ENGL 3413: World Literature

John M. Mercer, Professor of English

Northeastern State University, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

Study Guide 12: Ibsen, Chekhov

Revised 11-8-10

 

Henrik Ibsen

Ibsen is known for being

 

Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler was written in 1889-90 and first produced in 1891.  It is highly rated for its dramatic power on stage and for the role of its heroine (main character), Hedda.  The play’s greatness may not be apparent until one sees it on stage.

 

Be sure to read the excellent discussion of the play in the textbook’s introduction to Ibsen (2477m-79).

 

Extra-credit videos: Plays are meant to be seen, not merely read.  Make a special effort to watch a video of Hedda Gabler before the end of the semester.  Three different versions are available for checkout from the library:

More extra credit: If you have a video of Hedda Gabler at class time, please bring it to class, cued in advance, if possible, to a scene to show to the class.

 

Hedda Gabler and Realism

Ibsen wrote several different kinds of plays (in phases corresponding to 19th-century literary movements).  Hedda Gabler is the last play of Ibsen’s Realistic period.

 

  1. To what extent does each of the following characteristics of Realism (from last week’s study guide) apply to Hedda Gabler?
    1. middle-class characters
    2. objective description of details of contemporary life
    3. inclusion of unpleasant truths
    4. social criticism

(1)   According to the textbook’s introduction to Ibsen, the social criticism in Ibsen’s plays is of the people of what country?  of what social class?

  1. What are the three stage plays we have previously studied in this class?  Explain how each of the following elements of Hedda Gabler is handled more realistically than in these previous plays. 
    1. Setting, including furniture and other stage properties
    2. Dialogue (see the discussion of dialogue in the textbook’s introduction to Ibsen)

(1)   What nonrealistic devices of dialogue are absent from this play?

(2)   Is the dialogue written in poetry or in prose?  Does it sound like actual conversation?

(3)   In the past, playwrights had frequently revealed a play’s exposition and antecedent action through a chorus or long monologues. In Hedda Gabler, however, how does Ibsen reveal this information? In act 1, what important information about the past and present do we learn?

  1. Ibsen's most famous Realistic play is A Doll's House (ca. 1879). Extra-credit video: Rent and watch a video of A Doll’s House; several different films have been made over the years. A Doll’s House is also a “problem play,” probing a social problem without giving a clear solution.
  2. Extra-credit research: Read a plot summary of A Doll’s House.  Its theme of women’s emancipation (one of many liberal themes in Ibsen) was so inflammatory that dinner hostesses across Europe forbade the discussion of the play.

 

Structure of Hedda Gabler

As the questions below emphasize, each of the four acts of the play includes the following actions related to Hedda’s need for power and control:

 

Act 1

  1. Why does Hedda feel antagonistic toward Aunt Juju? How does Hedda put Aunt Juju “in her place”?  
  2. Why does Hedda have so little respect for her husband?  How does she show her lack of respect for him?
  3. Why does Thea Elvsted come to Hedda’s house?  Through manipulation, what does Hedda get Thea to confide in her?  Why is Hedda threatened by Thea’s relationship with Eilert Loevborg?    
  4. What disturbing news does Hedda learn about the professorship George hopes to receive? Why is it so important to Hedda that George get this position? If he doesn’t, how will her life be affected?
  5. At the very end of act 1, how does Hedda assert her power over the situation?  What do her father’s pistols symbolize? 

 

Act 2

  1. How does Hedda deliberately make Eilert angry at Thea?   
  2. What does Hedda manipulate Eilert into doing that he hasn’t done in some time?  What does she get him to agree to do for the rest of the evening?
  3. What does Hedda mean when she tells Thea that she wants Eilert to come back from the party with “a crown of vine-leaves in his hair” (2515)?  Why does she want him to do this?  Extra-credit research:  What was the role of vine leaves in the worship of the Greek god Dionysus?

 

Act 3

  1. According to what Hedda now learns, has Eilert followed the advice she gave him at the end of act 2?  What has Eilert done the previous night?  Where has he gone after leaving Judge Brack’s house?
  2. What does George find and give to Hedda?  Why does she view this object as a threat?  What does it symbolize to Hedda?
  3. At the end of act 3, when Hedda says she has something to give Eilert, what might she  give him?  What does she actually give him?  What does she say when she gives this to him?  What does she mean by this?
  4. What does Hedda do at the very end of act 3?  Why?  What is the “child” of Thea and Eilert?

 

Act 4

Now everything seems to turn against Hedda.

