Riassunto
Riassunto di Opere teatrali di Anton Čechov, seconda serie
A chi è rivolto
Readers who like sharp comedy and quiet sorrow in the same evening, anyone drawn to Russian country life, and theatre lovers who enjoy characters who say one thing and mean another.
Che cos’è questo libro
This book gathers eight plays by Anton Chekhov, the Russian doctor and writer who died in 1904. Five of them are short comedies, one-act pieces made to be played in under an hour. Two are full dramas, The Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard, which belong to his last years as a playwright. The eighth, On the High Road, is a dark dramatic study set in a roadside inn.
Together they show how wide his range is. You meet a drunken landowner in a storm, a nervous suitor who quarrels with his bride-to-be over a meadow, a wedding supper that goes wrong, a widow and a creditor locked in a duel of tempers, a worn-out commuter buried in parcels, and a bank on the day of its fiftieth anniversary. Then the mood deepens. Three sisters wait in a garrison town for a move to Moscow, and a family in a country house faces the sale of the orchard they love.
Chekhov writes about ordinary people who talk past one another, hope for change and put off action. The farces draw their laughs from bad tempers and bad timing. The longer plays find sorrow and humour in the same breath. In about fifteen minutes you will walk through each play in turn, then see what links them. We begin at an inn on the high road in southern Russia, on a night of thunder and rain.
In questo riassunto
- 1A storm drives strangers into Tihon's innFree
- 2Two quarrels that nearly wreck love
- 3Weddings, errands and a bank in uproar
- 4The Prosorov sisters wait for Moscow
- 5Fire in the night strips away masks
- 6Ranevsky comes home to the orchard
- 7Dreams of progress while time runs out
- 8What links these plays together
- 9How Chekhov builds a scene
Punto chiave 1 di 9
A storm drives strangers into Tihon's inn
On the High Road is set in a tavern on the main road in southern Russia. Chekhov calls it a dramatic study. It is late at night and thunder rolls outside. Pilgrims, drivers and passersby crowd the benches, and many of them sleep sitting up. Tihon, the innkeeper, stands behind his counter and guards his bottles and his till.
Among the guests is Savva, an old pilgrim from Vologda. He is ill and in pain, yet he still hopes to reach the Holy Hills and then Odessa. Two pilgrim women, Nazarovna and Efimovna, tend him and scold anyone who is loud. A young labourer named Fedya plays a damp concertina and boasts of his days as a hotel attendant in town. The talk is rough and funny, full of proverbs and old fears of devils.
Bortsov, a ruined landowner in a shabby coat, is the centre of the room. He begs Tihon for one more glass of vodka, then offers his cap, then his coat. He calls his craving an illness that speaks through his mouth. Tihon refuses again and again. At last Bortsov hands over a gold medallion with a lady's portrait inside, and he begs the men not to touch the face with their fingers.
Then Egor Merik arrives, a tramp with an axe in his belt who changes his name with every passport. He takes Fedya's bench, makes Tihon pull off his boots, and announces to the room that women ruin men. When the medallion goes around, Merik stares at the portrait and his mood darkens. Kusma, a driver who knows Bortsov from his home village, then tells how the gentleman fell.
Kusma says Bortsov fell in love with a flighty town girl and married her, only to see her leave him on the very night of the wedding. He also lost thirty thousand roubles by guaranteeing his brother-in-law's bank loan. Even drunk and ragged, Bortsov clings to one thing, his love. Near dawn a carriage with a broken spring stops outside, and a lady steps in from the dark. What follows is kept for the end of this summary.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Opere teatrali di Anton Čechov, seconda serie
What is Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series about?
It collects eight plays by Chekhov: On the High Road, The Proposal, The Wedding, The Bear, A Tragedian in Spite of Himself, The Anniversary, The Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. They range from quick farces to full dramas about change and longing.
Which plays are the comedies and which are the longer dramas?
The Proposal, The Wedding, The Bear, A Tragedian in Spite of Himself and The Anniversary are one-act comedies. The Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard are full-length dramas in four acts, and On the High Road is a short dramatic study.
What does the cherry orchard stand for?
The orchard stands for a beautiful but unproductive past and a family's attachment to it. Characters see it as home, as memory, or as a burden, which is why the question of what to do with it divides them.
Why do the Three Sisters keep saying Moscow?
Moscow is the city of their childhood and a symbol of a fuller life. The sisters keep postponing the move, so the word comes to mean hope itself, as well as the habit of waiting.
Are the short plays easy to follow?
Yes, they are built on simple situations such as a proposal, a debt or a speech, and they move quickly with lively dialogue. Each one sets out who wants what from the first page, so you can follow it easily.