What is unique about Chekhov's dramaturgy? The main differences between Chekhov’s drama and the works of the “pre-Chekhov” period

Chekhov's dramaturgy represents plays that marked the beginning of a new direction in domestic and world literature. This direction is usually called psychologically oriented drama, when the experiences of the characters, rather than external collisions, come to the fore in the work.

Dramatic works of Chekhov. The birth of a new genre. The play "The Seagull"

Chekhov was already a famous writer when he also declared himself as a playwright. At first, the public expected humorous works from him, akin to his short stories. However, the writer turned to serious and pressing topics.

The audience was amazed by his first play, “The Seagull” (written in 1895), staged on the stage of the Art Theater (created by the famous directors K.S. Stanislavsky and V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko). The plot itself was unusual for a drama: instead of intense passions and bright love twists and turns, it told about a provincial young man who dreams of directing. He puts on a play for friends and relatives, and invites the girl Nina, with whom he is in love, to play the main role in it. However, the audience does not like the play, not only because the author could not convey in it his experiences and understanding of the meaning of life, but also because the mother of the main character - a famous and no longer young actress - does not like her son and does not believe in him. success.

As a result, Nina’s fate takes a tragic turn; she plunges into love like an abyss. Dreams of family life and the stage. However, at the end of the play, the audience learns that Nina, having run away with her lover Trigorin, ended up alone. She lost her child and is forced to work on the stage of third-rate theaters. However, despite all the trials, Nina does not lose faith in life and people. She tells the man who once fell in love with her that she has understood the essence of life. In her opinion, the meaning of human existence lies in patience, in the need to overcome all life’s difficulties and trials.

The innovation of Chekhov the playwright was that he created his work by addressing the moral issues of human life. What is truth and love? Is it possible, after overcoming all the trials of fate, to maintain faith in people? What is art? Should a person engaged in creativity selflessly serve art, or is it possible for him to please his own vanity?
At the same time, the author did not offer his viewers ready-made answers to all questions. He simply showed life as it is, giving him the right to make his own choices.

The play “The Seagull” amazed contemporaries with its uniqueness. However, not all critics and not all the public accepted the play. The play was first staged at the Alexandria Theater, but there it was a complete failure. However, the new drama was staged at the Moscow Art Theater. And here the play was received enthusiastically. The public applauded the author's talent, and critics wrote about the creation of a new dramatic genre.

Dramatic works of a new genre. Triumph of the Moscow Art Theater

The peculiarities of Chekhov’s dramaturgy were that all his plays written after “The Seagull” immersed the audience even deeper into the world of human feelings and experiences. Moreover, from play to play these experiences became more and more tragic.

Such is the play “Uncle Vanya” (1897), which tells about the fate of a provincial nobleman who created an idol for himself from his relative, Professor Serebryakov. Uncle Vanya, raising the professor's daughter, his niece Sonya, and helping his relative morally and financially, always believed that his life was filled with high meaning. When the professor came to stay with him with his second wife, it became clear to the main character how deeply he was mistaken. Voinitsky (“Uncle Vanya”) could not bear the disappointment that befell him.
The author’s understanding of the meaning of human life is expressed in the words of Doctor Astrov, the man with whom Sonya is hopelessly in love: “Everything in a person should be beautiful: face, clothes, soul, and thoughts.”

The main characters of another play, “Three Sisters,” are also looking for their meaning in life. However, they do not find it in the world of bourgeois interests and consumerism. Girls believe in bright and pure dreams, but over the years this faith in them remains less and less. However, Chekhov himself remarked about this play: “When the curtain falls, the audience is left with the feeling that the action does not end there, the prospect of a purer, more meaningful life is guessed.”

The innovation of Chekhov's dramaturgy was fully demonstrated in his last and most unusual play, The Cherry Orchard. This play only superficially tells about the fate of one impoverished noble family, but, in fact, it conveys the imprint of the entire Russian life of that period. The destruction of the cherry orchard is Chekhov's premonition of the future destruction of Tsarist Russia in the terrible whirlwind of 1917-1918.

All of Chekhov's plays were staged during his lifetime on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater. It was the writer’s creativity that brought this theater all-Russian fame for many years.

