If this was a Shakespearean tragedy, I would’ve already felt the suspense, intensity, and tension of the climax. I would be reading fast, feeling the danger of the tragic hero within myself, hearing his thoughts, words, and expression lurch away from those iambs. But this isn’t so. Things are so calm down in Chekhov. I would even lay down in my bed and LOL while reading the climax. No anxiety, no hesitation when reading the lines of each character. Instead of tragedy, its comedy! Chekhov manages to make of this moment a comical one rather than a Hamlet-like climax. I even remember Hamlet saying “may all my thoughts be bloody” (Shakespeare, IV, iv). In The Cherry Orchard, the climax comes when Lopakhin says “I bought it! (…) The cherry orchard is now mine! Mine! [Laughs unproariously] (…) Tell me I’m drunk, out of my mind, that I imagine it” (Chekhov, III). Didn’t you let go a laugh during those lines?
While I read those, I couldn’t stop thinking about how Shakespeare would’ve written the climax. So differently. To him, the selling of the cherry orchard to Lopakhin would’ve been a catastrophe, a complete tragedy in the play’s Freytag Pyramid. Nevertheless, Chekhov uses an optimistic and nonchalant tone to evoke a comedic climax rather than a tragic denouement. Also, he illustrates the scene in such manner where Lopakhin waits until the last possible moment to reveal himself as the purchaser of the orchard. On the other hand, Chekhov juxtaposes Lopakhin’s glee with Lybov Andreyevna’s weep. This juxtaposition, added to Lopakhin’s violent statements about the future of the orchard give the play’s climax an even more comedic aspect: “see how Yermolai Lopakhin will lay the ax to the cherry orchard, how the trees will fall to the ground! We’re going to build summer cottages” (Chekhov, III). I felt those axes cutting through Lybov Andreyevna’s soul as he said those words. Now the reader doesn’t feel pathos for Lopakhin. He is insensitive. Ironic? Pure comedy.
Finished. I can continue with my movie now. Look at the part I was:
