Anton Chekhov's play The Cherry Orchard is closely related to his own life and the era he lived in. Not only does the play reflect on the events in his life, it also portrays the life of people in pre-revolutionary Russia. He includes events that have affected his own life and uses the characters to express his feelings towards these events. Chekhov also uses the characters in his play to show the differences in the social standing of Russian people and how it is dramatically changing. He uses symbolism throughout the entire play to depict both of these things.
Chekhov lived his whole life in Russia with his family. His grandfather was a serf until he bought his and his family's freedom in 1841. Chekhov's father became a shopkeeper and eventually went bankrupt. The family's house and his fathers shop were auctioned off to pay their debts. After they auctioned off everything his family moved to Moscow. Anton had to finish high school and stayed behind in Taganrog. (University).
During his childhood several controversial reforms were underway. When Tsar Alexander II took the throne, he removed most restrictions on foreign travel, opened universities to all classes and relaxed press censorship. In 1861, he introduced The Emancipation Declaration, which was the most important and life altering event in Chekhov's life. Its context discouraged the power of the nobility and gave the lower classes a chance to become one of the wealthy and successful. (University).
The Russian nobility was running itself into the ground. Nearly two-thirds of estates that had serfs were mortgaged by the owner. After the abolition of serfdom, landowners found it hard to get hired labor. The nobilities lavish spending and economic inefficiencies only worsened their situations. Mortgages and bankruptcies were higher than ever among the nobility. They were slowly losing their social standing. (University).