Features of Chekhov's dramatic method

The innovation of Chekhov's plays, which amazed his contemporaries, also found a response in the hearts of critics. They formulated the basic principles of the writer’s dramatic method.

First of all, critics noted that Chekhov’s dramaturgy reflected the features of the crisis of realism characteristic of the late 19th century. "Chekhov's drama" often departs from an accurate realistic depiction of characters in order to penetrate deeper into the inner world of the heroes. The author offers viewers a multi-layered reality with a large number of deviations from the main theme and the presence of various “undercurrents”. The tragedy of human existence dissolves in everyday life, in the author’s desire to comprehend its meaning.

The main thing in the dialogues of the heroes of Chekhov's drama is not the literal meaning of the words, but their secret meaning, the internal context. At the same time, often the heroes, uttering words and addressing their interlocutor, do not hear each other, understanding only their position. Often in Chekhov's works there is no clearly expressed conflict, there are no purely positive and purely negative characters, and the plays themselves are written within the framework of an “open ending”, allowing the audience to speculate on the ending of the plot.

Chekhov's entire creative path is connected with the theater. His first plays appeared in Taganrog. Then “Ivanov” (1887), “Leshy” (1888), vaudeville “The Bear” (1889), “Wedding” (1889), etc. were written and staged.
The era of Chekhov’s “great” plays begins with “The Seagull” (1896). This work is created and staged in a situation where the traditions of realistic theater are being revised and the poetics of modern drama is being mastered. Chekhov is well aware of the works of Ibsen, Maeterlinck, and Hauptmann, who opened the doors of the theater to symbolism. In Chekhov's

Comedy already has recognizable features of the new art. The author includes an image-symbol in the title, the meaning of which can receive different interpretations. It sets the style of play and requires a special selection of performers.
In 1897, “The Seagull” was staged at the Alexandrinsky Theater as an Everyday Play. “There was a heavy tension of bewilderment and shame in the theater. The actors played disgustingly, stupidly,” the author himself recalled. He was very worried about the failure of the comedy and for a long time did not agree to a new production. After long negotiations, the play was staged at the Moscow Art Theater by young directors-reformers V. Nemirovich-Danchenko and K. Stanislavsky. The premiere took place on December 17, 1897 “in a nervous atmosphere, and even with an incomplete collection,” but triumphantly. It was obvious: “a new theater was born.” The theater curtain of the Moscow Art Theater was decorated with Chekhov's seagull.
The writer’s next masterpieces “Uncle Vanya” (1897), “Three Sisters” (1900) and “The Cherry Orchard” (1903) were created specifically for the Moscow Art Theater.
Chekhov, with his works, renews realistic dramaturgy and lays the foundations of a “new drama.” Starting from the traditions of everyday drama, he puts it into a new style, trying to get as close to reality as possible: “Let everything in the theater be as complex and at the same time simple as in real life. People are having lunch, just having lunch, and at this hour their lives are taking shape and their happiness is being shattered.” In Chekhov's plays, external conflict is less significant than the internal experiences of the characters. In Chekhov’s Dramaturgy there is neither a traditional scheme for the development of action (commencement - peripeteia - denouement), nor a single, end-to-end conflict, nor the usual confrontation of characters: “There are no guilty people, therefore, there is no specific opponent, there is no and there cannot be a struggle” (A. Skaftymov ).
The main meaning of Chekhov's plays is formed in the so-called “undercurrent”. It is formed with the help of subtext, which is hidden in plot and thematic breaks, pauses, meaningful gestures, random remarks and speech intonation of characters, meaningful remarks, details, symbols.
The entire action is permeated with lyricism, the lyrical and dramatic, the comic and the tragic are fused together. Therefore, the question of the genre of Chekhov’s works remains controversial in literary criticism.
Chekhov's plays have received worldwide recognition. American playwright A. Miller wrote: “Chekhov’s influence on world drama has no equal.” It was under the impression of Chekhov's dramaturgy that B. Shaw created his play “Heartbreak House,” pointing out that it is “a Russian fantasy on an English theme.” Y. Kupala experienced a strong influence of Chekhov’s work, which was reflected in his drama “The Scattered Nest” (1913), where realistic content is combined with elements of symbolism.
The uniqueness of Chekhov's theater is that it lends itself to a variety of interpretations: from the emphatically psychological productions of K. Stanislavsky at the beginning of the twentieth century to the unexpected, “conventional” stage incarnations of G. Tovstonogov, M. Zakharov and other directors of our time.

