"Cherry Orchard", Lopakhin: characterization of the image

Lopakhin Ermolai Alekseevich, as they say at the beginning of the play in the author's remark, is a merchant. His father was a serf of his grandfather and father Ranevskaya, he traded in a village in a shop. Now Lopakhin has grown rich. Characteristic of it is given by Chekhov, including from the first person. However, he speaks of himself with irony, that he remained "a peasant man". Talking about his childhood, the hero notes that his father was a peasant who did not understand anything. His son he did not teach, but only beat drunk. Lopakhin admits that he, in fact, "a fool and an idiot." This hero did not learn anything, he has a bad handwriting.

Business grasp of Lopakhin

Of course, Lopakhin, whose characteristics we are interested in, has entrepreneurial spirit, business acumen and intelligence. The scale of his activities is much broader than that of the previous owners. He is energetic. At the same time, most of the state of this hero was earned by his own work. For him was not a simple way to wealth. Separate remarks and remarks indicate that this merchant has some great "business". To them he is completely absorbed. Lopakhin at the same time easily part with his money, lending them to Simeonov-Pischik and Ranevskaya, offering persistently to Petya Trofimov. This hero is always short of time: he either goes on business trips, or returns. By his own admission, he gets up at five in the morning, works from morning till night. Yermolai Alekseevich says that he can not work without work. Most often the rest of the work is watched by Lopakhin. Its characteristic is supplemented with this essential detail already at the beginning of the work. His first remark in the play: "What time is it?" This merchant always remembers the time.

Lopakhin's perception of the actors in the play

Different characters of the play perceive this hero differently. Very contradictory is their feedback about it. This is a "good, interesting person" for Ranevskaya, "kulak" and "boorish" for Gaeva, "the most tremendous mind man" for Simeonov-Pishchik. Petya Trofimov gives him a joking characteristic, saying that he is a predatory beast that eats everything that gets in the way, and this is needed "in the sense of metabolism."

The moment of the supreme celebration of Lopakhin

Lopakhin seeks to help Ranevskaya. He suggests that she break up the garden and give them to rent. This hero feels his enormous strength, requiring exit and application. In the end he buys the Lopakhin cherry garden. The characteristic of it is supplemented in this important scene by some essential features. For him, the episode when he announces the purchase of the former owners of the garden is the moment of the supreme celebration. Now Lopakhin is the owner of the estate in which his grandfather and father were slaves, where they were not even allowed to enter the kitchen. He is increasingly beginning to "swing his arms" - he is intoxicated by the consciousness of his own luck and strength. Compassion for Ranevskaya and the triumph in it are opposed in this episode.

Deleted with the soul of the artist

Chekhov said that the role of Lopakhin in the work is central, that the whole play will fail if it fails. He wrote that Ermolai Alekseevich was a merchant, but a decent man in every sense; He must hold himself decently, "without tricks," intelligently. Chekhov at the same time warned against a shallow, simplified understanding of Lopakhin's image. He is a successful businessman, but he has the soul of an artist. His reasoning about Russia sounds like a declaration of love. Lopakhin's words resemble Gogol's lyrical digressions in Dead Souls. It is to this hero that the most heartfelt words spoken about the cherry garden belong in the play: "an estate, which is more beautiful than the world."

Chekhov introduced features characteristic of some Russian entrepreneurs of the early 20th century into the image of Lopakhin, a merchant, but also an artist in the soul. We are talking about such names that have left their mark on Russia's culture, like Savva Morozov, Shchukin, Tretyakov, the publisher of Sytin.

The final assessment, given at first glance by the antagonist Petya Trofimov, is very significant. The characterization of Lopakhin's image given by this character is dual. As we have already said, he compared him to a carnivorous beast. But at the same time Petya Trofimov tells Lopakhin that he still loves him: he, like an artist, has delicate, delicate fingers and a vulnerable soul.

The Illusivity of Victory

Far from wanting to destroy Lopakhin's cherry orchard. His characterization would be incorrect if we thought so. He only proposes to rearrange it, breaking it into dachas, making it "democratic", affordable for a modest fee. However, at the end of the play, Lopakhin ("The Cherry Orchard") was shown not as a triumphant winner. His characterization in the finale is very contradictory. And the old owners of the garden are depicted not only as defeated. Lopakhin intuitively feels the relativity and illusiveness of his own victory. He says that he wants this unhappy, awkward life to change sooner. His fate is reinforced by these words: Yermolai Alekseevich alone is able to appreciate the significance of the cherry orchard, but he also ruins himself.

