Before the emancipation of the Russian serfs if you were born into a serf family, generally you stayed in this poverty class for your entire life. Working hard did not change your class status. On the other hand, after the emancipation of the serfs, some peasants were able to climb up the social ladder through being humble. In the play The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, Lopakhin was a middle-aged business man. He was born into a peasant family. His parents and great great grandparents were serfs on Ranevsky's estate. During this time of period serfs were still in poverty, as they did not own the land and have freedom. The landowners often treated their serfs like property, not like human being. After the system of serfdom was abolished, with
little education and full of ideas and innovation, Lopakhin managed to use the liberation of the serfs to his full advantage and became wealthy. At the end of the play Lopakhin’s social identity changed from being poor to wealthy. He was not only a wealthy man, but he was the owner of the estate where he was born a serf. The emancipation of the serfs by Alexander II allowed former serfs to gain wealth and status while some aristocrats were becoming impoverished, unable to tend their estates without the cheap labor of slavery. After the serfdom was abolished Lopakhin remained loyal to Madame Ranevsky despite the mix feeling he had for the family and what had happened in the past. He offered to provide assistance like loans, ideas, and innervation to Madame Ranevsky to restore her estate. He told Ranevsky to cut down cherry orchard to make a vacation spot so she could make a profit to pay for the estate. However, Madame Ranevsky did not acknowledge him. Due to this Lopakhin ended up brought the cherry orchard at a cheap price. She ended up losing her estate.
In his book Worse Than Slavery, Oshinsky graphically documents the story of the “farm with slaves” that turned an enormous profit to the state. Throughout the book one is continually confronted with the systematized degradation and humiliation of blacks. Before reading this book I thought I knew the extent of America’s racist past but Oshinsky proved me wrong. There are many dark truths and shameful skeletons I have not encountered before. Parchman Farm with its use of race-baiting techniques and capitalizing on racist fears of black lawlessness as a means to justify political control, violence, and murder is absolutely horrifying. At the heart of Oshinsky’s work, one can see the continual effort of whites to restore their supremacy at all
When the topic of slavery is brought up, it is usually assumed we are talking about the thirteen million Africans who were captured, transported and enslaved in the Americas but that is not necessarily true. The history of American slavery began long before this. Native American slavery has traditionally been treated as a secondary matter when compared to the African slave trade. Indians were enslaved in large numbers and forced to labor as slaves or in other forms of servitude. They would do many different tasks ranging from working on a plantation to working in mines to working like a slave in domestic settings. Native Americans were used as slaves for as long as they could but until the number of European immigrants began to rise at an alarming rate. The arrival of Europeans and their disease and tools for war caused a drastic drop in the number of Native Americans as a whole, thus creating the
In the years leading up to World War I, social unrest among the Russian people was spreading rapidly. There was a huge social gulf between the peasants who were former serfs and the landowners. The peasants regarded anyone who did not work as a parasite. They had always regarded as all land belonging to them. They regarded any land retained by the landowners at the time serfs were freed as stolen and only force could prevent them from taking it back. By the time Russia entered the war, one peasant rebellion had already been suppressed and several socialist revolutionary movements were developing.
Karl Marx once stated, “The workers have nothing to lose but their chains.” Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich focuses on the middle class struggles in Russia during the 1800s and how materialism has negative impacts on people in society. Tolstoy uses the novella to demonstrate how Russian society was imperfect in the 1800s and Tolstoy portrayed ideals similar to Marxism in the book. Marxism is the ideology that everyone should be equal in regards to class, education, economics and politics. Marxism was created by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels during the 1840s. Their ideology was to establish a classless society where property and resources are owned by the community and not the individuals themselves. Tolstoy used the novella to contrast his ideals of a classless society and anti-materialism to show how negative the caste system and the materialistic lifestyle of the Russian middle class was.
The Uskov family in Anton Chekov's "A Problem" is in a dilemma. This is due to Sasha Uskov illegally obtaining a sum of money. As a result, the Uskovs are deciding whether to pay off his debt, or turn him over to the authorities. Personally, I would have had Sasha arrested and put to trial.
