Speech features of the characters in the play "The Cherry Orchard"

5. Speech features of the characters in the play "The Cherry Orchard"

The protagonists of The Cherry Orchard in their social and typical essence and individual characteristics are clearly manifested by means of language.
The speech of each character in the play is unique, while its typical and individual properties are revealed with special completeness.
The language of Ranevskaya is different from the language of Gaev and Simeonov-Pishchik. The contradictory essence of Ranevskaya - her sincerity and mannerisms, spontaneity and excessive impressionability, sensitivity - is also reflected in the language.
Her speech is replete with words and expressions of emotional, and sometimes clearly melodramatic coloring. For example:
ruthlessly... tortured me... begs me to return; take pity on me; the soul trembles from every sound; I swear; I'll die now; I dreamed... of marrying her off to you.
She is characterized by sensitive, lyrical epithets, and sometimes clearly embellished, aestheticized:
my dear, beautiful room, amazing garden, beloved child, my treasure, I will come, my gold.
She is clearly prone to deeply emotional comparisons: a white tree leans, like a woman; your eyes play like two diamonds; like crazy.
The emphasized emotionality of Ranevskaya's speech is also created by syntactic means. These means are very diverse: the repetition of the same words and phrases in a phrase (all, all white, Oh my childhood, my purity), the rhythmic-melodic ratio of the parts that make up the phrase (... who will look after him, who will keep him from mistakes, who will give him medicine in time?), exclamatory and interrogative intonation (Childish! .. I couldn’t! Oh, my garden! .. For what? For what, my friend? .. What, Petya? Why why have you grown so old?), unanimity (Why drink so much, Lenya? Why eat so much? Why talk so much?), silence, incompleteness, reticence, discontinuity of the phrase (Grisha my ... my boy ... Grisha ... son), the isolation of phrases, their weakly expressed connection: And now I'm like a little one ... (Kisses her brother, Varya, then again her brother). And Varya is still the same, she looks like a nun. And I recognized Dunyasha ...; What to do, give... He needs... He will give.
The rhythmic-melodic phrase of Ranevskaya manifests itself mainly in three-term combinations and gravitates towards the form of gradation, that is, emotional and semantic growth, for example:
Oh my dear, my gentle, beautiful garden! .. My life, my youth, my happiness, goodbye!
Sincerity of feelings, emotionality are combined in Ranevskaya with excessive sensitivity, memorized mannerism, which in her speech expresses sentimental rhetoric.
Ranevskaya, who paid so much attention to appearance, strove to speak beautifully, gracefully, delicately. She demanded the same from others. Trofimov's harsh expressions shocked her, and she reprimanded him:
But it must be said differently.
But in the pursuit of beautiful, figurative, emotional speech, Ranevskaya often uses words and phrases that are much stronger than the feelings expressed in them, and this leads her to false pathos.
So, for example, the following words of her addressed to Trofimov sound obviously pompous:
After all, I was born here, my father and mother lived here, my grandfather, I love this house, I don’t understand my life without a cherry orchard, and if you really need to sell it, then sell me along with the garden.
Ranevskaya, incapable of deep feelings, as you know, did not long suffer from the loss of the cherry orchard.
Sentimental rhetoric emanates from such a phrase by Ranevskaya:
Oh my garden! After a dark rainy autumn and a cold winter, you are young again, full of happiness, the angels of heaven have not left you...
Her references to the items in the children's room also sound clearly sentimental, mannered:
My own cupboard... (Kisses the cupboard). My table...
Ranevskaya's sentimentality is especially tangible in her predilection for diminutive suffixes: my old man, boy, dear student, tree, darling.
Her sensitivity and mannerisms are also clearly manifested in an overly elevated, rhetorical metaphor. She says:
Happiness woke up with me every morning; If I could remove a heavy stone from my chest and shoulders; my soul dried up.
