How we cite our quotes: 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 #1
VARYA. Well, you've come, glory be to God. Home again. [Caressing
her] My darling is home again! My pretty one is back again! (1.43)
For Varya, the return of Lubov and Anya changes the definition of home. The house becomes not just a responsibility and headache, but a source of love and comfort.
Quote #2
ANYA. We went to Paris; it's cold there and snowing. I talk French perfectly horribly. My mother lives on the fifth floor. I go to her, and find her there with various Frenchmen, women, an old abbé with a book, and everything in tobacco smoke and with no comfort at all. I suddenly became very sorry for mother--so sorry that I took her head in my arms and hugged her and wouldn't let her go. Then mother started hugging me and crying. (1.48)
When Anya sees her mother far from home, among strangers, she plays the role of comforter. In The Cherry Orchard, the older generation often needs to be cared for.
Quote #3
ANYA. How's business? Has the interest been paid?
VARYA. Not much chance of that.
ANYA. Oh God, oh God ...
VARYA. The place will be sold in August.
ANYA. O God. (1.52-56)
When she first arrives home, Anya is completely in line with her mother's point of view: the estate must be saved. Her opinion changes as the play goes on.
Quote #4
LUBOV. God knows I love my own country, I love it deeply; I couldn't look out of the railway carriage, I cried so much. (1.96)
Lubov is immensely moved and relieved to return home. Does she intend to stay?
Quote #5
LOPAKHIN. As you already know, your cherry orchard is to be sold to pay your debts, and the sale is fixed for August 22. (1.107)
Lopakhin spends a good deal of the play strategizing about how to save the estate. He has a sentimental attachment too, but Gaev and Lubov refuse to acknowledge it.
Quote #6
GAEV. This orchard is mentioned in the "Encyclopaedic Dictionary." (1.113)
Gaev's identity has been defined by his background, represented by the famous cherry orchard. As the play ends, he attempts to redefine himself as a businessman
Quote #7
ANYA. What have you done to me, Peter? I don't love the cherry orchard as I used to. I loved it so tenderly, I thought there was no better place in the world than our orchard. (2.148)
Influenced by Trofimov's progressive ideals, Anya has loosened the nostalgic grip of her childhood home. She's growing up, distinguishing herself from her mother.
Quote #8
LUBOV. I was born here, my father and mother lived here, my grandfather too, I love this house. I couldn't understand my life without that cherry orchard, and if it really must be sold, sell me with it! … My son was drowned here. (3.56)
Lubov is excitable. She exaggerates. But if we really believe that the orchard defines her, the loss of it is much more tragic.
Quote #9
LUBOV. I'll sit here one more minute. It's as if I'd never really noticed what the walls and ceilings of this house were like, and now I look at them greedily, with such tender love. (4.105)
For all her life, Lubov looked at her home as a loved one, so familiar, accepted and dismissed. As she looks for the last time, she tries to consume the house with her eyes, to take it with her.