Karl Marx believed this division was a struggle for power, “[…] ‘motored’ by the competition for economic, social, and political advantage” (Barry 151). Thus, since poor people have no money, they have no power over their lives. As the narrator states while in the woman’s shelter, “What I prefer is no longer of concern” (Cook 46). With the wealthy choosing who they want to marry, the poor do not have the ability to accept or decline the selection. Even though many widows and poor people get placed in shelters, there is an exemption age that allows a person to live on their own. For example, “Most people reach the age of exemption before their partner dies, and they are allowed to simply live alone” (Cook 48). The bourgeoisie maintains this rule because the elderly are of no use to them. Instead, they prefer to have the power to choose a spouse who is younger and has multiple skills that are of use to them. Ultimately, class struggle reveals the idea that the bourgeoisie holds power over the proletariat’s rights as citizens in
In Anton Chekov's "About Love" Alekhin also known as Pavel Konstantinovich shares a story within a story about his one true love Anna Alekeevna with Burkin, the high school teacher and Ivan Inanovich, the veterinary surgeon. The story shares how he and Anna grew to share an unconditional love for each other. The two sacrificed their love for each other for the happiness of others since Anna was already married and had two children. Later on in his life, Alekhin realizes that he had missed his one chance of true love, when he had the chance they should have sacrificed everything and attempted to live a happy life together. Although Alehin's tone while telling his story seems to doubt the possibility of true happiness, it is not until after he is finished that he seems to understand that by not sacrificing and taking chances in life, you hinder your chance of ever-attaining true contentment.
The middle class is the class that Tolstoy chooses to focus on because they behave as aristocrats. Ivan Ilyich’s wife owns a small bit of land, which is rare during this time in Russia, but his friends say, “but something quite trifling.” Referring to the pettiness and unimportance of Ilyich’s middle class lifestyle. Voltaire similarly looks at how power and status that is obtained from lineage becomes meaningless and creates misery. Military recruiters flatter Candide by building
In their work, both Nietzsche and Chekhov establish a rather complex theme about life and human beliefs. They question the construction of the meaning of life which capitalism has created and leave the readers to reconsider life.
When going through a traumatic or devastating experience, one has a possibility of experiencing the five stages of grief. They are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. People go through these for a variety of reasons. In “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov, a lawyer is part of a bet in which he must stay without human contact for fifteen years. The lawyer has difficulty coping without human contact. As a result, throughout his fifteen years of isolation, the lawyer goes through the five stages of grief.
Some people want to lose all of their human characteristics. Whether it is replacing a body part with a robotic one to become a cyborg, or enhancing their senses with external supplements, the possibilities are endless as mankind strives to phase out of its natural form. But maybe there’s another way to lose humanity. In “The Bet”, Anton Chekhov decides to go a different route to change somebody human into a cold, calculating being. By making a bet and putting a lawyer into fifteen years of solitary confinement, the banker, without a clue, strips the lawyer of his humanity. As the lawyer is in prison, different changes happen to him and several themes arise. In “The Bet”, Anton Chekhov discusses the theme of material existence and ignorance through the passage of
Chekhov's characters in The Cherry Orchard contribute greatly to the comedy. The action takes place on a Russian estate belonging to Mrs. Ranevsky. There is a debate over finances and a wealthy businessman named Lopakhin, whose father was a serf on the estate, thinks of a way to solve the financial problems. The family, however, seems to ignore the problem of losing the estate. This is the first instance of comedy in that the family chooses to ignore the problems while a wealthy businessman pleads with them to take action. The family continues to ignore the future for the estate as personalities are developed in each of the characters. A very comical character is the clerk Yepikhodov, also known as 'Twenty-two Calamities.'; In his entrance he stumbles over a chair while babbling at whatever comes to his mind. Firs, a senile manservant, is the next to add comic elements as he hobbles across the stage also ...
... . The Orchard and the charters relate to this course which we looked at many other writings in the course which all use imagery and descriotion of the setting to egt their point across. However I must admit I would wonder what Chechov would explain at what the future held in Russia after the revolution which took place after many years after his death. This was his last play and truly a play at which had meaning(book). It seemed that checkov liked the way that change was coming especially through the charcter Lopkin whom seemed to have a positive characteristic and the constant flashback of how his father was a peasant and how now he was a rich man. Even thought change was coming and it seemed to be great I just wonder and would like to end off to what Anton Checkov would of thought of the future of Russia through the Stalinist era and the time of the 5 year plan.
In drama “ The Cherry Orchard” , Lopakhin and Madame Ranevsky are clashing individuals, who are not to be judged as either good or bad. Both characters are human, having honorable traits. Lopakhin and Madame Ranevsky's characters are incompatible in the other's mind. Madame Ravensky is a member of the falling aristocracy who is a lost romantic trapped in a fantasy world on the orchard while forgetting her troubles in the "real" world. Lopakhin is a money driven, sometimes vulgar, and socially rising individual. Lopakhin is trying to make a future by overcoming his past, but remains genuine and practical in his offering help.
Anton Chekhov is a master at showing aspects of real life; how fed up people are, how it really is without the everyday pleasantries, and how exploitable people are by one another. Chekhov uses these three aspects with great mastery to show his form of real life in his "Selected Stories." Chekhov shows how fed up people are with one another in his short story the "Jailer Jailed." This story is about a man, who is a prosecuting attorney, is actually living in his own jail; being married to his wife who lets him do nothing but wait on her hand and foot. "I understand what it means to be in jail!"