It has already been pointed out in the critical literature that the vagueness of her own intentions, due to her extreme impracticality and frivolity, leads Ranevskaya to the frequent use of indefinite adverbs and particles (V. A. Kovalev and L. M. Rozenb l y m, Speech characteristics of the main characters of A. P. Chekhov's play "The Cherry Orchard", "Russian Language at School", 1954, No. 4, p. 18.), for example:
Maybe we'll think of something; I'm still waiting for something; For some reason it's unpleasant, somehow I don't even know what to think, I'm at a loss; Say something, say something.
The speech of Gaev, a sweet-tempered gentleman, inclined from idleness to harmless, liberal ranting, is a kind of fusion of vernacular with lofty phraseology. His characteristic vernacular is manifested by words and expressions associated with taste sensations (anchovies, breakfast, smells like chicken, smells like herring) and billiard interests.
Billiard terms serve Gaev to express a wide variety of emotional experiences. Clearly embarrassed by his ridiculous speech in front of the closet, he mutters: From the ball to the right into the corner! I cut in the middle!
Satisfied with his project to save the cherry orchard, he exclaims: From the two sides to the middle! I put clean...
Satisfied with a pleasure trip to the city, he says: Yellow in the middle.
In deep thought about the impending auction for the estate, he says: Doublet in the corner ... Krause in the middle ...
The colloquial-vernacular feature of Gaev's language is manifested with particular convexity in his favorite word whom?, which he pronounces in a deliberate violation of any logic.
For example:
L o p a x i n. Yes, time goes by.
G a e v. Whom?
Or:
Yash a. And you, Leonid Andreevich, are still the same as you were.
G a e v. Whom?
In this little word, the essence of the lordly arrogance and arrogance of Gaev was expressed in the best possible way. M. Nevedomsky very well said that this word - “is the last remnant of lordly arrogance in the figure of Gaev. This contemptuous but innocent "who?" he shoots back both from the boorishly impudent antics of the lackey Yakov, and from Lopakhin, who is too cheeky and obviously devoid of any subtlety of feelings, in his opinion ”(M. Nevedomsky, 0 modern art, “The World of God ", 1904, No. 8, p. 21).
The lordly arrogance of Gaev is clearly manifested in such remarks addressed to Lopakhin as a boor, what nonsense.
The second feature of Gaev's speech, manifested by lofty phraseology, characterizes him as a table speaker of the liberal populist fold. That attraction, a kind of malaise, which Gaev experiences for phrases, for speeches, is brilliantly used by Chekhov to parody liberal rhetoric. Sharpening the social and typical features of Gaev's liberal phraseology, Chekhov creates such a classic example of satirical parody as Gaev's speech in front of the closet. Standing in front of the closet, he says:
Dear, respected closet! I salute your existence, which for more than a hundred years has been directed towards the bright ideals of goodness and justice...
Chekhov also emphasizes the features of Gaev's speech as an empty, krasnobay declamation with remarks. In the second act, Gaev's appeal to nature (Oh, nature, marvelous, etc.) is preceded by the following remark: quietly, as if reciting.
Gaev's internal disorganization is reflected in the disorder of his speech. He glides from one topic to another. For example:
Well, kids, bye-bye... Details tomorrow, now go to bed (kisses Anya and Varya). I'm a man of the eighties... They don't praise this time... Etc.
The appearance of a deeply provincial, ignorant, very narrow-minded, always borrowing money landowner Pishchik is vividly revealed by Chekhov and by means of his speech, very poor and primitive.
Pishchik uses mostly colloquial (I suppose, my cart all four wheels are gone, but look, and look there, in the morning, rubles), familiar words and turns (the villain, on a waltz, smacks of cognac from you) and thickly equips his speech with respectful, affectionate and laudatory epithets (sweet, most respectable, most charming, most worthy, most wonderful, most beautiful, most famous), expressions that apparently remind of his former hunting passion (got into a pack - do not bark, but wag your tail; a hungry dog ​​believes only in meat) and let's say you think!
In the proverb You think!, which he utters eight times throughout the play, both his good nature, and his ingenuity, and his complete, downright childishly naive ignorance of the well-known are clearly exposed.
