The Cherry Orchard
A charming, broke aristocratic family talks, dances, and daydreams while their beloved cherry orchard goes to auction, and the grandson of their serfs buys it.
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Lubov Ranevsky comes home from Paris to the estate where she grew up, just as the cherry trees burst into blossom. The estate is also about to be sold for debt. Lopakhin, a self-made merchant whose father and grandfather were serfs on the estate, offers a plan that would save the family, but it means cutting down the orchard, and nobody will listen. Chekhov called the result a comedy, and much of it is funny, right up to the sound of the axes.
What happens in The Cherry Orchard
In May, Lubov Andreyevna Ranevsky comes home to her family estate with her seventeen-year-old daughter Anya after five years in France, where she fled after her young son Grisha drowned in the river. Her adopted daughter Varya has been running the house, and the estate is so deep in debt that it will be auctioned on August 22. Lopakhin, a wealthy merchant whose father and grandfather were serfs of the family, proposes a way out: cut down the famous cherry orchard, divide the land into lots, and lease them for summer villas. Ranevsky and her brother Gaev find the idea vulgar and do nothing, trusting to a loan, a rich aunt in Yaroslav, or luck. Around them the household carries on. The clerk Epikhodov suffers a misfortune every day, the maid Dunyasha falls for the footman Yasha, the governess Charlotta performs tricks, the neighbor Pischin keeps borrowing money, and everyone expects Lopakhin to propose to Varya, though he never does. One evening in the fields Ranevsky confesses her ruinous love for a man in Paris, a strange sound like a breaking string is heard in the distance, and the perpetual student Trofimov tells Anya that all Russia is their orchard and that the past can only be redeemed by suffering and hard work. On the day of the auction Ranevsky gives a ball she cannot afford. Lopakhin returns with Gaev and announces that he has bought the estate himself, outbidding the rich Deriganov. Overcome that the grandson of serfs now owns it, he promises to cut down the orchard and build villas, while Ranevsky weeps and Anya promises her a new garden. In October the family leaves. Gaev has taken a job in a bank, Ranevsky returns to Paris on the money the aunt sent to buy the estate, Varya goes to keep house for another family, Lopakhin once again fails to propose, and Anya and Trofimov look forward to a new life. The house is locked, and the old footman Fiers, whom everyone believes was sent to the hospital, is left behind. He lies down as the breaking-string sound returns and the axes strike the trees.
Where and when The Cherry Orchard happens
The nursery
The room where Ranevsky and Gaev slept as children. It opens and closes the play, full of joy at the homecoming and stripped bare at the departure.
The cherry orchard
A huge orchard, white with blossom in May, that bears fruit only every other year and that nobody knows how to sell anymore.
The field by the old shrine
Open country with old tombstones and a row of telegraph poles, where a distant town can be seen on clear days.
May to October, after the freeing of the serfs
One season of change, from blossom and frost in spring to a cold, sunny October departure, in a Russia still living with the end of serfdom.
Chapter by chapter summary + why it matters
- 1
Act I: Homecoming in the Nursery
Before dawn in May, with the orchard in blossom and frost outside, Ranevsky arrives home from Paris with Anya, Charlotta, and Yasha, and weeps with joy over the old nursery. Anya tells Varya that her mother is penniless, and Varya tells her the estate will be sold in August. Lopakhin proposes cutting down the orchard and leasing the land for villas; Gaev calls the idea absurd and makes a speech to a hundred-year-old bookcase. Trofimov, the drowned Grisha’s tutor, brings back Ranevsky’s grief, and Gaev swears the estate will never be sold.
Why it mattersThe act sets comedy against loss: Gaev’s billiard phrases, Epikhodov’s squeaking boots, and Pischin swallowing all of Ranevsky’s pills sit beside a mother’s grief for her drowned son. Everyone hears Lopakhin’s plan, and no one acts on it.
- 2
Act II: The Breaking String
At sunset in an open field, Charlotta says she does not know who she is, and Epikhodov, Dunyasha, and Yasha play out their tangled romance. Lopakhin begs Ranevsky and Gaev to decide about the villas, but they call the idea vulgar, and Ranevsky confesses the love affair that has ruined her. A distant sound like a breaking string unsettles everyone, a drunken tramp frightens Varya, and Ranevsky gives him gold. Left alone, Trofimov tells Anya that all Russia is their orchard and that the past must be redeemed by labor.
Why it mattersThe breaking string is the play’s most mysterious effect, a sound no one can explain that seems to mark the passing of an era. Trofimov’s reminder that Anya’s ancestors owned serfs gives the beautiful orchard a darker meaning.
- 3
Act III: The Ball on Auction Day
While the auction takes place in town, Ranevsky holds a ball with a hired Jewish band she cannot pay, and Charlotta performs card tricks and ventriloquism. Ranevsky begs to be sold along with the orchard, admits she still loves the man in Paris who robbed her, and quarrels with Trofimov, who storms off and falls downstairs. Lopakhin returns with Gaev and announces that he has bought the estate; Varya throws her keys on the floor, and Lopakhin, giddy with triumph and pity, calls for the band to play. Anya kneels by her weeping mother and promises a new garden.
