Composing his last play while ill, Anton Chekhov insisted that The Cherry Orchard was a comedy; At any rate, the play is not a Neil Simon comedy like The Sunshine Boys, nor is it a tragedy like Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesmanor Shakespeare’s King Lear. Had Chekhov magically had a sophisticated critical literary terminology at his fingertips, perhaps he would have cheerfully employed the expression “problem play” or “dark comedy” terms used to describe Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. To a certain extent Chekhov would have relented to labeling The Cherry Orchard a “tragicomedy.”

The loss of a family’s homestead and the resulting eviction of an aristocratic family may be considered the theme of the play. The central female character in the play is a woman, Madame Ranevsky, who lost her husband and her seven-year old son, Grisha, six years prior to the action of the play and who lives entirely in the past by sentimentally and nostalgically clinging to the cherry orchard. Her brother, Gayev, too, is passionately attached to the orchard because it has the aura of prestige and is immortalized by having been mentioned in the encyclopedia. And the eighty-seven-year-old senile servant, Firs, who tenaciously served the aristocratic family, cannot reconcile to the new beginning, a new society that is already on the horizon. Actually the play concludes with an empty stage and Firs muttering:

“They’ve fogotten about me. . . . Life’s gone by, it’s as if I’ve never lived.”

He is the one who “makes the cherry orchard an inviolable aesthetic symbol of the traditional order”.

In the simple image of the cherry orchard, Chekhov meaningfully recognized a symbol of a complex and complicated problem—the multi-faceted change that Russia was on the verge of undergoing, one that was quivering on the horizon. It was the decay of one epoch and the gradual rise of a new one, represented by the disappearance of Firs, forgotten by the family he has served for decades; the departure of Madame Ranevsky from her homestead; and the purchase of the estate (to convert it into commercial property) by the bourgeois Yermolay Lopakhin, a merchant whose father had once been a serf on Madame Ranevsky’s estate.

“I’ve bought the land on which my father and grandfather were slaves, where they weren’t even allowed into the kitchen,” declared Lopakhin with newly-acquired courage, self-confidence, and authority.

“Everything’s to be as I want it. Come on, here comes the new landlord, the owner of the cherry orchard!”

The multi-dimensional change is manifested in the economic, social, and cultural facets. The old tradition of the feudal landowning class symbolically represented by Madame Ranevsky is now replaced by the active, aggressive, self-made merchant Lopakhin, who will transform the glorious cherry orchard into commercial property covered with summer cottages to be rented out. Despite her sentimental and romantic fascination with her childhood home and nursery and her parting lyrical valedictories—

“Good-bye, dear house, goodbye, old grandfather. The winter will pass, and then it will be spring, but you won’t be here, they’ll have pulled you down.”

Ranevsky tenderly detects happiness in her seventeen-year-old daughter, Anya, when the teenager responds:

“We’re beginning a new life, Mama”.

The billiards-playing and candy-munching brother, Gayev, also finally recognizes that

“everything’s fine now. We were all so anxious and upset before the sale of the orchard, but afterwards, when the business was settled once and for all, we were able to relax, we even cheered up a bit”.

Ranevsky, who was initially adamant and couldn’t imagine her life without the cherry orchard, is now reconciled and endorses her brother’s assessment of the inevitable sale of the estate:

“Yes. My nerves are better, that’s true. I’m sleeping well now. . . . It’s time we were going”.

Surely there can’t be tragic element in a situation that seems to herald good life. Only the old servant, Firs, who grew up with “generals, and barons and admirals at our dances” will be left to his normal natural life to come to an end in isolation. Undoubtedly natural extinction does not necessarily lead to tragic experience.

The innumerable references to time in the play further reinforce the theme of passage from one epoch that is dying to one that is rising. Another expression that is used like a refrain is “understand.” Those who understand the inevitability of change will not fight it; they recognize it. It is only after the cherry orchard is sold that Madame Ranevsky understands!

Time will not stand still. The young daughter, Anya, bids “goodbye, house! Goodbye, old life”. The perennial student, Peter Trofimov, responds with:

“And hello, new life!”

And toward the end, Madame Ranevsky pathetically parts with these wistful expressions:

“Oh, my dearest darling, wonderful cherry orchard! My life, my youth, my happiness, goodbye! Goodbye!”

Neither the readers nor the audience would detect any tragic intensity in this farewell. The Cherry Orchard, a “play of nostalgic regret” delineates impressionistically and wistfully a social/cultural order that was once and projects a new economic and social order that is beginning to take full shape. Francis Fergusson asserts that the play “may be briefly described as a realistic ensemble pathos: the characters all suffer the passing of the estate in different ways, thus adumbrating this change at a deeper and more generally significant level than that of any individual’s experience”

Vladimir Navokov confessed that it is Chekhov’s works which he would take on a trip to another planet!

Inspite of his life long illness,Chekhov managed to win a prominent place in literature through his graet works: The Sea Gull in 1896, "Uncle Vanya" in 1896, "The Three Sisters" in 1901 & "The Cherry Orchard" his last great play in 1904.

The Cherry Orchard depicts a changing socio-political scenario,sad decline of old values , traditions & morals at the end of 20th century.The feudal supremacy faces a challenge in the form of the fast rising business class.but this rise of the business class gives rise to mean materialistic mentality and morality,rat-race for wealth and loss of aesthetic sense.

The play offer two different versions,from one angle in appears to be a light comedy about frustrated love affairs and as in his letter,dated 15th sep 1903, addressed M.P Lilina Chekhov said,
"Not a drama,but a comedy has emerged
from me,in places even a farce."

and many other critics have also come up with sound reason for labelling this play as a comedy.
But Stanislavsky challenged his view by saying,

"This is not a comedy or a farce as
you wrote,it is a tragedy,watever
way out you may have found for
a better life in the last act."

On stage Stanislavsky and his co-director weiged it down as a serious drama,advertising it as such,much to Chekhov's annoyance.

The Cherry Orchard is an excellent example of how one literary work can generate a variety of interpretations.But the play is a combination of both tragic and comic elements,he combined the farcical elements of his ealier works like "The Marriage Proposal" with the anguish and misery found in his tragedy "The Seagull" .By creating the balance between the two genres he creates a world where every little action and decision has its consquences,and the action in the play is very real.

The Cherry Orchard.dipicting the passing world of twilight Russia certainly has a tragic backdrop. Sometimes,when it cannot be repressed,an anxious awareness of that pasing wells up in the character,but it does not change them.Only Lopakhin really adapts,because he finds his place in the new world,and he is practical.Although he has only commercial intrest in Mrs Renevsky's property,he is genuinely respectful towards her, initially he tries to help her ,but her inabilty to take action finally forces him to buy her land himself.

Peter Trovimov sees the cherry orchard nothing of the worth in the ways of teh past but human misery.
"Can't u see human beings looking
at you from every cherry tree in your
orchard,from every leaf and every tree
trunk.Don't you hear their voices."

But cherry orchard is not simply an emblem of a Russia that has passed.As Styan suggested
"It represents an intextricablet tangle of
sentiments,which together comprise a
way of life and an attitude to life."

As for Mrs Ranevsky and her brother,Gayev,the orchard is a thing of graet and enduring beauty and reminedr of their youthfu purity and innocence.For Firs its,
"An invioable aeshthetic symbol of
the traditional order."
Anya,on the other hand drawn by her heart to Trofimov,accepts the student's dream of future happiness.

__________________
i dont want merely to possess a faith,i want a faith that possesses me.