The Cherry Orchard, Anton Chekhov

Walking Back To You - The Cherry Orchard

Tr. Spa-Eng. from a review in Shvoong by Martín Lucas Pérez

 A sample of the intensity Anton Chekhov gave to his minimal stories, his characters and their environments. The antiquated owner Lubova Andreievna Ranevskaia arrives with her two daughters to their old mansion, which she left depressed when her son drowned in the lake, for an uncontrolled and meaningless life. The family is now mired in debt, but both she and her brother Gaiev are unable to find a solution. 

 She continues with her life of great lady and, for example, when a poor asks alms, she looses a gold coin, while they begin to have trouble to even feed their servants. She defends herself by saying that she can't act otherwise. The merchant Lopajin, son of former servants of the family, prowls around the place trying they sell to him the cherry orchard, pride of the family property, to turn it into land for holidaymakers' villas. He insists that it is the only way they have to save the situation and if they do not sell it, the garden will be anyway auctioned off to pay their debts. Both Ranevskaia and her brother Gaiev refuse to sell:

        "I was born in this house. My father and my mother resided here and my 
        ancestors the same. I love this house and the garden. I do not conceive 
        my life without that garden. If it has to be sold, you sell me with the garden"

 Both brothers prefer to think that a distant aunt is going to come in their help and she effectively does it, but the money sent is little compared with the bids performed in the auction and Lopajin ends up becoming the owner. In the last scene, the family is getting ready to leave the house while you hear the sound of axes hitting on the cherries.