image of Ranevskaya in the play "The Cherry Orchard" became a vivid caricature of the emancipated contemporaries of Anton Pavlovich, whom he observed in large numbers in Monte Carlo.
Chekhov carefully worked out each female image: facial expressions, gestures, mannerisms, speech, because through them he conveyed an idea of the character and feelings that possess the heroines. Appearance and name also contributed to this.
The image of Ranevskaya Lyubov Andreevna has become one of the most controversial, and this is largely due to the actresses playing this role. Chekhov himself wrote that: “It is not difficult to play Ranevskaya, you just need to take the right tone from the very beginning ...”.
Her image is complex, but there are no contradictions in it, since she is true to her internal logic of behavior.
Ranevskaya's life story
The description and characterization of Ranevskaya in the play "The Cherry Orchard" is given through her story about herself, from the words of other characters and the author's remarks. Acquaintance with the central female character begins literally from the first lines, and the story of Ranevskaya's life is revealed in the very first act. Lyubov Andreevna returned from Paris, where she had lived for five years, and this return was caused by the urgent need to resolve the issue of the fate of the estate put up for auction for debts.
Lyubov Andreevna married "a barrister, a non-nobleman ...", "who made only debts", and also "drank terribly" and "died from champagne." Was she happy in this marriage? Unlikely. After the death of her husband, Ranevskaya "unfortunately" fell in love with another. But her passionate romance did not last long. Her young son died tragically, and feeling guilty, Lyubov Andreevna leaves forever abroad. However, her lover went after her "ruthlessly, rudely", and after several years of painful passions "he robbed ... abandoned, got together with another", and she, in turn, tries to poison herself. Seventeen-year-old daughter Anya comes to Paris for her mother. Oddly enough, but this young girl partly understands her mother and pities her. Throughout the play, the sincere love and affection of the daughter are visible. Having stayed in Russia for only five months, Ranevskaya immediately after the sale of the estate, taking the money intended for Anya, returns to Paris to her lover.
Characteristics of Ranevskaya
On the one hand, Ranevskaya is a beautiful woman, educated, with a subtle sense of beauty, kind and generous, who is loved by others, but her shortcomings border on vice and therefore are so noticeable. “She is a good person. Light, simple,” says Lopakhin. He sincerely loves her, but his love is so unobtrusive that no one knows about it. Almost the same thing is said by her brother: “She is good, kind, glorious ...” but she is “vicious. It is felt in her slightest movement. Absolutely all the characters speak of her inability to manage money, and she herself understands this very well: “I have always overspent money without restraint, like crazy ...”; “... she has nothing left. And my mother doesn’t understand! ”says Anya,“ My sister has not yet lost the habit of overspending money, ”Gaev echoes her. Ranevskaya is used to living without denying herself pleasures, and if her relatives try to cut down on their expenses, then Lyubov Andreevna simply does not succeed, she is ready to give her last money to a random passerby, although Varya has nothing to feed her household.
At first glance, Ranevskaya's feelings are very deep, but if you pay attention to the author's remarks, it becomes clear that this is only an appearance. For example, while waiting in excitement for her brother from the auction, she sings a lezginka. And this is a vivid example of her whole being. She, as it were, distances herself from unpleasant moments, trying to fill them with actions that can bring positive emotions. The phrase characterizing Ranevskaya from The Cherry Orchard: “You must not deceive yourself, you must at least once in your life look the truth straight in the eye,” says that Lyubov Andreevna is out of touch with reality, stuck in her own world.
“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 ... ”- with these words, Ranevskaya welcomes the garden after a long separation, a garden without which she“ does not understand her life ”, with which linked her childhood and youth. And it seems that Lyubov Andreevna loves her estate, and cannot live without it, but she does not try to make any attempts to save it, thereby betraying it. For most of the play, Ranevskaya hopes that the issue of the estate will be resolved by itself, without her participation, although it is her decision that is the main one. Although Lopakhin's proposal is the most realistic way to save him. The merchant foresees the future, saying that it is quite possible that "the summer resident ... will take care of the household, and then your cherry orchard will become happy, rich, luxurious", because at the moment the garden is in a state of disrepair, and does not bring any benefit, nor nailed to its owners .
For Ranevskaya, the cherry orchard meant her inseparable connection with the past and her ancestral attachment to the Motherland. She is part of him, just as he is part of her. She realizes that the sale of the garden is an inevitable payment for a past life, and this can be seen in her monologue about sins, in which she realizes them and takes them upon herself, asking the Lord not to send big trials, and the sale of the estate becomes their kind of atonement: “My nerves better… I sleep well.”