  1. What two people have died between acts 3 and 4?  Why does Hedda see one of these deaths as a personal failure for her?  What methods of suicide does Hedda see as “noble”?
  2. What project do George and Thea plan to pursue together?  Why is this a loss for Hedda?
  3. How does Judge Brack attempt to blackmail Hedda?  Why does he now have power over her?
  4. At the very end of the play, what does Judge Brack mean when he says, “People don’t do such things!” (2537b)?  What “things” is he referring to? Why is this statement ironic?  On what other occasions does someone in the play make this same remark (for example, 2488m and 2494b)?  What is the significance of this repeated statement?

 

Character Foils

  1. In what ways are George Tesman and Eilert Loevborg foils to each other?
  2. What word does George annoyingly and constantly repeat in his dialogue?  Why does he say this word?
  3. How are the differences between George and Eilert comparable to those between Wagner and Faust in Goethe’s Faust?
  4. In what ways are Hedda and Thea foils to each other?  What has Thea done that Hedda would never have the courage to do?  Why does Hedda refer to Thea as “rich”?
  5. How is Thea’s hair different from Hedda’s hair?  What does this difference between their hair symbolize?

 

Triangles

The characters in the play form several “triangles,” or groups of three characters with complex relationships.

  1. In the antecedent action, what triangle existed at the Elvteds’ house?
  2. In act 2, what triangle is seated in Hedda’s drawing room?  Where does Hedda want to sit (2512m)?
  3. What triangle does Brack propose early in the play and again in act 4?  What does Brack mean when he says he wants to be “cock of the walk”?
  4. In act 4, what triangle would the proposed reconstruction of Eilert’s manuscript create?
  5. Why is Hedda so threatened by each of the above triangles?

 

Hedda Gabler as a Tragedy

  1. What other tragedy have we studied in this class? 
  2. Extra-credit analysis: In what ways does Hedda Gabler fit Aristotle’s definition of tragedy in Poetics? In what ways does it not fit Aristotle’s definition?
  3. What is a femme fatale?  Does Hedda fit this definition?  What evil things does she do in the play?  What are her motivations for doing these things?
  4. According to Aristotle, a tragic heroine must possess a hamartia?  Does Hedda have a hamartia?  In your opinion, what is it? 
  5. According to Aristotle, a tragic heroine must also possess nobility of character.  Does Hedda possess any nobility of character?  Does Hedda possess any good or potentially good traits?  What? 
  6. What in Hedda’s background helps to mitigate or at least explain her evil actions?
  7. What does Hedda mean when she says she has “no gift for anything but boring myself to death” (2505m)?
  8. Ibsen wrote the following (but not in connection with Hedda Gabler) about the education of aristocratic women: “They are trained in idleness and longing for something uncertain.  In the case of hopes unrealized, potentially useful personalities are crushed by their bitter disappointment” (my underlining).  How might this quotation apply to Hedda?
  9. According to Aristotle, the tragic heroine’s suffering should be greater than she deserves. Is this true of Hedda?  Do you feel pity for her?
  10. One critic has said that the tragedy of the play is the whole situation Hedda creates, the “tragedy of human waste in modern society.”  What is the extent of the tragedy Hedda has created by the end of the play?

* * *

Anton Chekhov

  1. What was Chekhov’s nationality?  In what language did he write?
  2. What was his occupation before he became a writer?
  3. Besides plays, in what other genre did Chekhov excel as a writer?
  4. According to the textbook’s introduction to Chekhov, what genre or type of play did he consider The Cherry Orchard to be?  Chekhov disapproved of the original production of the play in Moscow because it presented the play as if it were of what genre?
  5. To what extent do YOU think each of the following genre labels applies to The Cherry Orchard?  (See discussion of genre on 2539b-41t.)
    1. Tragedy
    2. Comedy
    3. Tragicomedy (a play that combines characteristics of tragedy and comedy, usually with a plot that appears to be moving toward a tragic catastrophe but unexpectedly has a happy ending)

Some of Chekhov’s plays use a dramatic technique called “slice of life,” the objective presentation of ordinary human activities without the appearance of a contrived plot.  Reacting against what he disliked in contemporary theatre, Chekhov wrote in a letter (ca. 1887),

in real life people don't spend every minute shooting each other, hanging themselves and making confessions of love.  They don’t spend all their time saying clever things.  They’re more occupied with eating, drinking, flirting and talking stupidities—and these are the things which ought to be shown on the stage.  A play should be written in which people arrive, have dinner, talk about the weather, play cards, and go away.  Life must be exactly as it is.  And people as they are—not on stilts. . . . People eat their dinner, just eat their dinner, and all the time their happiness is being established or their lives are being broken up.

  1. Referring to the above quotation from Chekhov’s letter, answer the following questions:
    1. What keeps the plot of The Cherry Orchard from being merely “slice of life”?  What extraordinary event occurs in the course of the play?
    2. What acts or scenes in The Cherry Orchard demonstrate the last sentence in the above quotation from Chekhov?

