The Theme of Escape and Freedom in the Cherry Orchard

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The theme of freedom in the Cherry Orchard is viewed by moral freedom and economic freedom. The moral freedom is the freedom in mind and action of each character, while the economic freedom is the freedom in finance such as debt. The moral freedom is difference from different characters. For Lyuba, her idea of freedom is to forget the sad memory of the past. It was the memory of her husband died and her son drowned. She loves the orchard because it was her childhood time. She was raised in the orchard with full of beautiful memories. However, the death of her husband and son makes her decide to not keep it. Not only the sad memory in past, Lyuba decides to not keep the orchard to chase her true feeling. She does not want to stay in the orchard anymore. She wants to sell it to pay off her debt and back to Paris to visit her lover. She wants to start a new life in which she can get freedom both in moral and economic. On the other hand, the concept of economic freedom is viewed very clearly on Lopakhin. He was born and raised as a little peasant. His memory about the orchard is brutal time that his dad beaten him. Therefore, when he became a business man with a lot of money, he wants to forget his all past. He offers to buy the orchard from Lyuba nicely to buy the estate from her. Lopakhin wants the orchard as well as his memory of past gone away. Another example of Lopakhin that he wants to completely forget the past is that not proposing Varya. He wants to show Lyuba the result of lack of peasant’s education. Lopakhin becomes insensitivity to the orchard as well as the Lyuba’s family. It shows that he has considered himself broken from the past. He wants to forget his time in the orchard completely. At the end of story, when he grants the right in the orchard, he decides to chop it down. One more time, Lopakhin shows to everyone that he want to get freedom from the past. He does not want to see the existence of the orchard where he had awful memories.

The Cherry Orchard written during the revolution time of Russian in which Chekhov wanted to write about the social class changing as well as the economic. The Cherry Orchard shows the facts of Russian’s revolution especially the emancipation of Serfdom. It changed the way of people living and perspectives. Lyuba is a poor aristocrat woman with large of debt. She wants to stay with her past and forget the present. However, the orchard, where she was raised brings her the saddest memories of the death of her husband and son. She cannot stay in the orchard anymore and decides to let it go to Lopakhin. Lopakhin is a business who was raised as a little peasant of the orchard. He wants to change his social class status completely and also forget his childhood memories in the orchard. Therefore, he chops the orchard down when he grants the right of it. The theme of escape and freedom is described very clearly in two major characters Lyuba and Lopakhin. These themes are also the wants of most Russians during the time of Revolution.

Reference

Anton Chekhov “The Cherry Orchard” Norton Anthology of World Literature (Package 2), 3rd Edition

SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Cherry Orchard.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. n.d.. Web. 14 Nov. 2015.

Dibrary academic education library“The Cherry Orchard” http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/staffhome/siryan/academy/texts/..%5Ctexts%5Ccherry_orchard.htm

“National Theatre Live, 'The Cherry Orchard'" nationaltheatre.org.uk. Retrieved 19 November 2011