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Situational Irony
Style
Explanation and Analysis:
Chekhov's style is often described as realist, as he depicts ordinary, everyday situations in a matter-of-fact way. This is evident in The Cherry Orchard, as much of the play's action consists of banal moments and meandering conversations.
At the same time, there's an underlying humor to Chekhov's style in the play. He uses comedy, through playful dialogue and absurd stage directions, to examine solemn sentiments. Even grave scenes have a silly edge to them, just as the funnier scenes often contain something touching or melancholy. The duality he achieves in tone and mood allows him to reveal the challenges and confusion that can arise when characters with different personalities and perspectives interact and rely on each other.
Chekhov is not only concerned with realism and ordinary life, however, as his style can also be described as poetic. He shows, for example, a sensitivity to the atmosphere that is evoked by stage-setting and directions. This is evident in a sound that occurs twice in the play. In the second and fourth acts, the stage directions mention the distant sound of "a string breaking, dying away, melancholy." This beautiful and haunting formulation makes it seem as though he hoped people would read his plays—rather than just see them staged. In addition, the play contains plenty of figurative language in the form of metaphors, similes, and personification. Even if his characters often express themselves in absurd or mundane ways, he also allows them to express themselves in powerful, poetic, and stirring ways. Finally, Chekhov also includes a number of allusions in the play, both to contemporary Russian literature and to literature written in other languages and earlier times.