Being naturally taciturn, he speaks slowly, choosing his words with difficulty. Completely helpless in the construction of sentences, he mostly uses short, broken phrases. Attempts to utter a long remark are reduced to an incoherent jumble of words. For example:
A man, I must tell the truth... the most worthy... And my Dashenka... also says that... he says different words.
Or:
How? (Alarmed.) Why to the city? That's when I look at the furniture... the suitcases... Well, nothing... (Through tears.) Nothing... People of the greatest intelligence... these Englishmen... Nothing... Be happy...
The desire for individualization, so clearly revealed in the language of Ranevskaya, Gaev and Pishchik, was even more evident in the speech of Lopakhin.
In the speech of the merchant Lopakhin, Chekhov reflected both his life path, his rural origin and his social essence, and his connections, culture and his deeply individual properties.
The village-kulak origin, the small culture of Lopakhin, were clearly manifested in his speech with such words and phraseological turns, which in their totality reflect the features of the petty-bourgeois-common dialect: dad, boy, breakthrough, passion (in the sense of "very"), what, if, I suppose , about this time, he traded in the village in a shop, he was drunk, huge, you need to remember yourself, know for yourself, a peasant is a peasant, you need to clean up what a fool he dumped.
Lopakhin’s speech is replete with words and expressions of trade commercial jargon: “... Deriganov immediately gave thirty in excess of the debt ... He, therefore, adds five, I ten ... In excess of the debt, I slapped ninety, it’s left for me.” Or: "... earned forty thousand clean."
A man of strict calculation, he very often resorts to figures in his speech: "You will take from summer residents at least twenty-five rubles per tithe"; “There are only forty-seven minutes left before the train! So, in twenty minutes to go to the station!”
His merchant and clerk's respectfulness was expressed in such words and phrases as nothing, sir, we humbly thank you, and rudeness, boastfulness and familiarity in such expressions as he lapped up, I can pay for everything, goodbye, I kept hanging out with you, why the nose fight, you are a woman.
For the speech of Lopakhin, who constantly rotates among the intelligentsia, although he reads little, but a great theatergoer, foreign words are natural (project, auction, circulation), echoes of literary and book phraseology: a figment of your imagination, covered with the darkness of the unknown. In his mouth, literary quotations are also appropriate, although distorted, as, for example, in an appeal to Varya: Ohmelia, go to the monastery.
Lopakhin strives to speak the way the educated people around him speak, but his small culture leads to deviations, to vulgarization, to a kind of fusion of colloquial vernacular, common people's regional and literary-bookish speech. He says: Let me ask you, how do you understand me? Or: Every ugliness has its decency. And one more thing: Music, play distinctly!
The rudeness characteristic of Lopakhin is manifested in rough, vulgar vocabulary and phraseology: With a pig's snout in a kalash row; What a breakthrough; I write... like a pig; I can pay for everything! Why tear up your nose? It's called yelling.
It is important to note that Lopakhin, this slick entrepreneur, changes the way he speaks depending on who he is talking to.
With Epikhodov he speaks rudely; disdainfully: Leave me alone. Tired.
With Gaev, she speaks ironically, showing her superiority over him: goodbye; you are a grandmother.
With Trofimov, he talks in a friendly, familiar way: Farewell, my dear. Thanks for all. If necessary, take money from me for the journey.
For Ranevskaya, he selects words and phrases that are delicate, pleasant, beautiful, full of deep sympathy: But do not worry, my dear, sleep peacefully, there is a way out ...; Why, why didn't you listen to me? My poor, good, you will not return now.
In its syntactic structure, the speech of the businessman Lopakhin is distinguished by clarity, clarity, logicality, conciseness. For example: Attention please! Your estate is only twenty versts from the city, there is a railway nearby, and if the cherry orchard and the land along the river are divided into summer cottages and then leased out for summer cottages, then you will have at least twenty-five thousand a year income.
