Anton Chekov’s seminal play The Cherry Orchard, among its many other themes, explores the theme of time passing. Lopakhin the businessman, for instance, remarks that “Time does go,” a simple statement that is nonetheless indicative of a larger sense of the significance of time in the lives of the characters (1). The play as viewed through the time-sensitive character Lopakhin operates on a ticking clock, as he is perpetually anxious about saving the titular cherry orchard in time, and gives the audience the impression of Lopakhin as a hurried, efficient character, representative of a more modern desire to make the most of one’s time. This is in stark contrast to other characters, such as Gaev, who treat time far more leisurely: “I’m a man of the eighties People don’t praise those years much, but I can still say that I’ve suffered for my beliefs” (27).
The characters’ references to the passage of time play very well into the themes of the work. Chief among these is the differences in generational attitudes towards time, work and tradition; the hurried Lopakhin and Varya are constantly checking their watches and finding out what time it is, as they have been conditioned by the Industrial Age to treat time as a commodity that must not be wasted. However, the rest of the characters treat time far more fluidly, which results in the more time-sensitive characters coming across as impatient and shallow-minded, refusing to stop and smell the roses. In this way, Chekov uses the passage of time (and the characters who notice it) as a way to criticize the faster pace of modern industrial Russian life.
Works Cited
Chekov, Anton. The Cherry Orchard. Brentanos, 1922.
Loehlin, James N. Chekov: The Cherry Orchard. Cambridge University Press, 2006.