 

Characters in The Cherry Orchard

In general the characters in this play are scatterbrained, self-absorbed, impractical in life and love, and emotionally needy.  As in his other works, however, Chekhov shows the characters’ foibles with only gentle satire.  

 

See the pronunciations of the characters’ names on 2541(m) and in square brackets below.

 

The Family

  1. Madame Lubov [pronounced “lou-BOFF”] Ranevskaya, mother of Anya and Varya, sister of Gayev and, with him, co-owner of the family estate known as the Cherry Orchard.
    1. According to the exposition (including antecedent action) in act 1, where has Lubov been for the past five years?  Why did she leave Russia?  Why has she now returned home?  
    2. The name “Lubov” means “love.”  How is this name appropriate for her?  What examples can you give of her loving nature? In what ways has this trait worked against her?
    3. How good is Lubov as a manager of money?  What instances in the play support your answer?   
  2. Gayev [pronounced “GAH-yeff”] is Lubov’s 51-year-old bachelor brother.
    1. What annoying personal habits does Gayev have?  What does his niece Anya ask him NOT to do?  Concerning what piece of furniture does he make a speech?
    2. Who is Gayev’s personal valet?  What is amusing about this servant’s words and actions toward Gayev?
    3. What does he say he will do about the potential loss of the family estate?  What does he do about it?
  3. Varya [“VAR-ya”], 24 years old, is Lubov’s older daughter (adopted).  During the years her mother has been away, she has had the responsibility for running the household (for which she carries all the keys).  Her mother teases her for acting like a nun.
    1. What shows that Varya is more practical than the other members of her family?
    2. How does Varya feel toward her sister Anya?
    3. With whom is Varya in love?  What is the nature of their relationship?
  4. Anya [pronounced “AHN-ya”], 17 years old, is Lubov’s younger daughter.  She has spent the last few months with her mother and has accompanied her back home.
    1. With whom is Anya in love?  What is the nature of their relationship?

 

 

The Daughters’ Love Interests

  1. Trofimov [“traw-FEE-moff”], a perpetual student at age 30, was the tutor of Lubov’s late son Grisha.  A Communist sympathizer during this decade before the Bolshevik Revolution, he has grandiose visions of the coming revolution and talks about the importance of work—but  doesn't work.
    1. What does Lubov say to Trofimov right before he falls down the stairs?
    2. Which daughter is his girlfriend?  What does he say about their relationship?
  2. Lopahin [“lo-pah-HEEN”] is the only character in the play who knows how to make and manage money.  Although his grandfather was a serf on the Gayev estate, through his own efforts he has risen to the middle class.  
    1. In act 1, what plan does he present to Gayev and Lubov to allow them to keep their family estate?  Why do they reject his plan?
    2. Which daughter does he say he loves?  What is the nature of their relationship?  At the end of the play, when he has his last chance to talk to her (2576m-77t), what does he say to her about his love?  (Let’s read their dialogue in class.)

 

The Next-Door Neighbor

  1. Pishchik [“pish-chik”], whose estate adjoins the Cherry Orchard, faces a similar struggle to keep his land. 
    1. In act 1, what does he ask Lubov to do?  How is this request ironic?
    2. Also in act 1, what does Pishchik do that shows he disdains modern medicine?
    3. At the end of the play, how is Pishchik more fortunate than Gayev and Lubov?

 

The Servants

  1. Charlotta Ivanovna [“shar-LOT-ta  ee-VAHN-ov-na”] is Anya’s governess and therefore of higher status than the family’s other employees.  She was raised by circus people, which explains why she knows a lot of magic tricks—but doesn’t know who her biological parents are.  
    1. What tricks does Charlotta perform or talk about?
    2. In act 2, what is she talking about right before she chomps on a cucumber? What is the effect of her eating the cucumber?  (In this and other Russian works, though, Russians seem to eat whole cucumbers in the same way that Americans eat apples.)
  2. Yepihodov [“ye-pee-HO-doff”], a middle-aged clerk on the Gayev estate, is awkward and unlucky. 
    1. What is his nickname?
    2. What noise does he make when he walks?
    3. To what young woman does he propose?  What response does he receive?  Why?
  3. Dunyasha [“dun-YA-sha”], a teenage maid, has unrealistic dreams of becoming an aristocratic lady.
    1. With whom is she infatuated?  What response does she get from him?
  4. Yasha [“YA-sha”], Lubov’s valet, is the only despicable character in the play.  He is insolent and cynical, caring only for himself.  After being away from Russia (with Lubov) for five years, he hates his homeland and doesn’t even care about seeing his mother.
    1. What are we told about this incident concerning Yasha’s mother?
    2. In what other ways does Yasha show his selfishness?
    3. At the end of the play, what responsibility does he fail to fulfill?  What are the possible results of this failure?
  5. Firs [“feers”], age 87, a family servant, has waited on Gayev for all of Gayev’s life.  Firs was born a serf on the Gayev estate before the emancipation of the serfs in 1861.  
    1. What specific incidents humorously reveal his fussing over Gayev?
    2. What is Firs’s attitude toward the emancipation of the serfs?
    3. What happens to Firs at the end of the play?  What questions are left unanswered about his situation?