Characteristics of Lopakhin from the "Cherry Orchard" is marked by the following: good intentions, personal good qualities of this hero somehow disagree with reality. Neither surrounding, nor he himself is not able to understand the reasons for this.

Lopakhin is not given personal happiness. In incomprehensible to others, his actions result in a relationship with Varya. He still does not dare to make this girl a proposal. Lopakhin, moreover, has a special feeling for Lyubov Andreyevna. Arrival Ranevskaya, he waits with special hope and wonders if she recognizes him after five years of separation.

Relations with Varya

In the last act, in the famous scene, when the failed explanation between Varya and Lopakhin is described, the heroes talk about a broken thermometer, about the weather - and not a word about what is most important for them at this moment. What is the matter, why did not the explanation take place, this love did not come about? The marriage of Vary throughout the play is being discussed practically as a solved case, and yet ...

What separates Lopakhin and Varya?

Apparently, it's not that the groom is a businessman incapable of showing love feelings. It is in this spirit that Varya explains to himself their relationship. She believes that he just does not have time for her, since Lopakhin has a lot to do. Perhaps Varya, after all, is not a pair of this hero: he is a broad nature, an entrepreneur, a large-scale man and at the same time an entertainer in the soul. The world is limited by economy, economy, keys on the belt. This girl, moreover, is a homeless woman who does not have rights even to the now ruined estate. Lopakhin, with all the subtlety of his soul, lacks tact and humanity in order to bring clarity into their relations.

The dialogue of the characters described in the second act does not clarify anything at the level of the text in the relations between Vary and Lopakhin. But it becomes clear at the level of the subtext that these people are infinitely far away. The characterization of the hero Lopakhin makes it possible to judge that with Varya he would hardly have gained his happiness. Yermolai Alekseevich decided already that he should not be with this girl. Here Lopakhin acts as a provincial Hamlet, who solves for himself the famous question: "To be or not to be?" And he decides: "Ohmelia, go to the monastery ...".

What separates Varya and Lopakhin? Perhaps the relationship of these characters is largely determined by the motive of the fate of the cherry orchard, their attitude to it? Varya, like Firs, worries about the fate of the estate, the garden. A Lopakhin "sentenced" him to the felling. Thus, between the heroes rises the death of the cherry orchard.

But, probably, there is one more reason that is not formulated in the play (as well as many other things, sometimes the most important thing in Anton Pavlovich) and lies in the sphere of the subconscious. This is Love Andreevna Ranevskaya.

Lopakhin and Ranevskaya

Characteristics Lopakhin of the "Cherry Orchard" would be incomplete without an analysis of the relationship between these two characters. The thing is that Ranevskaya, when Lopakhin was still a "little boy" with a nose, bloodied from his father's fist, led him to the washstand and said: "He will heal before the wedding." Ranevskaya's sympathy, in contrast to her father's fist, was perceived by Lopakhin as a manifestation of femininity and tenderness. Lubov Andreevna, in fact, did what the mother was supposed to do. Perhaps, it is she who is involved in the fact that this merchant has such a "delicate gentle soul". But it is this characteristic of Lopakhin in the play "The Cherry Orchard" that makes the image of the merchant interesting to us contradictory. Ermolai Alekseevich kept this love-gratitude in his soul , this is a beautiful vision. So, in the first act, he tells Lyubov Andreevna that she did so much for him, and that he loves her "more than his own." This is the characteristic of Ranevskaya and Lopakhin, their relationship.

Lopakhin's words in the first act are "recognition" in the first, long-standing love, filial gratitude, the bright love of Ermolai Alekseevich in a beautiful vision that does not require anything in return and does not oblige to anything.

Farewell to the past

However, the experience is once irretrievable. It was not understood, heard this "expensive" for Lopakhin. Probably, for him this moment became a turning point in the psychological sense. He became for Lopakhin a calculation with the past, a farewell to him. And a new life began for him. But now this hero has become more sober.

This is the characteristic of Ermolai Lopakhin, the central hero of the play, in the opinion of Chekhov.