Key Facts
 

Full Title
The Cherry Orchard: A Comedy in Four Acts

Author
Anton Chekhov

Type of Work
Play

Genre
Comedy (satirical, ironic, often concerned with marriage proposals); Tragedy (involving catastrophic loss as a result of the protagonist's weakness)

Language
Russian

Time and place written
From 1901 to 1903, in Yalta, an island in the Mediterranean.

Date of first performance
Seventeen January 1904

Date of first publication
During the last week of June, 1904 (just a few days before Chekhov's death on July one)

Narrator
There is no narrator in the play

Climax
The climax comes in Act Three, when Lopakhin reveals he has bought the orchard

Protagonist
Ranevsky

Setting (Time)
Between May and October of a year around the beginning of the 20th century

Setting (Place)
At the country estate of Lyuba Ranevsky

Falling action
Everyone leaves the house in October after Lopakhin purchases the estate in August; this departure constitutes the entire fourth Act

Tense
Not applicable (drama); but the story is told both directly and in flashbacks

Foreshadowing
Firs walk across the stage in Act One foreshadows his death scene in Act Four; in Act One, Lopakhin foreshadows his own purchase of the orchard by declaring that the orchard cannot be saved except by his plan;

Tone
Varying between absurd, satirical, ironic and tragic

Themes
Modernity vs. the old Russia; breaking with the past; nature

Motifs
The union of naturalism and symbolism; miscommunication; self-consciousness

Symbols
The cherry orchard; the sound of a breaking string