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Features of Chekhov's dramaturgy

Introduction

Russian drama arose a very long time ago, and for a long time existed only in oral form. Only in the 17th century did the first written version appear - “The Prodigal Son” by Simeon of Polotsk. In a classical drama, the viewer already understood everything about the hero even before the action began, looking at the poster. They achieved this with the help of speaking names (Dikoy, the drama “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky). By the end of the nineteenth century, such drama was no longer interesting to the viewer. There was a search for something new. Moreover, the same thing happens in European literature: for example, “The Blue Bird” by Maeterlinck is also an absolutely non-classical work of dramatic nature. In our country, this search was personified by Chekhov.

In our study we will look at the innovation of Chekhov the playwright using the example of his play “The Cherry Orchard”.

The relevance of our research is due to the fact that now interest in theater and drama has increased, and the works of Anton Pavlovich occupy the first line on the posters of many theaters. To better understand the director's moves, you need to know what is specific about the composition and the image of the author's characters.

The object of the study is the play by A.P. Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard".

The main concepts of the work are stage directions, hero image, psychologism.

The main method of work is functional analysis

The main theoretical works used in the work:

· Yu.V. Domansky "Variability of Chekhov's dramaturgy"

· G.P. Berdnikov "Chekhov"

· A.A. Shcherbakova “Chekhov’s text in modern dramaturgy”

· A.P. Chudakov "Chekhov's Poetics"

Practical value is determined by the results of the research, which can be used in a humanitarian university when studying Russian literature of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, in theater universities when studying the features of Russian drama and for mastering acting techniques, in schools in literature lessons dedicated to the work of A.P. Chekhov.

General characteristics of Chekhov's dramaturgy

The main differences between Chekhov's drama and the works of the “pre-Chekhov” period. Event in Chekhov's drama

Chekhov's dramaturgy arose at a new historical turn. The end of the century is complex and contradictory. The emergence of new classes and social ideas excited all layers of society, breaking social and moral foundations.

Chekhov understood, felt and showed all this in his plays, and the fate of his theater, like the history of other great phenomena of world culture, once again confirmed the most important criterion for the viability of art: only those works remain for centuries and become a universal property in which the most accurate and its time is deeply reproduced, the spiritual world of the people of its generation, its people is revealed, and this does not imply newspaper factual accuracy, but penetration into the essence of reality and its embodiment in artistic images.

Today, the place of Chekhov the playwright in the history of Russian literature can be designated as follows: Chekhov ends the 19th century, sums it up, and at the same time opens the 20th century, becoming the founder of almost all the drama of the past century. As never before in the dramatic genre, in Chekhov's drama the author's position turned out to be explicit - explicated by means of the epic; whereas, on the other hand, in Chekhov's drama the author's position provided hitherto unprecedented freedom to the addressee, in whose consciousness the author built artistic reality. Chekhov's dramaturgy is aimed at the fact that the addressee will complete it, giving rise to his own statement. The completion of a Chekhov play by the addressee is connected both with the exploitation of generic specifics (the focus on co-authors when transcoding Chekhov's drama into a theatrical text), and with the specifics of Chekhov's plays themselves. The latter is especially important, because Chekhov’s drama, as many have already noted, does not seem to be intended for the theater. I.E. Gitovich, regarding the stage interpretations of “Three Sisters,” noted: “... when staging Chekhov today, the director, from the multi-layered content of the play, still chooses - consciously or intuitively - a story about something that turns out to be closer. But this is inevitably one of the stories, one of the interpretations. Other meanings embedded in the system of “statements” that form Chekhov’s text remain undisclosed, because it is impossible to reveal the system in the three or four hours that the performance is running.” This conclusion can be projected onto other “main” plays by Chekhov. And indeed, the theatrical practice of the past century has convincingly proven two things that, at first glance, contradict each other: Chekhov’s dramas cannot be staged in the theater, because any production turns out to be inferior to the paper text; Chekhov's dramas are numerous, actively and often successfully staged at the theatre. (Yu. Domansky, 2005: 3).

