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
ANYA. She's already sold her villa near Mentone; she's nothing left, nothing. And I haven't a copeck left either; we only just managed to get here. And mother won't understand! We had dinner at a station; she asked for all the expensive things, and tipped the waiters one rouble each. And Charlotta too. Yasha wants his share too--it's too bad. Mother's got a footman now, Yasha; we've brought him here. (1.50)
Though she was raised by Lubov, Anya doesn't have the attachment to luxury she criticizes here. Perhaps, like Varya, she's always lived with anxiety about money.
Quote #2
GAEV. My sister hasn't lost the habit of throwing money about. (1.189)
Like Lubov, Gaev accepts flagrancy with money as part of his birthright. He notices that his sister wastes a lot of money, but certainly makes no move to stop her.
Quote #3
LUBOV. [Looks in her purse] I had a lot of money yesterday, but there's very little to-day. My poor Varya feeds everybody on milk soup to save money, in the kitchen the old people only get peas, and I spend recklessly. [Drops the purse, scattering gold coins] There, they are all over the place. (2.29)
Dropping the gold coins gives us a visual symbol of Lubov's recklessness with money. She recognizes her problem, but does nothing to change her behavior.
Quote #4
PISCHIK. But the trouble is, I've no money! A hungry dog only believes in meat. [Snores and wakes up again immediately] So I ...only believe in money. (3.1)
Pischik is the comic foil to Ranevskaya and Gaev. Like them, he's a landowner in need of cash to pay his mortgage, but Chekhov writes him as a buffoon. In the end, Pischik gives in to development by allowing a company to drill on his land.
Quote #5
TROFIMOV. [To PISCHIK] If the energy which you, in the course of your life, have spent in looking for money to pay interest had been used for something else, then, I believe, after all, you'd be able to turn everything upside down. (3.9)
While Lubov and Gaev spend little time trying to solve their problem, Pischik is constantly running around looking for money. He's rewarded at the end of the play by the discovery of natural resources on his land.
Quote #6
TROFIMOV. I think, Ermolai Alexeyevitch, that you're a rich man, and you'll soon be a millionaire. Just as the wild beast which eats everything it finds is needed for changes to take place in matter, so you are needed too. (3.95)
Trofimov looks at most things and people (except for Anya) from a scientific perspective. He regards Lopakhin's wealth as a necessary force of nature.
Quote #7
LOPAKHIN. You know, I get up at five every morning, I work from morning till evening, I am always dealing with money--my own and other people's--and I see what people are like. You've only got to begin to do anything to find out how few honest, honourable people there are. (3.106)
Lopakhin is attracted to the romance and nostalgia of Lubov's household, but he's a pragmatist. The pettiness of people doesn't depress him; it's something he acknowledges and accepts.
Quote #8
LOPAKHIN. In the spring I sowed three thousand acres of poppies, and now I've made forty thousand roubles net profit. And when my poppies were in flower, what a picture it was! So I, as I was saying, made forty thousand roubles, and I mean I'd like to lend you some, because I can afford it. Why turn up your nose at it? I'm just a simple peasant. (4.28)
We wonder why Lopakhin is so adamant about offering money? Does he truly want to help Trofimov? Does he want some power over him? As Lubov has rejected his help, is he searching for a way to feel useful?
Quote #9
TROFIMOV. Even if you gave me twenty thousand I should refuse. I'm a free man. And everything that all you people, rich and poor, value so highly and so dearly hasn't the least influence over me; it's like a flock of down in the wind. (4.29)
Trofimov claims to be above love and above money. We don't really believe his claims about love – he's obviously smitten with Anya – but he does seem genuinely indifferent to money. What do you think?