Replete with a diverse character list, the play offers insight into how each sect of society took to the social and economic shifts. Lubov, the matriarch of an aristocratic family, returns to her estate after a retreat in Paris. She is confronted with the devastating news that, due to her inability to make payments, her estate will be sold at an auction. The estate is bought by Lopahin, the son of a former serf of Lubov’s family who is now a wealthy businessman. This inversion of the class hierarchy is jarring for the nobility, but vindicating for the peasants. Unlike in the days of serfdom, class mobility is possible for those marginalized groups. Lubov is dejected and sits inert at the proposition of surrendering her beloved cherry orchard, for it is the source of cherished memories of her pleasant past, a past in which she was not living on borrowed
Replete with a diverse character list, the play offers insight into how each sect of society took to the social and economic shifts. Lubov, the matriarch of an aristocratic family, returns to her estate after a retreat in Paris. She is confronted with the devastating news that, due to her inability to make payments, her estate will be sold at an auction. The estate is bought by Lopahin, the son of a former serf of Lubov’s family who is now a wealthy businessman. This inversion of the class hierarchy is jarring for the nobility, but vindicating for the peasants. Unlike in the days of serfdom, class mobility is possible for those marginalized groups. Lubov is dejected and sits inert at the proposition of surrendering her beloved cherry orchard, for it is the source of cherished memories of her pleasant past, a past in which she was not living on borrowed