Chekhov's last play

The Cherry Orchard was the last of Chekhov’s plays to premiere before his death. It opened in January of 1904. Seven months later, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov died at a German healing center in the Black Forest.* Thus, it was well-known during the run of this particular work that the playwright was not well, at least by those who were close to him. Considering the subject matter of this play: a family’s (or perhaps one woman’s) attempt to save their legacy, their honor; it begs the question as to what Chekhov may have been thinking about the condition of his own mortality. 

Chekhov made it known that he meant many of his plays, often mistaken as tragedies, to be funny. He enjoyed mocking the upper classes for their blindness to change and an unwillingness to adapt. This theme is nowhere more apparent than in The Cherry Orchard. Ranevskaya is Chekhov’s typical fool. She has lived away from her beloved estate for five years. Now the aristocracy is in ruins and Ranevskaya has missed every chance to save the property. The solutions that do present themselves, such as building summer cottages on part of the orchard, are all shot down, and in the end Ranevskaya’s worst fear is realized. The estate is sold and the orchard chopped down.

It is said that Chekhov’s impending death became more and more apparent to those around him as it drew nearer. The opposite is apparently true of Chekhov himself. In the last months of his life he thought he was getting better. He is said to have written letters describing how delighted he was to be improving and making inconsequential small-talk. Was Chekhov guilty of the same ignorance as the characters he so loves to torture? Did Chekhov approach his own illness with the same detachment from reality as Ranevskaya and her debt? Who is to say?

Perhaps Chekhov was a little harsh on his protagonists. Perhaps he attributed too much of their blindness and indecisiveness to stupidity and ignorance. He may have forgotten for an instant, the humans need to hope in order to persevere through traumatic experiences. Just as Chekhov hoped he was getting better, even as he was moving closer to death.