 

Settings of The Cherry Orchard

                        time of day                  month of year              room or other place on estate

Act 1               very early morning      May                             nursery

Act 2               late afternoon              June                             orchard

Act 3               late evening                 August 22                   drawing room (adjoining ballroom)

Act 4               early morning              October                       nursery (stripped)

 

Refer to the above chart in answering these questions:

  1. What progression do you see in each of the following over the course of the four acts of the play?  In what way does each aspect of the setting come full circle?   
    1. time of day
    2. month of year
    3. room or other place on estate
  2. Act 1, the dialogue reveals, begins at 2 a.m. on a May morning.  How can the sun already be up and the temperature be 3 degrees below zero at this time of day and year?
  3. Why does the play specify the exact date of act 3 but not of any other act?
  4. Why does Chekhov set act 3 in the drawing room adjoining the ballroom rather than in the ballroom itself?
  5. What associations does the nursery have for Gayev and Lubov?  How does the set look different to the audience in act 4 than in act 1? What effect does this difference have on the audience?    

 

Freytag’s Pyramid

Freytag’s Pyramid is a diagram that describes the plot of many plays (and works of fiction).

  1. Draw Freytag’s Pyramid.  Extra-credit research: If you don’t already know what it looks like, find it on the Internet.   
  2. On Freytag’s Pyramid, label each of the following aspects of plot, and explain the meaning of each term.
    1. Exposition
    2. Rising action
    3. Climax
    4. Falling action
    5. Resolution (dénouement)  

3.  On your diagram of Freytag’s Pyramid, identify which act of The Cherry Orchard contains each of the above aspects of the plot (a, b, c, d, e).

 

Social Classes in Early 20th-Century Russia

For some critics, the loss of the Cherry Orchard represents the disintegration in the early 20th century of the age-old Russian class system based on inherited property. (The textbook’s introduction to Chekhov downplays or rejects this interpretation, but I think it has merit.)

 

Upper class:   titled aristocracy                                           

landed gentry

Middle class (bourgeoisie)                            

Lower class: rural peasants and urban workers (formerly serfs)

 

  1. What relative of the Gayev family, mentioned several times in the play, belongs to the titled aristocracy?
  2. Which characters are members of the landed gentry?  What is happening to their way of life?  Why? 
  3. What sound effects, especially in act 2 and at the very end of the play, are associated with the fall of the landed gentry?
  4. Which character is a rising middle-class capitalist?  Into what social class was this character born?  What accounts for the financial success of this character?
  5. Which character speaks on behalf of the rising workers’ movement that will take control of the Russian government in 1917?  According to this character, why is a revolution necessary?
  6. Which characters are peasants, descendants of serfs?  What is the definition of “serf”? Which character remembers being a serf?  What is his attitude toward serfdom?

 

Symbolism of the Cherry Orchard

In the play, the cherry orchard is a literal feature of the family’s estate (and the name of the estate), but the orchard is also a symbol because it means more than what it literally is.  In fact, the orchard means different things to different characters.

 

Explain what the cherry orchard symbolizes to each of the following characters.  Your answer should be informed by but not limited to the passage whose page number is indicated in parenthesis.

  1. Lubov (2550b)
    1. What does she see when, upon returning home after five years, she looks outside at the orchard?  How can you explain this apparent hallucination?
    2. What feelings does she associate with the orchard?
  2. Gayev (2548m)
    1. What is his argument against Lopahin’s proposal to chop down the orchard to clear land to lease for summer houses?
    2. What is the most important thing about the orchard to Gayev?
  3. Firs (2548m)
    1. What does he remember about the orchard’s past?  What recipe has been lost?  Of what is this recipe a symbol?
    2. With what does he associate the orchard?
  4. Trofimov (2561b-62t)
    1. According to him, who planted the orchard?  With what does he associate the orchard?
    2. What political prophecy does he make in the orchard?
  5. Lopahin (2547b-48t)
    1. How does he look at the orchard?
    2. How is his view different from everyone else’s? 

 

The Cherry Orchard and Realism

  1. According to the study guide for last week’s assignment, what were the years of Realism as a literary movement?  When was The Cherry Orchard written and produced?
  2. Argue to what extent The Cherry Orchard does and/or does not fit each of the characteristics of Realism presented in last week’s study guide:
    1. Middle-class characters
    2. Objective description of the details of contemporary life
    3. Unpleasant truths
    4. Social criticism