Study Questions For The Cherry Orchard, Act 2

29. Why are we now in a field? What does the introduction tell us about Chekhov
characters in outdoor spaces?
30. Reread the opening scene setting on pg. 102. Choose your metaphor and explain.
Long-abandoned shrine leanign to one side, a well, slabs that were tombstones, telegraph
poles, large town in distance.
31. Whats going on with Charlotta? Who is she? What are her origins? Significane of
all of this? Why doesnt she know who she is? Comment on the larger plot?
32. How cultured is Yepikhodov? 104, 105 (see note)
33. What does he plan to do with his revolver? Is he serious?
34. Why is Dunyasha uncomfortable (106)? How many women are uncomfortable in
this act?
35. Why does Yasha not want the others to think hes been going out with Dunyasha?
36. What do you make of Renevskaya dropping her purse? (108) What has she just
been saying?
37. Cottages and vacationersits so vulgar, excuse me. 110 On what level does
Ranevskaya respond to Lopakhins proposal for the cherry orchard?
38. Do we get a better sense for why Gaev always refers to billiards out loud in this act?
110
39. Discuss Renavskayas ugly history on pg. 111.
40. You have no business looking at plays, you should look at yourselves more. You all
live such gray lives, you talk such nonsense. 112. Who is you? Whats wrong with
these statements?
41. You should marry our Varya; shes a good girl . . . She came to me from peasant
stock . . 112-113
42. What assessment of Lopakhin does Trofimov deliver? Why? 115
43. What is Trofimov upset about with respect to Russian society? Is he outright
condemning Renevskaya and Gaev? 116-17
44. Stage direction: Everyone sits absorbed in thought. 118. And note the number of
stage directions Pause. What is Chekhov showing here?

45. What sound do they hear on pg. 118?

46. What does Firs call freedom? How does he refer to it? 119
47. Why is Varya so frightened by the vagrant? 122.
48. What is Varya afraid of with respect to Trofimov and Anya? 122
49. Why has Anya stopped loving the cherry orchard as she used to? 122
50. What words does Trofimov share with Anya on pg. 123?
51. Does Anya hear Trofimov? Does she engage? 124
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29. The servants are sitting in a field, in the orchard, representative of nature and the
past; however, they can see telegraph poles in the distance, symbolizing the future
breaking through the past. The characters are exposed in the field; they cannot hide.
30. The large town in the distance symbolizes how far they are from the urbanized
world.
31. She doesnt know who she is or where she came from. She lost in between this
transition between the old and the new world.
32. Yepikhodovs knowledge is outdated, and he, like many, is stuck in the past.
33. He plans to kill himself, but he has trouble acting on his motives.
34. She is uncomfortable because she is out of touch with the high-class, and she
doesnt belong with these people. She is too delicate and kin.d
35. Dunyasha seeks control and power, especially over women; committing himself to
one woman who is lower than him is undesirable
36. Renevskaya has no idea of the value of money; she drops it and loses it without
knowing how much it is really worth, even though she is desperately in need of it.
37. Ranevskaya is unable to accept the reality that the cherry orchard must go; she is
stuck in the past and unable to accept progress or the necessity of saving herself. She
responds entirely superficially.
38. Gaev goes into his imaginary world when the problems of reality become too hard for
him to handle.

39. Renavskaya tried to commit suicide, she has an affair, her son drowns, she goes
broke, all that crap.
40. You have no business looking at plays, you should look at yourselves more. You all
live such gray lives, you talk such nonsense. 112. Who is you? Whats wrong with
these statements?
You is the rest
41. Yes; this is, in fact, a quote.
42. Trofimov is highly critical of the class separation and he frowns upon Lopakhin for
his obsession with money.
43. Trofimov wishes everyone in Russia would work; he blames people like Gaev and
Renevskaya for the ills that plague Russian society.
44. Chekov is showing that the characters need time to think and are unable to act in the
moment.
45. They hear the sound of old society dying; a string breaking.
46. Firs believes freedom is the cause for Russias woes and that the world was better
when there was serfdom in the country. He refers to it as an owl.
47. Varya is terrified of confronting her past, or what she could have become, especially
considering she does not fit in with the family she now belongs to.
48. She fears they are in love.
49. Why has Anya stopped loving the cherry orchard as she used to? 122
Trofimov shows her that the whole world is a cherry orchard, and that she should not
obsess over the past and instead focus on the present.
50. See 49.
51. She falls asleep, but doesnt respond to it or put any serious thought to it; she simply
commented on its niceness.