The Cherry Orchard: Social Change

Social Change: Pig in a Bun Shop

Unlike other European countries that no longer used the feudal system, Russia allowed serfdom until Alexander II issued the Emancipation of Serfs in 1861, freeing serfs and allowing them opportunity to flourish. The emancipation brought rise to the middle class but impoverished the aristocrats. The play, The Cherry Orchard, begins with Lopakhin and Ranevsky waiting for Madame Ranevsky to return to her family’s estate. Lopakhin is a neighbor of Ranevsky. He was born a serf, but utilized the emancipation, and became a free wealthy business man. Lopakhin informs the audience that he has not seen Madame Ranevsky in five years and goes into a detailed story of her kind acts when he was beaten by his father. The party arrives from the train station and reminisces on the times that they previously spent on the cherry orchard. From the very beginning, the play focuses on memories and change.
As Lopakhin remembers Madame Ranevsky’s charitable act fifteen years prior, he stumbles on the word “peasant.” He says he was a peasant, but in retrospect, he is still a peasant. Lopakhin undergoes a significant class change within his society during his lifespan. He starts as a poor serf and by the end of the play he ends up being the owner of the estate at which he worked for most of his life. He is the epitome of a successful newly freed serf, but he is still self conscious of his class status. Although he considers himself a “rich man,” he is still a peasant at heart. He has fancy clothes and an estate, but is not literate or well traveled. He humbly points out the he “can’t make head or tail of [the book he is reading.]” Lopakhin has changed, his lifestyle has changed, his wardrobe has changed, but he carries the personas of a peasant. Lopakhin is excited for the family’s homecoming, but deep down he knows things have become different. He no longer works for the family and his only ties to Madame Ranevsky are through memories of his past that he no longer identifies with. Because of his new found wealth, he is now somewhat an equal of Ranevsky. This passage shows that Lopakhin realizes that times have changed, and despite the past, his place in society has changed as well.
Evidence of change, or the lack of change, is seen throughout the play in a minor character, Firs. He is an eighty-seven year old manservant who has lived on the orchard his whole life. Over his lifespan society has changed but his life has essentially stayed the same. Contrary to Lopakhin, Firs does not embrace the positive aspects of the changing class system, and thus remains the same. He sees the emancipation of serfs to be a disaster. Firs spends most of his time talking about the glorious past of the orchard. His character symbolizes the past and the good times for the family. Because he remains unchanged, he is the one constant between the past and present. The play ends with Firs being left to die with the orchard, and Firs realizes that resisting the change of society has not gotten him anywhere. When the orchard parishes, he feels like he is “good for nothing” and that “life [had] slipped by though [he has] not lived.”
The fact remains, Lopakhin, though he acquired status through wealth and realestate, cannot escape the status of his birth. As the passage insists, though he is desquised in ostentacious clothing, he still feels like a “pig in a bun shop”- out of place. And though he may appear cultured through his appearance, he remains the not-so-literate, untraveled peasant he originally was. In contrast, Firs thrived in the estate in which he had lived. And although he did not climb the social ladder, he remained true to the estate and withered along side of it. Both of these characters share one similarity, they are entitled to the status in which they were born. And although they attempted to disband their past, their past would come back to haunt them.