Chekhov, revealing the complex, contradictory essence of Lopakhin's character, also shows his tendency sometimes to heightened emotional, rhythmic-melodic, aestheticized phraseology, for example: I would only like you to believe me as before, so that your amazing, touching eyes look at me , like before. Or: And then your cherry orchard will become happy, rich, luxurious... And one more thing: Lord, you gave us vast forests, vast fields, the deepest horizons, and living here, we ourselves should really be giants.
The peculiarities of Lopakhin's language testify that we are not dealing with an ordinary, ordinary merchant, but a merchant with a pronounced individuality. With a combination of typical and individual speech features, Chekhov drew a very peculiar character of a merchant, complex in its socio-psychological essence. But this character was not the fruit of a writer's fantasy, but a reflection of real relationships. There were such merchants at that time, Chekhov met them on his life path (let us recall, for example, his acquaintance with the well-known Orekhovo-Zuyevo manufacturer-philanthropist S. T. Morozov).
Chekhov was very afraid that the complexity, Lopakhin's individuality would be erased in stage performances, and therefore repeatedly reminded him of it. In letters to O. L. Knipper dated October 28 and 30, 1903, he wrote: “After all, this is not a merchant in the vulgar sense of the word, you need to understand this ... Lopakhin should not be played as a screamer, it is not necessary that it must necessarily be a merchant. This is a gentle person ”(A.P. Chekhov, Complete collection of works and letters, vol. 20, Goslitizdat, M., 1951, pp. 167, 169).
Chekhov reflected this softness, subtlety, complexity of Lopakhin in his language. In the speech of the characters, Chekhov sought to reveal not only the versatility of their internal appearance, but also the richness of the national language.
With particular force, this wealth was revealed by him in the speeches of positive actors. Convincing evidence of this is the speech of Trofimov and Anya.
The speech of Trofimov, a representative of democratic ideas, denouncing the old social system and calling for the creation of a new world, is the speech of a propagandist, accustomed to talking a lot, fluent in words, lexically rich, figurative, bright, mostly complex-composed.
He makes extensive use of socio-political and scientific terminology, which sharply distinguishes him from all the other characters in the play: workers, intelligentsia, feudal lords, Asiatics, labor, truth, truth, mystical, rich and poor, in the sense of metabolism, physiological, energy, philosophizing etc.
Trofimov's leading speech intonation is revealing, persuading and inviting.
Revealing the old and promoting the new, Trofimov speaks excitedly, emotionally, pathetically. He uses contrasting oppositions (they call themselves intelligentsia, and they say “you” to the servants), monophony (We must stop admiring ourselves. We just need to work), repetitions (most ... intelligentsia ... are not looking for anything, do nothing), omissions members of the sentence (Your father was a man, mine is a pharmacist), exclamatory and incentive forms of the phrase (Forward! We go irresistibly to a bright star that burns there in the distance!), Statement in an interrogative form (Show me where we have a nursery - where are the reading rooms ?), or in the form of emotional and semantic growth (Believe me, Anya, believe me! .. I can do without you, I can pass you by, I am strong and proud) and other means of oratory.
Trofimov refers to vivid, deeply emotional comparisons, for example: My sun! My spring!
His speech is metaphorical. He says: All Russia is our garden; we go irresistibly to the bright star...
The propagandist-oratorical setting of his speech is also manifested by the desire for the final points of thought. For example: We must... work. Or: In order to begin to live in the present, we must redeem our past, put an end to it, and it can only be redeemed by suffering, only by extraordinary, uninterrupted labor. Get it, Anya.
The vagueness of social ideals and ways to achieve them, so characteristic of Trofimov, was reflected in a clear touch of rhetoric, an attraction to a poetically vague, abstract phrase, for example: Be free as the wind; My soul... was full of inexplicable forebodings.
The image of Anya Ranevskaya, crystal clear, direct, enthusiastic, striving for the truth, living with dreams of a better life for everyone, is revealed with amazing brightness in her speech. This speech is consistently literary, transparently clear, direct; deeply emotional and melodic.
