It is hard to imagine that The Cherry Orchard was intended to a comedy originally, as it is overall quite sad. While I noticed that there were some ironic parts in the play, they were very subtle and vastly out numbered by tragedy. I felt especially bad for Firs, I can’t believe that the family left him behind, to die alone at the play’s conclusion, the self-absorbed aristocracy were too concerned with their own affairs to take care of the old man who had taken care of them for so many years.
One could argue that Firs’ sad and solitary death symbolizes more than just the death of an individual, but also of an era and class. Firs’ had been with the Gayev family since before the serfs were freed, but stayed with the estate, having already secured a higher-ranking position. An 87 year-old man, Firs was a clear link to the cherry orchard’s and the Gayev family’s prosperous past.
Indeed, when Firs dies, the cherry orchard is not the only entity that is a shell of its former self; the Gayev family has truly fallen from their once prominent status. Broke, homeless, unmarried, and all on the brink of mental breakdowns, the Gayev family is not the aristocracy it once was. As Firs takes his dying breath, as does the cherry orchard, and (in some ways) the old aristocracy, as they leave the land that had given the family power for generations.
I thought it was interesting how you saw the death of Fir’s also as a symbol of Gayev’s end to prosperity. This idea makes sense now that I think about it because he was their butler for so many years and his death is the end to their status of having a butler at all. I thought it was so sad that they left him there and didn’t even realize but it makes sense for their legacy of status die within their estate.
ReplyDeleteLizzi,
ReplyDeleteI am in shock right now, as I also wrote my blog post on the correlation between Firs and the cherry orchard throughout the play(ironic! :O). However, I like the twist you took on the comparision by tying in the element of time and history in with the fact that both Firs and the orchard and their significance to the Gayev family.