Why it mattersThe ball is Chekhov’s great image of denial: the family dances while its home is sold. Lopakhin’s speech mixes the pride of a serf’s grandson with real grief for the woman he has always admired.
- 4
Act IV: Departure
In October the family prepares to leave the stripped nursery. Trofimov refuses Lopakhin’s money, Pischin arrives to repay debts after Englishmen find white clay on his land, and Lopakhin, left alone with Varya, talks about the weather instead of proposing. The family says goodbye and the doors are locked, and the old footman Fiers, whom they believe was sent to the hospital, is left behind. He lies down in the empty house as the breaking string sounds again and the axes strike the orchard.
Why it mattersThe characters scatter to new lives with mixed hopes, but the last image belongs to Fiers, the servant of the old order, forgotten in the house he served. The play ends without a villain, only carelessness, change, and the sound of work beginning.
Characters and how they connect
Lubov Andreyevna Ranevsky
Owner of the estate
A generous, impulsive landowner who has come home from Paris after years of grief and scandal. She loves the orchard deeply and cannot bring herself to save it.
Ermolai Lopakhin
Merchant, grandson of serfs
A self-made businessman whose father and grandfather were serfs on the estate. He tries to save the family, then buys the orchard himself.
Leonid Gaev
Ranevsky’s brother
A gentleman of fifty-one who makes speeches to furniture, sucks sugar-candy, and talks billiards when he is upset. He swears the estate will not be sold.
Varya
Ranevsky’s adopted daughter
A hardworking, devout woman of twenty-seven who carries the household keys and waits in vain for Lopakhin to propose.
Anya
Ranevsky’s daughter
A seventeen-year-old who takes in Trofimov’s ideas and looks forward eagerly to a new life.
Peter Trofimov
The perpetual student
Grisha’s former tutor, who preaches work and a happy future and says he is above love, but cannot find his own goloshes.
Fiers
Old footman
A servant of eighty-seven who stayed with his masters after the serfs were freed. He fusses over Gaev’s coats to the end and is forgotten in the locked house.
Yasha
Young footman
Ranevsky’s servant, spoiled by Paris, who sneers at Russia, avoids his own mother, and cannot wait to leave.
Character Relationships who connects to whom, and the themes that bind them
Love / marriage
Family
Power / control
Duty / service
Friendship / ally
Connection
Themes in The Cherry Orchard what the novel is really about
The end of an old order
The landowning family can no longer pay its way, and the son of its serfs buys the estate. The play shows a whole class losing its place.
Memory and the past
Ranevsky sees her childhood and even her dead mother in the orchard, while Trofimov sees the faces of the serfs who worked it. The past is loved and accused at once.
Paralysis
Everyone knows the date of the auction, and no one acts. Gaev’s many remedies, by his own admission, mean he has none at all.
Class and social mobility
Lopakhin is rich but still feels like a peasant, and his triumph at the auction is shadowed by shame and pity.
Loneliness
Charlotta has no one to talk to, Varya and Lopakhin cannot speak to each other, and Fiers is left alone in the house he served.
Symbols & motifs
The cherry orchard
For Ranevsky it is her childhood and innocence; for Lopakhin, land to be developed; for Trofimov, a reminder of serfdom. Its fall marks the end of the old gentry’s world.
Keys
Varya carries the household keys, Trofimov tells Anya to throw the housekeeping keys down the well, Varya throws them down when the estate is sold, and Lopakhin picks them up. In the end the house is locked with Fiers inside.
The breaking string
A sound from the sky that no one can explain, heard in Act II and again at the very end. Fiers says a similar omen came before what he calls the misfortune: the freeing of the serfs.
Recurring motifs
Money slipping away. Ranevsky spills her purse, gives gold to a tramp and her purse to the peasants, and throws a ball she cannot pay for, while Pischin chases loans.
Billiards and speeches. Gaev falls back on billiard terms whenever feelings run high, and his family keeps hushing his speeches, from his address to Nature to his farewell to the house.
Arrivals and departures. The play opens with a late train bringing the family home and ends with everyone hurrying to catch the train away.
Important quotes
“If there’s any illness for which people offer many remedies, you may be sure that particular illness is incurable, I think.”
“All Russia is our orchard.”
“I couldn’t understand my life without that cherry orchard, and if it really must be sold, sell me with it!”
“I’ve bought the estate where my grandfather and my father were slaves, where they weren’t even allowed into the kitchen.”
“Good-bye, home! Good-bye, old life!”
“Life’s gone on as if I’d never lived.”