The deep emotionality and rhythmic-melodic structure of Anya's speech are created by the repetition of individual words and expressions (in the phrase My room, my windows; she has nothing left, nothing; left, left without looking back), dividing the phrase into rhythmic-melodic shares (Six years ago father died a month later, brother Grisha drowned in the river, a pretty seven-year-old boy); the arrangement of parts of the sentence and whole phrases in the order of their emotional and semantic growth (My dear, kind, good mother, my beautiful, I love you ... I bless you ...); unusual arrangement of words in the sentence (I did not sleep all the way, anxiety tormented me) and other means.
The rhythmic-melodic structure of Ani's speech is also facilitated by the elements of her metrical organization. Anya does not speak in verse, but her speech is so compositionally collected and ordered that individual phrases or their parts acquire the property of a certain size. For example, here are phrases and their parts, built in iambic:
- I'm going to sleep. Good night, mom.
- Come here.
- You're all about the same...
- Can't sleep. I can not.
"...but still, I'm calm." Thanks uncle.
Making Anya's speech harmonious, Chekhov even used a rhyme: "I didn't sleep on the road for four nights ... now I'm very cold."
Anya's inner purity and beauty was reflected in the beauty of the comparisons she used:
Deep joy will descend on your soul, like the sun in the evening hour, she says to her mother.
In terms of sonority, compositional harmony and rhythmic-melodic organization, Anya's speech is the most perfect of all the characters in The Cherry Orchard.
Anya’s inherent sentimentality is reflected in her speech by an abundance of “sensitive” vocabulary (uncle, uncle ... dear; I suddenly felt sorry for my mother, so sorry) and a reticence that reinforces the emotional coloring of the phrase: Mom then all caressed, cried ...; My God, my God...
Speech originality is characteristic not only of the main, leading, but also secondary characters in the play "The Cherry Orchard".
The speech of the clerk Epikhodov, a mentally limited, narrow-minded, underdeveloped man, although he reads "various wonderful books", is tongue-tied.
The comic image of Epikhodov, clumsy, conceited, mentally wretched, but considering himself an extraordinary, "educated" person, is clearly realized in his language - clearly comical, even vaudeville.
Claiming to be educated, he uses bookish and foreign words, but due to his illiteracy, vulgarized, in an unmotivated mixture with colloquial colloquial. His phrase often consists of words of different styles and expressions of his native speech:
- I can't approve of our climate. (Sighs) I can't. Our climate cannot help just right.
- Abroad, everything has long been in full complexion.
- I want to disturb you, Avdotya Fedorovna, for a few words.
Here, as P. G. Strelkov rightly notes, “refined courtesy” is combined with the colloquial idiom “for a couple of words” (P. G. Strelkov, 0 speech styles in A. P. Chekhov’s play “Cherry garden”, “Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Department of Literature and Language”, vol. X, issue 2, 1951, p. 137).
Epikhodov uses incorrect, illogical phrases and phrases:
- With me to collect, let me put it, you can not.
Or:
- You see, excuse the expression, what a circumstance, by the way.
And further:
I am a developed person, I read various wonderful books, but I just can’t understand the direction of what I actually want, to live or to shoot myself, in fact, but nevertheless I always carry a revolver with me.
Epikhodov clutters his speech to the extreme with introductory words and expressions. For example:
As a matter of fact, without touching on other subjects, I must express myself, by the way ...
Or:
But, of course, if you look from the point of view, then you, let me put it this way, sorry for the frankness, completely put me in a state of mind.
He uses inappropriate comparisons:
"You, Avdotya Fedorovna, do not want to see me ... as if I were some kind of insect."
Or:
"Fate treats me without regret, like a storm treats a small ship."
Dunyasha said well about Epikhodov’s speech: “He is a meek person, but only sometimes, when he starts talking, you won’t understand anything. Both good and sensitive, but only incomprehensible.
The peculiarity of Yasha's footman's speech in a combination of words and expressions of common vernacular (of course, if), outwardly lackey courtesy and servility (excuse me, right now, yes, sir, you can pass here, sir), rudely familiar, cynical (if only you pooh) and imitative, borrowed by him from the conversations of his masters (I cannot but agree with you; it is pleasant to smoke a cigar in the open air).