To better understand what was unique about Chekhov's drama, we need to turn to the concept of constructing dramatic works of an earlier period. The basis of the plot of a work of art in pre-Chekhov literature was a sequence of events.

What is an event in a work of art?

The world of the work is in a certain balance. This balance can be shown: at the very beginning of the work - as an extended exposition, background; in any other place; In general, it may not be given explicitly, in detail, but only implied. But the idea of what the balance of a given artistic world is is always given in one way or another.

An event is a certain act that disrupts this balance (for example, a love affair, a disappearance, the arrival of a new person, a murder), a situation about which one can say: before it it was like this, and after it it became different. It is the completion of the chain of actions of the characters who prepared it. At the same time, it is a fact that reveals what is essential in the character. The event is the center of the plot. For the literary tradition, the following plot scheme is common: preparation of the event - event - after the event (result).

Among the “Chekhov legends” is the statement about the eventlessness of his late prose. There is already a large literature on the topic of how “nothing happens” in Chekhov’s stories and stories. An indicator of the significance of an event is the significance of its result. The greater the difference between the period of life before it and the subsequent one, the more significant the event is felt. Most events in Chekhov's world have one peculiarity: they change nothing. This applies to events of various sizes.

In the third act of The Seagull, the following dialogue occurs between mother and son:

“Treplev. I’m more talented than all of you, for that matter! (Tears off the bandage from his head.) You, routinists, have seized primacy in art and consider only what you yourself do legitimate and real, and you oppress and stifle the rest! I don't recognize you!

Arkadina. Decadent!..

Treplev. Go to your dear theater and act there in pathetic, mediocre plays!

Arkadina. I have never played in such plays. Leave me alone! You can't even write a pathetic vaudeville. Kyiv tradesman! It took root!

Treplev. Miser!

Arkadina. Ragged!

Treplev sits down and quietly cries.

Arkadina. Nonentity!

Serious insults were inflicted on both sides. But what follows is a completely peaceful scene; A quarrel does not change anything in the relationships between the characters.

Everything remains the same as before after Uncle Vanya’s shot (“Uncle Vanya”):

“Voinitsky. You will carefully receive the same thing you received before. Everything will be as before."

The last scene shows the life that existed before the professor’s arrival and which is ready to continue again, although the ringing of the departed bells has not yet died down.

“Voinitsky (writes) “On February 2, 20 pounds of lean butter... On February 16, again 20 pounds of lean butter... Buckwheat...”

Pause. Bells are heard.

Marina. Left.

Pause.

Sonya (returns, puts a candle on the table). He left.

Voinitsky (counted on the abacus and wrote down). Total... fifteen... twenty-five...

Sonya sits down and writes.

Marina (yawns). Oh, our sins...

Telegin plays quietly; Maria Vasilievna writes in the margins of the brochure; Marina is knitting a stocking."

Chekhov's drama The Cherry Orchard

The original situation returns, balance is restored.

According to the laws of the pre-Chekhov literary tradition, the size of the event is adequate to the size of the result. The larger the event, the more significant the expected result, and vice versa.

For Chekhov, as we see, the result is zero. But if this is so, then the event itself is, as it were, equal to zero, that is, it seems that the event did not happen at all. It is this reader’s impression that is one of the sources of the legend, supported by many, about the eventlessness of Chekhov’s stories. The second source is in the style, in the form of organization of the material.

In Chekhov's plots, of course, there are not only ineffective events. As in other artistic systems, in Chekhov’s world there are events that move the plot and are significant for the fate of the heroes and the work as a whole. But there is some difference in their plot design.

In the pre-Chekhov tradition, the productive event is highlighted compositionally. In Turgenev’s “Andrei Kolosov,” the plot of the entire story is the evening on which Kolosov came to the narrator. The significance of this event in the narrative is foreshadowed:

"One unforgettable evening..."

Turgenev’s preparations are often given in even more detailed and specific terms; it sets out a program of future events: “How suddenly an event took place that scattered, like light road dust, all those assumptions and plans” (“Smoke”, Chapter VII).

For Tolstoy, preparations of a different kind are common - emphasizing the philosophical, moral meaning of the upcoming event.

“His illness took its own physical course, but what Natasha called: this happened to him happened to him two days before the arrival of Princess Marya. This was the last moral struggle between life and death, in which death won” (vol. IV, part I, chapter XVI).

