Contents
At school, teachers chewed on us — patiently or irritably, as someone was lucky — what the author of this or that literary work wanted to say. All that was required of the majority when writing an essay was to retell what they heard in their own words. It would seem that all the essays have been written, all the grades have been received, but now, as an adult, it is really interesting to understand the plot twists of the classical works. Why do the characters make these decisions? What drives them?
Why is Ranevskaya so upset: after all, she herself decided to sell the garden?
It’s May, and in the air saturated with the smell of cherry blossoms, the spirit of autumn preli, withering, decay is hovering. And Lyubov Andreevna, after a five-year absence, experiences more acutely than those who were soaked in this spirit drop by drop, day after day.
We find her in a state of expectation, when it seems that it is impossible to part with the estate and the garden: “The misfortune seems to me so incredible that I somehow don’t even know what to think, I’m lost …”. But when what seemed incredible becomes a reality: “… Now everything is fine. Before the sale of the cherry orchard, we all worried, suffered, and then, when the issue was finally resolved, irrevocably, everyone calmed down, even cheered up.
Why is she so upset if she herself decided to sell the estate? Maybe just because she herself decided? Trouble fell down, it hurts, but somehow it’s understandable, but I myself decided — how could I ?!
What upsets her? The loss of the garden itself, which, says Petya Trofimov, is long gone? This kind, careless woman, who confesses that she «always overspent money without restraint, like crazy,» does not cling to the material things too much. She could accept Lopakhin’s proposal to divide the estate into plots and rent it out to summer residents. But «dachas and summer residents — that’s how it went.»
Cut down the garden? But “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.” He is a symbol, a fairy tale, without which her life seems to lose its meaning. A fairy tale that, unlike the garden itself, is impossible to refuse.
And this is her “Lord, Lord, be merciful, forgive me my sins! Don’t punish me anymore!» sounds: “Lord, please don’t take my fairy tale away from me!”.
What would make her happier?
She needs a new story. And if, upon arrival, the answer to the telegrams of the person who left her was: “It’s over with Paris,” then a new fairy tale breaks through the sale of the garden: “I love him, it’s clear … This is a stone on my neck, I go to the bottom with it, but I love this stone and I can’t live without it.” To what extent does Lyubov Andreevna accept her daughter’s fairy tale: «We will read many books, and a new, wonderful world will open before us»? Not without a doubt: “I am leaving for Paris, I will live there with the money that your Yaroslavl grandmother sent … and this money will not last long.” But the fairy tale argues with reason and wins.
Will Ranevskaya be happy? As Thomas Hardy remarked: «There are things so incredible that they cannot be believed, but there are no things so incredible that they cannot happen.»