An unmotivated mixture of bookishness and colloquialism leads him to such diverse phrases as:
- This is my opinion, Yermolai Alekseich: the people are kind, but they understand little.
The bookish "such an opinion" here is adjacent to the clearly colloquial "understands little."
Such phrases emphasize Yasha's ignorance.
The rough essence of Yasha, corrupted by an idle life in Paris, is magnificently exposed in his first appeal to Dunyasha:
cucumber!
And it is no coincidence that this appeal is repeated by Yasha in the second act - so it vividly characterizes his whole vulgarly cynical inner appearance.
The poverty of Yasha's speech, lexically very limited, devoid of figurativeness, emotional colors, dry, mean, jerky, reflects the vulgarity, scarcity of his inner appearance. At the same time, the desire to speak, imitating the gentlemen, gives his speech a vulgar-philistine pretentiousness.
The speech of the maid Dunyasha is a kind of fusion of colloquial vocabulary and phraseology of her social circle and the peculiarities of the language of her masters, used in a simplified, incorrect way.
She can speak (when she is natural, sincere) the good language of a person connected with the people. So, for example, she talks very simply with Anya in their first meeting: You left in Lent, then there was snow, there was frost, and now? ..
How direct are her parting words addressed to Yasha: If only they could take a look.
Elements of professional courtesy clearly appear in her speech. She speaks of her masters' acquaintances in the plural: ... They sleep in the bathhouse, they live there. I'm afraid, he says, to embarrass.
But, imitating her masters, in particular and especially the nervous young ladies, Dunyasha, due to her illiteracy, distorts, vulgarizes the features of their vocabulary and phraseology, and her speech becomes artificial, mannered, comical.
So, for example, addressing the lackey Yasha, she says: And if you, Yasha, deceive me, then I don’t know what will happen to my nerves.
Or: I passionately fell in love with you, you are educated, you can talk about everything.
Not wanting to continue the conversation with Epikhodov, she says: Please, we'll talk later, and now you leave me alone. Now I'm dreaming (plays with a fan).
A particularly comic impression is made by her deliberate emphasis on her sensitivity, tenderness and delicacy. For example: I'm about to fall, I'm afraid of everything... Ah, I'll fall!
Or: She became tender, so delicate, noble ...
And the last thing: I am such a delicate girl, I love gentle words terribly.
The speech of Charlotte Ivanovna, a German governess, is characterized by incorrect word usage for the Russian language (you are such a good ideal of mine), errors in agreement (you, madam, I also really liked), in the structure of the phrase (And I jumped salto mortale and various things) , referring to the German language.
Practicality, narrow-mindedness, rudeness, sensitivity and religiosity of Vari are deeply revealed in her stingy, short, reasonable speech, combining vocabulary and practical-business phraseology (it's time and honor to know; did they bring all the things, I ordered ...), abusive ( I saw a scoundrel; shameless; get out of here!; Take your muck!) and affectionately courteous (darling, dear, beautiful, mommy, uncle), religious (God's will, the Lord is with you, if the Lord would help). Her religious and monastic sentiments are splendidly expressed in her favorite expression: Magnificence!
The speech of the good-natured old lackey Firs, patriarchally devoted to his masters, is characterized by the common folk-regional pronunciation of words (kofiy, I suppose, not willingly, without interruption), the appeal to proverbial (young-green!) and respectful (what do you want?) expressions, slowness, weak, predominantly a compositional connection of sentences (and the will came out, I was already a senior valet. And I remember everyone is happy ...) a frequently repeated proverb (Oh, you ... stupid! ..).

Chekhov's language is remarkable for its unusual volume. He does not have empty, superfluous, banal words. Each of his words is extremely saturated and effective.
Revealing the socio-psychological essence of his characters, showing their internal relationships, Chekhov often turns to the means of the indirect, double meaning of the word, to its ambiguity.
