The two plays that I have chosen to write about and compare, both involve the role of family as one of their themes. These are Antigone[1] by Jean Anouilh and The Cherry Orchard[2], written by Anton Chekhov.

Nurse: “Didn’t I promise your mother? What would she say if she was here? “Old stupid!” that’s what she’d call me. “Old stupid. Not to know how to keep my little girl pure. …That’s’ what she’d say your mother. And I’d stand there, dying of shame if I wasn’t dead already.”

A very important theme is brought about in this quote-the theme of the role of motherhood. A mother plays a very important role in every child’s life, but in Antigone’s, this role is fulfilled by her nanny, who thinks that as hard as she tries, she is still not doing a good enough job in taking care of Antigone in particular, but also her system, Ismene, who joins in the conversation later on. She addresses Antigone as “darling little sister” , which shows the reader how much she cares about her sister, Antigone, and also that they have a very close relationship. Ismene is nothing like her sister. She is described to be prettier, wiser, and fears death, unlike Antogone.

Antigone truly loves her nurse and she openly shows it in her speech. She feels that whenever she is in some kind of trouble, she can always depend on her nurse to take care of her.

Antigone: “But you must keep me warm and safe, the way you used to do when I was little. Nanny! Stronger than all fever, stronger than any nightmare, stronger than the shadow of the cupboard that used to snarl at me and turn into a dragon on the bedroom wall. Stronger than the thousand insects growing and nibbling in the silence of the night. Stronger than the night itself, with the weird hooting of the night birds that frightened me even when I couldn’t hear them. Nanny, stronger than death. Give me your hand, Nanny, as if I were ill in bed, and you sitting beside me.”

As the nurse leaves the stage, Antigone confesses to her sister that she has buried Polynices. In spite of her fears, Antigone still goes on with the plan of buring her brother, whom she loves very much and feels that as she is his sister, she owes him a proper burial and put his soul to rest, even though her uncle, Creon, had strictly forbidden it. The reader or the audience might see Creon as a villain here, because of his cruelty, and his refusal to agree with Antigone. He does not seem to be able to understand how someone would be able to out a belief before their own life.

“Polynices was a rebel, and a traitor, and you know it” , he said. But Antigone refuses to accept this.

Antigone: “He was my brother. Had I been a scullery maid washing my dishes when the law was read aloud to me, I should have scrubbed the greasy water from my arms and gone out in my apron to burry my brother.”

        Since Creon is her uncle, he feels that he should protect her, both for her, and also for Heamon’s, her lover’s, sake.

Creon: “Antigone, do you realize that is, apart from those three guards, a single soul finds out what you have tried to do, it would be impossible for me to avoid putting you to death? There is still a chance that I can save you, but only if you keep this to yourself and give up your crazy purpose.“

But Antigone refuses again. She feels very strongly about this matter. It is so important to her, even more than her own life. Creon constantly continues to try and persuade her to change her mind by telling her bad things about Polynices, but Antigone refuses to change her mind. Towards the end of the play, Creon gives a very insulting description of Polynices, where he says that he is “a cheap idiotic bounder. A cruel, vicious little voluptuary”, but he still makes no improvement in changing Antigone’s mind. The play has a tragic end. Antogone dies. She is found dead together with her lover and Creon’s only son, Heamon, who could not stand living without her and therefore killed himself. But Antigone could have saved herself. Creon could have saved her. But she chose to die. Burying her brother seemed to be much more important to her than her own life, and she managed to prove it. This perhaps brings up another important theme in this play, and that is blind family love, since Antigone did not realize the reality of her brother, but only thought of him the way she wanted to - a good and caring brother.

Family is definitely one of the main themes of the play The Cherry Orchard. Even thought the situation throughout this play is very tense, all the characters try their best to support each other in one way or another.

        We are introduced to the play with Dunyasha and Lopakhin, who are expecting the arrival of Mme Ranevsky and her daughters home. Mme Ranevsky has an essential role in this play. She pretends to live like a wealthy woman, spending a lot of money on useless things, but is ‘living beyond her means’, and does not come to realize that if that goes on, there is a probability that they might lose the orchard.

Mme Ranevsky: “And you haven’t changed at all Varya – my little nun.”

Even thought Varya is Mme Ranevky’s adopted child, she still treats her as her own. Her other daughter, Anya is very much like her mother, but as the play proceeds, the reader can see that she eventually changes in her character.

Anya: “I felt so sorry for her – I just suddenly took Mama’s head in my hands and help on tight and couldn’t let go. And Mama…hugged me. Cried.”

One can say that just like every other daughter, she truly loves, and cares about her mother who also seems to be very important to her. This again shows a close mother-daughter relationship between Mme Ranevsky and Anya. Varya herself also shows compassion for her stepmother:

“Father dying. Grisha drowning in the river. Mother abandoning us, fleeing to Paris, all that grief, all that guilt flooding back…”

From this quote, the reader and the audience can conclude that Mme Ranevsky also had a son:

 

“Grisha little Grisha” she says. It shows the reader and the audience that she is a caring woman, and that she loves her family very much.

Anya: “Mother Mother Mother don’t good gentle precious Mother. I love you let me bless you here don’t don’t cry please…Mother I promise I promise.”

Mme Ranevsky’s brother, Gayev, also shows love for Anya by calling her ‘liuba’, which in translation means ‘love’.

Both of these plays, Antogone and The Cherry Orchard provide some very good examples of close family relations, and show how much certain individuals care for each other. In Anouilh’s Antigone, we are shown the close relationship between certain members, including Antigone and Creon, even though he is forced to put her to death. He could have easily saved her, and he offered to do it many times, but she refused. All for the love of her brother. This shows how hardheaded, as well as immature, but brave Antigone really is. While in The Cherry Orchard family is also essential to every character in the play, and one can easily come to see this through all the examples set in this play. Basically, the family is probably the most important thing in everyone’s life.

Word count: 1,467 words

Bibliography:

*        Anouilh, Jean. Antigone; Classics in World Literature

authors: Kerry M. Wood, Helen McDonnell, John Pfordresher,

Mary Alice Fite, Paul Lankford

USA: Scott Foresman, 1991

*        Chekhov, Anton. The Cherry Orchard

London: Pluto Press Limited, 1978

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