Ranevskaya is an echo of the cultural past, thinning literally before our eyes and disappearing from the present. Perfectly aware of the perniciousness of her passion, realizing that this love is pulling her to the bottom, she returns to Paris, knowing that "this money will not last long."
Against this background, love for daughters looks very strange. The adopted daughter, who dreams of going to a monastery, gets a job as a housekeeper to her neighbors, since she does not have at least a hundred rubles to donate, and her mother simply does not attach any importance to this. The native daughter Anya, left at the age of twelve in the care of a careless uncle, in the old estate is very worried about the future of her mother, and is saddened by the imminent parting. "... I will work, help you..." - says a young girl who is not yet familiar with life.
The further fate of Ranevskaya is very unclear, although Chekhov himself said that: "Only death can calm down such a woman."
Characteristics of the image and description of the life of the heroine of the play will be useful for students of grade 10 when preparing an essay on the topic “The Image of Ranevskaya in the play “The Cherry Orchard” by Chekhov”.
Artwork test
" is very versatile and ambiguous. The depth and imagery of the characters are striking in their originality. No less surprising is the artistic load placed on the landscape, thanks to which the play got its name. Chekhov's landscape is not only a background, the cherry orchard, in my opinion, is one of the main characters.
The Cherry Orchard is a secluded, quiet corner, dear to the heart of everyone who grew up and lives here. He is beautiful, beautiful with that calm, sweet, cozy beauty that so attracts a person to his home. nature has always influenced the souls and hearts of people, unless, of course, the soul is still alive in them and the heart has not hardened.
The heroes of The Cherry Orchard Ranevskaya, Gaev and everyone whose life has long been associated with the cherry orchard love it: the delicate, delicate beauty of flowering cherry trees left an indelible mark on their souls. All the action of the play takes place against the backdrop of this garden. The Cherry Orchard is always invisibly present on the stage: they talk about its fate, they try to save it, they argue about it, philosophize about it, dream about it, remember it.
“After all, I was born here,” says Ranevskaya, “my father and mother lived here, my grandfather, I love this house, I don’t understand my life without a cherry orchard, and if you really need to sell it, then sell me along with the garden. .."
For Ranevskaya and Gaev, the cherry orchard is an inseparable part of the family nest, a small homeland where they spent their childhood and youth, their best dreams and hopes were born and faded here, the cherry orchard became part of themselves. The sale of the cherry orchard symbolizes the end of their aimlessly lived life, from which only bitter memories remain. These people, possessing subtle spiritual qualities, perfectly developed and educated, cannot keep their cherry orchard, the best part of their life,
Anya and Trofimov also grew up in a cherry orchard, but they are still very young, full of vitality and energy, so they leave the cherry orchard with ease, with joy.
Another hero - Yermolai Lopakhin looks at the garden from the point of view of the "circulation of the case." He busily offers Ranevskaya and Gaev to break the estate into summer cottages, and cut down the garden.
While reading the play, you begin to feel the worries of its characters, worry about the fate of the cherry orchard itself. The question involuntarily arises: why is the cherry orchard still dying? Was it really impossible to do at least something in order to save the garden, which is so dear to the characters of the work? Chekhov gives a direct answer to this: it is possible. The whole tragedy lies in the fact that the owners of the garden are not capable of this by the nature of their nature, they either live in the past, or are too frivolous and indifferent to the future.
Ranevskaya and Gaev worry not so much about the judge of the cherry orchard as about their own unfulfilled dreams and aspirations. They talk much more about experiences, but when the cherry orchard is solved, they easily and quickly return to their usual way of life and their real worries.
Anya and Trofimov are completely focused on the future, which seems bright and carefree to them. For them, a cherry orchard is an unwanted burden that must be got rid of in order to plant a new, progressive cherry orchard in the future.
Lopakhin perceives the cherry garden as an object of his business interests, the opportunity to make a profitable deal, he does not care about the fate of the garden itself. For all his penchant for poetry, business and profit for him come first.
So who is to blame for the loss of the cherry orchard? The answer is simple and categorical - all the characters are to blame. The inaction of some, the frivolity and indifference of others - this is the reason for the death of the garden. From the very beginning it is clear that in the image of a dying garden Chekhov brings out the old noble Russia and asks the reader the same question: who is to blame for the fact that the old society, the old way of life is becoming a thing of the past under the onslaught of new business people? The answer is the same - the indifference and inaction of society.
