Empowering the Unempowered: Character Analysis

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Empowering the Underpowered: Social Commentary in Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard and Ibsen’s “A Dolls House”

        Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House,” a controversial, Norwegian play focusing on a couple’s marriage has quite remarkable similarities and differences with Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard,” a captivating, Russian play about an aristocratic family and their inability to face change. While the first set the foundation for modern realism in drama, the second, 20 years later, presented a unique union of naturalism and symbolism. Ambiguity has always lain around the genre of both plays though, because of the various emotions evoked in the audience throughout the two plays. Another striking similarity in the two plays lies in their disordered portrayal of the social power structures. In a society highly critical of women, Ibsen significantly empowered the central female character, Nora, while Chekhov, from a society highly critical of the serfs, significantly empowered the peasant character of Lopakhin. Close scrutiny and careful analysis of the two plays reveals Ibsen and Chekhov’s characterizations of Nora and Lopakhin, respectively to be social commentaries designed to provoke through contradictions of social structures.

        Essentially, it is by developing Nora and Lopakhin’s characters realistically, by giving them human dimensions, that the playwrights first establish these characters’ strong rapport with the audience. Instead of the stereotypical, calm, weak female character of that time, Ibsen captures the female psyche, through various emotions that Nora displays. From the beginning of the play, Nora is depicted as having a child-like quality; the stage directions reveal her secretly “eat[ing] macaroons and wip[ing] her mouth” (Ibsen, p.2) like a child secretly eats candy, and her low register is replete with hyperbole: “we may be a wee but more reckless now, mayn’t we? Just a tiny wee bit! You are going to have a big salary and earn lots and lots of money.” (Ibsen, p. 2) The repetition of “wee bit” and exaggeration of money as “lots and lots” shows her limited vocabulary while the short sentences indicate her lack of skill in language, just like a child.  Her child-like aura though can be interpreted as adorable and thus may attract the audience to her. On the other hand, her child’s face constantly transforms into a deep seriousness. In the eyes of the audience therefore, Nora’s character gains much credibility. Under the pretext of wrapping Christmas packages, she “lock[s] [herself] up… writing every evening until late at night,” (Ibsen, p. 13) doing copyist work. Nora’s determination and hard work thus undoubtedly draws admiration from the audience. All in all, it is this combination of her serious and child-like qualities that makes Nora a multi-faceted character and thus a character that the audience can easily bond with.

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        Similarly, Lopakhin’s character also contradicts the common portrayals of merchantmen as “hard-hearted, [and] loud mouthed,” (Bloom, p. 71) as he is not only undoubtedly logical and intelligent but also artistic in ways. He contains an aura of a businessman as revealed through his language: “And it is safe to say that in another twenty years these people will multiply enormously. Now the summer resident only drinks tea on his porch, but it may well be that he’ll take to cultivating his acre, and then your cherry orchard will be a happy, rich, luxuriant -‒” (Chekhov, p. 334). As evident, Lopakhin ...

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