The Cherry Orchard Society and Class Quotes Page 3
Citations follow this format: (Act.Line). Every time a character talks counts as one line, even if what they say turns into a long monologue. We used Julius West's translation.
| Quote #7 VARYA. In the old servants' part of the house, as you know, only the old people live--little old Efim and Polya and Evstigney, and Karp as well. They started letting some tramps or other spend the night there--I said nothing. Then I heard that they were saying that I had ordered them to be fed on peas and nothing else; from meanness, you see. ... And it was all Evstigney's doing. (1.220) |
Because Varya has practical dealings with the peasants, she bears the brunt of class tensions. She can't afford to be as magnanimous as Lubov.
| Quote #8 DUNYASHA. I went into service when I was quite a little girl, and now I'm not used to common life, and my hands are white, white as a lady's. I'm so tender and so delicate now; respectable and afraid of everything. (2.18) |
Dunyasha is doing what our grandmother called "putting on airs." She tries to attract the newly cosmopolitan Yasha by claiming to be a lady.
| Quote #9 YASHA. Of course, every girl must respect herself; there's nothing I dislike more than a badly behaved girl. (2.19) |
When it comes to "knowing one's place," Yasha is a hypocrite. He believes he can act like a gentleman, while counseling Dunyasha to remember to be subservient.