For example, in the first act, Anya and Varya are talking about selling the estate, and at this time Lopakhin looks in the door, mumbles (me-e-e) and immediately leaves.
This appearance of Lopakhin and his mockingly mocking lowing is clearly significant. Having a preliminary character, it, as it were, illuminates with lightning all the future behavior of Lopakhin: after all, it was he who bought the cherry orchard, became its owner and rudely refused Varya, who was patiently waiting for his offer.
Somewhat later, Ranevskaya, having taken telegrams from Paris from Varya, tears them up without reading them, and says: It’s over with Paris ...
With these words, Lyubov Andreevna also speaks of the fact that she decided to end her nomadic life outside her native land, and that she irrevocably broke with her "keeper". The words “It’s over with Paris” are a kind of result of Anya’s story about the bohemian lifestyle of her mother in Paris and that feeling of great joy of returning to her native soil, to her home that Ranevskaya experiences.
Lopakhin, after a welcoming speech addressed by Gaev to the closet, utters one word: Yes ... But this word expresses both surprise at Gaev’s naive childishness, and a feeling of Gaev’s insignificance, who at the same time lordly treats Lopakhin, and contempt for Gaev.
In the second act, Anya and her mother thoughtfully repeat one phrase: Epikhodov is coming, but each one puts into it a completely different, meaningful meaning, associated with their different understanding of life and reflection on it.
Trofimov's words from the same act are clearly significant: Yes, the moon is rising. (Pause.) Here it is happiness, here it comes, coming closer and closer, I can already hear its steps.
Significant, real-symbolic meaning in the mouth of Trofimov have such words as a bright star and duty.
A huge subtext is carried by Anya's words in the third act: We will plant a new garden, more luxurious than this.
Chekhov puts a broad meaning into Anya's words in the fourth act: On the road! .. Farewell, old life!
Critical literature has already noted the abundance of so-called “internal conversations” in Chekhov’s plays (S. Balukhaty, Chekhov the playwright, Goslitizdat, 1936. p. 281), when people talk about one thing and think about another when, through an outwardly harmless, "neutral" conversation on an everyday topic, a secret, deeply psychological dialogue is conducted.
A similar conversation is the dialogue that takes place in the second act between Lopakhin, Ranevskaya and Gaev after Lopakhin's demanding question: Do you agree to give the land for dachas or not?
Not wanting to give a positive answer, but at the same time not seeing any other way out, they "pull", preoccupied with thoughts, they answer with "neutral" remarks that have nothing to do with Lopakhin's question.
In the same act, thinking about ways to save the estate, but hiding his thoughts under "neutral" words, Gaev says: Doublet in the corner ... Krause in the middle.
In the third act, Yasha, informing Ranevskaya that the old man who brought news from the city about the sale of the estate, has long since left, laughs. This irritates Ranevskaya, and she asks him with annoyance: Well, what are you laughing at? What are you happy about? Obviously hiding the reason for his laughter, Yasha replied: "Epikhodov is very funny."
Epikhodov was not near him, and Yasha's answer was made up. But he laughs, as already noted in the literature about Chekhov, with joy that the estate has been sold. With the sale of the estate, his dreams of leaving Ranevskaya abroad, to Paris, are connected.
A particularly striking example of "internal conversation" is the last dialogue between Varya and Lopakhin. Throwing empty phrases about some thing allegedly lost by Varya, about their affairs, about the weather, they are having a complex and decisive conversation about their feelings for each other.
Deep individual specificity, capacity, gravitas, so inherent in the language of the characters in the play "The Cherry Orchard", are an expression of Chekhov's stylistic manner. These are the main features of his principle of speech characteristics of actors.
With his art of oral-dialogical individualization of characters, Chekhov completed the work of playwrights of critical realism, and especially Ostrovsky. V. V. Vinogradov rightly writes that “In Chekhov’s work, the technique of stylistic individualization of dramatic language reaches its highest limit” (V. V. Vinogradov, 0 Tolstoy’s language, Literary Heritage, 35 - 36 , p. 190).