Chekhov has nothing similar. The event is not prepared; It does not stand out either compositionally or by other stylistic means. There is no sign on the reader’s path: “Attention: event!”.. Meetings, the beginnings of all events occur as if unintentionally, by themselves, “somehow”; The decisive episodes are presented in a fundamentally unimportant manner.

Tragic events are not highlighted and placed on a par with everyday episodes. Death is not prepared and explained philosophically, as in Tolstoy. Suicide and murder do not take a long time to prepare. Svidrigailov and Raskolnikov are impossible in Chekhov. His suicide commits suicide “completely unexpectedly for everyone” - “at the samovar, having laid out snacks on the table.” In most cases, the most important thing - the message about the disaster - is not even syntactically distinguished from the flow of ordinary everyday episodes and details. It does not constitute a separate sentence, but is attached to others and is part of a complex one (Chudakov, 1971:98).

A plot signal warning that the upcoming event will be important is allowed by Chekhov’s artistic system only in stories from

1st person. The introduction of events in the pre-Chekhov literary tradition is infinitely varied. But in this countless variety there is a common feature. The place of the event in the plot corresponds to its role in the plot. An insignificant episode is pushed to the periphery of the plot; An event important for the development of the action and the characters’ characters is brought forward and emphasized (we repeat, the methods are different: compositional, verbal, melodic, metric). If the event is significant, then it is not hidden. Events are the highest points on the level field of a work. Up close (for example, at chapter scale), even small hills are visible; from a distance (viewed from the position of the whole) - only the highest peaks. But the feeling of the event as a different quality of material always remains.

Chekhov is different. Everything has been done to smooth out these peaks so that they are not visible from any distance (Chudakov, 1971:111)

The very impression of eventfulness, that something significant is happening, important for the whole, is extinguished at all stages of the event.

It is extinguished at the beginning. In empirical reality, in history, a major event is preceded by a chain of causes, a complex interaction of forces. But the immediate beginning of an event is always a rather random episode. Historians distinguish these as causes and occasions. An artistic model that takes this law into account will apparently look closest to empirical existence - after all, it creates the impression not of a special, open selection of events, but of their unintentional, natural flow. This is exactly what happens in Chekhov with his “accidental” introductions of all the most important incidents.

The impression of the importance of the event is obscured in the middle, in the process of its development. It is extinguished by “extra” details and episodes that break the straight line of the event, inhibiting its striving for resolution.

The impression is extinguished in the outcome of the event - by the lack of emphasis on its outcome, by the imperceptible transition to what follows, by syntactic fusion with everything that follows.

As a result, the event appears inconspicuous against the general narrative background; it fits flush with the surrounding episodes.

But the fact of the material is not placed in the center of attention, but, on the contrary, equalized by the plot with other facts - and is felt as equal to them in scale (Chudakov, 1971:114).

The author's position in Chekhov's plays does not manifest itself openly and clearly; it is embedded in the depths of the plays and is derived from their general content. Chekhov said that an artist must be objective in his work: “The more objective, the stronger the impression.” The words spoken by Chekhov in connection with the play “Ivanov” also apply to his other plays: “I wanted to be original,” Chekhov wrote to his brother, “I didn’t bring out a single villain, not a single angel (although I couldn’t refrain from making jokes), I didn’t accused, acquitted no one" (Skaftymov 1972: 425).

In Chekhov's plays the role of intrigue and action is weakened. Chekhov’s plot tension was replaced by psychological, emotional tension, expressed in “random” remarks, broken dialogues, pauses (the famous Chekhov pauses, during which the characters seem to listen to something more important than what they are experiencing in this moment). All this creates a psychological subtext, which is the most important component of Chekhov’s performance.

The beginning of A.P. Chekhov's creative career was marked by comedies and satirical stories.

He showed himself as a playwright much later, touching on serious vital and topical issues in his works.

In 1896, Chekhov wrote his first drama, “The Seagull,” which they tried to stage at the Alexandrinsky Theater a year later, but was unsuccessful.

The writer's next works were the play "Uncle Vanya", written in 1897. Then, in 1990, he wrote “Three Sisters,” and the play “The Cherry Orchard,” written in 1903, became the pinnacle of his creativity. Anton Pavlovich created these plays specifically for the Moscow Art Theater.

