Unchangeable
By Bianca Yaghoobi
The play The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov is essentially about the way people deal with significant changes in their lives. The play revolves around the sale of the family's property, the characters' reactions to it, and their future. Some readers might consider the play as focusing on Lopakhin's transformation and freeing from the past, when in fact he is one of the characters that most significantly lives in the past. This static condition suggests that people living in the past do not change drastically and virtually behave the same throughout life despite major shifts of circumstances as well as life lessons they have acquired.
Living the past means to sustain past behavior and keep personal as well as material values held in the past. Of course, most readers of the play see Madame Ranevsky as a character who fundamentally remains the same without much change in her personality; she lives in the past. She does not think about the consequences of her actions, but rather lives for the moment and makes sure she is content in the present and thus disregards the future. For instance, in spite of her financial problems, she eats in a restaurant because she is tired of being "[fed] all on milk soup" by her daughter Barbara (19). Additionally, she remains a generous person regardless of her situation. Later in the play, when a tramp approaches Madame Ranevsky and cries, "Mademoiselle, please spare a sixpence for a hungry fellow-countryman," she willingly gives him any money left in her purse, even though she is probably as much in need of it as the tramp (25). Likewise, she is willing to send money to her lover in Paris, although he mistreated and hurt her deeply. At the end of the play, when the characters bid farewell to each other, Ranevsky says, "I'm off to Paris" (44). Her plan to return to her lover demonstrates once again her seemingly indestructible generosity towards others. Madame Ranevsky is a character that is an obvious example of the assumption that people tied to their past do not change as a person.
A less obvious and perhaps unexpected example of this observation is Lopakhin. Lopakhin reveals to the reader his self-image formed in the past, by calling himself a peasant throughout the play. At the beginning, he even labels himself "a peasant of the peasants" (1). In Act IV, when he talks to Trophimof about his wealth and how he got rich, Lopakhin says that he is still "a peasant" (42). This persistent conception of himself shows that he believes in the image of his past self, even though his socio-economic status has changed since his childhood. Lopakhin not only accepts his former status, but also lives up to it, as revealed when he mentions, "Here's this book that I was reading without any attention and fell asleep" (1). He reads a book, an expected activity of wealthy people, without being interested in it, thus suggesting that his financial wealth is only a façade to him. The physical appearance does not necessarily mean the person inside is reflecting it as well. Lopakhin's former personality is still present in him, the peasant who is not so interested in acquiring knowledge. His personality is neither affected by wealth nor altered by the activities associated with wealth, and he still behaves and thinks like he did in the past.
Not only does Lopakhin's personality remain the same during the play, but also the material values he cherishes. For one, he is still concerned with money, sees it as vital, and keeps referring to it. This value is visible from the beginning when he describes the expensive clothes he is wearing, until the end when he talks to Yasha about the champagne they are drinking, which costs "sixteen shillings a bottle" (41). The importance he assigns the financial was most likely the reason for his acquired wealth because it served as an incentive to earn more money. Therefore, his past affection for money carries through his life, and he continues to live with money as one of his major values. Another entity that Lopakhin deeply cares about is the cherry orchard. For him, it represents the life of his ancestors, who used to work as peasants on the property where the orchard stands: "My father was [Madame Ranevsky's] serf, and [her] grandfather's serf before him" (8). It connects him to the past that he seems to live in, for the orchard helps Lopakhin identify his personality – being a peasant. The physical presence of the orchard is not particularly important to him, for as soon as he buys the property, he orders it cut down. Nevertheless, the orchard is a symbolic representation of his relatives' lives and a means through which Lopakhin reminds himself of them. The fact that he seeks to remind himself of the past shows his strong attachment to the past and ultimately suggests that he still lives in it.
Lopakhin's inability to change is also shown in the constancy of his behavior. Like Madame Ranevsky, he cares for others, which he shows by repeatedly reminding Ranevsky, Gayef, and the rest of the family to make a decision regarding the "cherry orchard [that] is going to be sold to pay the mortgage" (8). Lopakhin offers his help through a self-developed plan, but the family is not interested in it and ignores his advice. However, Lopakhin does not give up and constantly reminds them of it, even though no one seems to listen. He almost loses his patience at one point while explaining that the property will soon stand for auction and asking whether the family will agree to his plan for them: "Answer in one word; yes or no. Only one word!" (19). Lopakhin would not remind the family, who ignore him and the issue, if he did not deeply care for all of them. Likewise, he would not get as irritated as he did when being ignored, if the issue did not interest him anyway. Although his attempts to urge them into a decision fail, he does not give up and continues. Of course, one might argue that in the end Lopakhin bought the property and did not seem to care about Madame Ranevsky, who was crying after she found out about the situation. Yet, in the last Act, when Anya tells Lopakhin to stop cutting down the orchard until Madame Ranevsky has gone, he understands Ranevsky's feelings and attempts again to care for her, saying, "Of course, I'll stop them at once. What fools they are!" (42). Even though he doesn't need to defer to them anymore, Lopakhin still cares for Madame Ranevsky and the family. Not only does Lopakhin care for them, but he also cares for Trophimof, to whom he offers a small sum of money as a departing-gift. It is not a gift out of pity, but rather out of respect because money is the best and most valuable possession he has and a gift that Trophimof can find useful. Although Trophimof does not accept the money, the thought behind the gift is more significant, showing the care and regard Lopakhin holds towards him. He is the same caring person that he was in the past, even though circumstances have drastically changed.
The play deals with change and development as well as people's reaction towards it. At the end, readers probably expect shifts in the personality, values, and behavior of the main characters. Of course, Madame Ranevsky is static and not likely to change due to the fact that she lives in the past. But similarly, in a less obvious fashion, Lopakhin also remains much the same. He lives in the past and constantly reminds himself of it. As a result, he does not change and will probably not change in the future, for he has remained the same despite extreme shifts in his socio-economic environment as well as his overall living-situation. If those changes are not going to affect his personality, nothing will. Therefore, the play suggests that those who cannot break free from the past are doomed to static lives.