The ending of The Cherry Orchard, explained
The last act takes place in the nursery where the play began, now stripped of curtains and pictures. It is October, and the family is leaving on the same train Lopakhin takes to Kharkov. Everyone moves on in some way. Gaev has a job in a bank, Ranevsky is going back to Paris to live on the money her aunt sent to buy the estate, Anya plans to study and work, Trofimov heads for Moscow, and Varya will keep house for another family. Lopakhin and Varya are finally left alone for the proposal everyone expects, and they talk about something she cannot find and a broken thermometer until someone calls him away. Ranevsky and Gaev wait until the others have gone, then hold each other and sob quietly so no one will hear. The doors are locked from outside. Then Fiers, the eighty-seven-year-old footman, walks into the empty room. Everyone believed Yasha had sent him to the hospital, and no one checked. He worries that Gaev has left in a light coat, says his life has gone by as if he never lived, and lies down. The breaking-string sound from Act II returns, followed by the axe in the orchard. Chekhov subtitled the play a comedy, and the ending tests that label. On one reading the play is a comedy of people so busy talking that they forget the man who served them all their lives, and even Fiers’s final word, bungler, is a word he has used on others throughout. On another reading it is an elegy for a whole way of life, in which Fiers, who was already a valet when the serfs were freed, is left behind with the past. Many productions hold both at once, which is why the play is often called a tragicomedy.
Common misreadings
MythThe Cherry Orchard is a tragedy.
ActuallyChekhov subtitled it a comedy, and he complained that the first production, at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1904, played it too heavily. The play is full of farce, from Epikhodov’s daily disasters to Charlotta’s tricks. Readers and directors still disagree about how sad it should feel.
MythLopakhin is a villain who steals the orchard.
ActuallyHe warns the family from the first act and offers a plan to save the estate. He buys it at a public auction against another bidder, and he weeps even as he celebrates.
MythTrofimov speaks for Chekhov.
ActuallyHis speeches about work and the future are stirring, but he is also comic: a perpetual student who claims to be above love, falls downstairs, and loses his goloshes. Readers disagree about how seriously to take him.
Test yourself
1. What does Lopakhin propose to save the estate?
He says the lots would bring in at least twenty-five thousand roubles a year, but the orchard would have to go.
2. Who buys the cherry orchard at the auction?
Lopakhin outbids Deriganov and announces, I bought it.
3. What does Varya do when she learns who bought the estate?
The keys show she is no longer the mistress of the house, and Lopakhin picks them up.
4. Where does Pischin’s sudden money come from in Act IV?
He has leased the land with the clay to them for twenty-four years.
5. What happens to Fiers at the end of the play?
Everyone believes he was sent to the hospital, but he is left behind when the doors are locked.
Flashcards flip, self-grade, and the deck remembers what you know
Nice work.
A lady named Lubov comes home to her family’s big country house, which has a famous cherry orchard. The family owes so much money that the house will be sold at an auction. A businessman named Lopakhin, whose father and grandfather were serfs on the estate, tells them how to save it: cut down the orchard and rent out the land for summer houses. The family thinks that idea is vulgar, so they just talk, dance, and hope. Lopakhin ends up buying the estate himself. The family leaves, and the old servant Fiers is accidentally left behind while the trees are being chopped down.
Compare & connect the story universe
Gooseberries
Chekhov’s story about a man who spends his life saving to buy a country estate, and what owning it does to him.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche DuBois has lost her family’s plantation and clings to a genteel past that the modern world has no room for.
The Glass Menagerie
A mother clings to memories of a gracious Southern girlhood while her family’s present falls apart.
Waiting for Godot
Another play in which characters talk and wait instead of acting, balanced between comedy and despair.
Discussion & essay prompts for class, or your next paper
💬 Discussion questions
- Why did Chekhov call The Cherry Orchard a comedy
- What does the cherry orchard symbolize
- What is the breaking string sound in The Cherry Orchard
- How does The Cherry Orchard explore the theme of the end of an old order?
- How does The Cherry Orchard explore the theme of memory and the past?
- What is the central conflict in The Cherry Orchard, and how does it shape the ending?
✎ Essay prompts
- Analyze how Anton Chekhov develops the theme of the end of an old order in The Cherry Orchard. Support your argument with specific evidence from the text.
- Examine the significance of the cherry orchard in The Cherry Orchard. What does it represent, and how does it deepen the work’s meaning?
- How does Anton Chekhov use offstage action to shape the reader’s experience of The Cherry Orchard?
- Some readers assume that the Cherry Orchard is a tragedy. Argue for or against this interpretation, using evidence from the text.
Key questions students ask
- Why did Chekhov call The Cherry Orchard a comedy
- What does the cherry orchard symbolize
- What is the breaking string sound in The Cherry Orchard
- Why does Lopakhin buy the cherry orchard
- Why does Lopakhin never propose to Varya
- What happens to Fiers at the end of The Cherry Orchard
Analysis is original StoryBites commentary. The text and the quotations follow Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard (1904) in the English translation by Julius West, printed in Plays by Anton Tchekoff, Second Series (Duckworth, 1915; Scribner, 1916), checked against the page images. The play and this translation are in the public domain.