Chekhov's dramas are distinguished by the absence of the usual plot development pattern: beginning - re-drinking - conclusion. He shows the ordinary everyday life of the heroes, trying to bring it closer to reality.

The main attention in the play is focused on the characters and internal experiences of the characters, and not on the events taking place. At the same time, heroes are not divided into positive and negative.

Despite the fact that the heroes talk a lot, they do not hear each other. In this way the author tried to show the disunity of people. Words have no meaning if people do not try to understand each other.

In plays, many characters are off stage, invisible to the viewer. But, despite this, the viewer understands perfectly well what happened and how it affected the further development of events.

In his works, Anton Pavlovich raised basic moral issues that concern many people: love and happiness, patriotism, a sense of duty, fate. Is it possible to maintain faith after going through many trials? What should a creative person be like? What is more important to him: serving art or satisfying his own ambition?

The plays do not have a complete ending. Viewers can only guess how the characters' lives turned out. Chekhov simply showed ordinary life, without embellishment, giving everyone the opportunity to make their own choice.

The works of A.P. Chekhov had a great influence on world drama. Theaters in China, Korea, and Japan stage his plays on their stages.

The issues raised by Chekhov in his dramas are relevant to the present day. The moral development of mankind and assistance in finding the meaning of life are the main goals that the writer tried to achieve in his works.

Option 2

Chekhov turned to dramaturgy when he was already a famous and beloved writer. The public expected comedies from him, similar to his satirical stories. But instead she received serious dramas that raised burning questions.

The first production of “The Seagull” at the Alexandrovsky Theater failed. Excellent actors played in the play. But they played a traditional piece. They sought to discover the conflict, play out the plot, intrigue. There was none of this in “The Seagull”.

I took a fresh look at Chekhov’s drama “Moscow Art Theater”, led by K.S. Stanislavsky and V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko. The absolute success of “The Seagull” marked the beginning of the triumphant procession of Chekhov’s plays across the stages of Russian theaters.

The plot of “The Seagull” is based on the story of a provincial young man who dreams of directing. The main character's mother does not believe in his talent. He offers the girl Nina, with whom he is in love, to play the main character in his play. Nina makes a choice in favor of her lover Trigorin and runs away with him. But this does not bring her happiness. She loses her child, is left alone, works in second-rate theaters. However, Nina did not lose faith in humanity. She believes that all adversities can be overcome.

In his subsequent plays, the author raises questions of fate and faith in humanity even more acutely. In 1897, Chekhov wrote the play “Uncle Vanya”. In it, the main character makes an idol out of his relative, Professor Serebryakov. But after the professor comes to stay, the main character realizes how much he was mistaken about this man. Voinitsky can be described as an idealist, divorced from reality.

In “Three Sisters” Chekhov reveals the theme of happiness, in anticipation of which the main characters live. The bourgeois life does not suit and does not interest the sisters. They live with thoughts about a bright future and hopes. But time passes, and nothing happens, nothing changes. There have been many conflicting opinions about this play. Some saw in it the apogee of Chekhov's pessimism, others saw hope for a happier life.

The play “The Cherry Orchard” can be considered the pinnacle of the writer’s creativity. In it, Chekhov depicts the life and position of Russian noble society. The cherry orchard itself is a symbol of this society, which has outlived its usefulness and reaches out to the entire past. The family is at the center of the action, but there is nothing that unites them. Each character in the play speaks, but does not hear the interlocutor. The drama of human loneliness unfolds before the viewer.

Features of dramaturgy

What innovative techniques does Chekhov use in his dramas?

a thing, an object, a detail creates the main motives in the play;
detailing is aimed at revealing the character and inner world of the hero;
appeal to subtext, or “undercurrent”. This is a discrepancy between the external text and the hero’s internal monologue;
a lot of the action happens behind the scenes. The viewer does not see it, but understands that it happened and influenced the further course of events;
there is no division into positive and negative heroes;
open ending. There is no absolute completeness on stage, just as there is none in life itself. The viewer can only guess what happened to the characters.
revealing the eternal themes of happiness, duty, fate, patriotism through the psychologism of the heroes, dialogues, randomly thrown phrases, manner of speaking and dressing.

Chekhov's influence on world drama was enormous. Since the 50s, his plays have been staged on theater stages in China, Korea, and Japan. T. Williams and S. Maugham wrote about the influence of Chekhov’s work on American and English drama. The author’s great plays have been around for more than a century, raising questions that are of great relevance to this day.

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Look around! We are surrounded by a beautiful world in which many beautiful plants grow: sunflowers, tulip lilies, plantain, dandelion. Every season is beautiful and attractive thanks to plants and trees

The path of our people has been very long. Folklore has accumulated in the history of our people. It is he who differs from all types of creativity in his diversity and rich heritage

Many Russian classics had the unique ability to combine several professions and be able to correctly transform their knowledge into a literary work. Thus, Alexander Griboedov was a famous diplomat, Nikolai Chernyshevsky was a teacher, and Leo Tolstoy wore a military uniform and had an officer rank. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov studied medicine for a long time and, already from his student days, was completely immersed in the medical profession. It is not known that the world lost a brilliant doctor, but it certainly gained an outstanding prose writer and playwright, who left his indelible mark on the body of world literature.

Chekhov's first theatrical attempts were perceived quite critically by his contemporaries. Venerable playwrights believed that everything was due to Anton Pavlovich’s banal inability to follow the “dramatic movement” of the play. His works were called “extended”, they lacked action, there was little “stage”. The peculiarity of his dramaturgy was his love for detail, which was not at all characteristic of theatrical dramaturgy, which was primarily aimed at action and description of twists and turns. Chekhov believed that people, in reality, do not shoot themselves all the time, but demonstrate heartfelt ardor and participate in bloody battles. For the most part, they go on visits, talk about nature, drink tea, and philosophical sayings do not shoot out from the first officer they come across or the dishwasher who accidentally catches their eye. On the stage, real life should light up and captivate the viewer, as simple and complex at the same time. People calmly eat their lunch, and at the same time their fate is being decided, history is moving at a measured pace, or their cherished hopes are being destroyed.

Many describe Chekhov’s method of work as “petty symbolic naturalism.” This definition speaks of his love for increased detail; we will look at this feature a little later. Another feature of the new drama “in Chekhov’s style” is the deliberate use of “random” remarks from the characters. When a character is distracted by some trifle or remembers an old joke. In such a situation, the dialogue is interrupted and meanders into some absurd little details, like a hare's trail in a thicket. This technique, so disliked by Chekhov’s contemporaries, in a stage context determines the mood that the author currently wants to convey through a given character.

Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko noticed an innovative pattern in the development of theatrical conflict, calling it an “undercurrent.” Thanks to their in-depth analysis, the modern viewer was able to correctly interpret many of the details that the author introduced into his works. Behind the unsightly things lies the inner intimate lyrical flow of all the characters in the play.

Artistic Features

One of the most obvious artistic features of Chekhov's plays is their detail. It allows you to completely immerse yourself in the character and life of all the characters in the story. Gaev, one of the central characters in the play “The Cherry Orchard,” is obsessed with children's delicacies. He says he spent his entire fortune on candy.

In the same work we can see the next artistic feature inherent in works in the genre of classicism - symbols. The main character of the work is the cherry orchard itself; many critics argue that this is the image of Russia, which is mourned by wasteful people like Ranevskaya and cut down at the root by the determined Lopakhins. Symbolism is used throughout the play: semantic “speech” symbolism in the dialogues of the characters, like Gaev’s monologue with the wardrobe, the appearance of the characters, the actions of people, their manners of behavior, also becomes one big symbol of the picture.

In the play "Three Sisters" Chekhov uses one of his favorite artistic techniques - "conversation of the deaf." There are actually deaf characters in the play, such as the watchman Ferapont, but the classic laid down a special idea in this, which Berkovsky will describe in the future as “a simplified physical model of conversation with those who have a different type of deafness.” You can also notice that almost all of Chekhov's characters speak in monologues. This type of interaction allows each character to properly reveal themselves to the viewer. When one hero pronounces his final phrase, it becomes a kind of signal for the next monologue of his opponent.

In the play “The Seagull” you can notice the following Chekhovian technique, which the author deliberately used when creating the work. This is a relationship to time within history. The action in The Seagull is often repetitive, with scenes slowing down and stretching out. Thus, a special, exceptional rhythm of the work is created. As for the past tense, and the play is an action here and now, the playwright brings it to the fore. Now time is in the role of judge, which gives it a special dramatic meaning. The heroes constantly dream, think about the coming day, thereby they are permanently in a mystical relationship with the laws of time.

Innovation of Chekhov's dramaturgy

Chekhov became a pioneer of modernist theater, for which he was often criticized by colleagues and reviewers. Firstly, he “broke” the basis of dramatic foundations - conflict. People live in his plays. The characters on stage “play out” their segment of “life”, which was prescribed by the author, without making a “theatrical performance” out of their life.

The era of “pre-Chekhov” drama was tied to action, to the conflict between the characters; there was always white and black, cold and hot, on which the plot was based. Chekhov abolished this law, allowing the characters to live and develop on the stage in everyday conditions, without forcing them to endlessly confess their love, tear off their last shirt and throw a glove in the face of their opponent at the end of each act.

In the tragicomedy "Uncle Vanya" we see that the author can afford to reject the intensity of passions and storms of emotions expressed in endless dramatic scenes. In his works there are many unfinished actions, and the most delicious actions of the heroes are performed “behind the scenes”. Such a solution was impossible before Chekhov’s innovation, otherwise the whole plot would simply lose its meaning.

By the very structure of his works, the writer wants to show the instability of the world as a whole, and even more so the world of stereotypes. Creativity in itself is a revolution, the creation of absolute novelty, which without human talent would not exist in the world. Chekhov does not even seek compromises with the existing system of organizing theatrical performances; he does his best to demonstrate its unnaturalness and deliberate artificiality, which destroy even a hint of artistic truth sought by the viewer and reader.

Originality

Chekhov always exposed to everyone the complexity of ordinary life phenomena, which was reflected in the open and ambiguous endings of his tragicomedies. There is no point on stage, as in life. For example, we can only guess what happened to the cherry orchard. A new house with a happy family was erected in its place, or it remained a wasteland that no one needs anymore. We remain in the dark, are the heroines of “Three Sisters” happy? When we parted with them, Masha was immersed in dreams, Irina left her father’s house alone, and Olga stoically notes that “... our suffering will turn into joy for those who will live after us, happiness and peace will come on earth, and they will remember with a kind word and bless those who live now.”

Chekhov's works of the early 20th century speak eloquently about the inevitability of revolution. For him and his heroes, this is a way of renewal. He perceives changes as something bright and joyful that will lead his descendants to a long-awaited happy life full of creative work. His plays give rise to a thirst for moral transformation in the heart of the viewer and educate him as a conscious and active person, capable of changing for the better not only himself, but also other people.

The writer manages to capture eternal themes within his theatrical world that permeate the lives of the main characters. The theme of civic duty, the fate of the fatherland, true happiness, a real person - the heroes of Chekhov’s works live with all this. The author shows the themes of internal torment through the hero’s psychologism, his manner of speech, interior and clothing details, and dialogues.

The role of Chekhov in world drama

Unconditional! This is the first thing I want to say about the role of Chekhov in world drama. He was often criticized by his contemporaries, but “time,” which he appointed as a “judge” within his works, put everything in its place.

Joyce Oates (an outstanding writer from the USA) believes that Chekhov's peculiarity is expressed in his desire to destroy the conventions of language and theater itself. She also drew attention to the author’s ability to notice everything inexplicable and paradoxical. Therefore, it is easy to explain the influence of the Russian playwright on Ionesco, the founder of the aesthetic movement of the absurd. A recognized classic of the 20th century theatrical avant-garde, Eugene Ionesco read the plays of Anton Pavlovich and was inspired by his works. It is he who will bring this love for paradoxes and linguistic experiments to the peak of artistic expressiveness, and develop an entire genre on its basis.

According to Oates, from his works Ionesco took that special “broken” manner of the characters’ remarks. “Demonstration of the impotence of will” in Chekhov’s theater gives grounds to consider it “absurdist”. The author shows and proves to the world not the eternal battles of feeling and reason with varying success, but the eternal and invincible absurdity of existence, with which his heroes fight unsuccessfully, losing and grieving.

American playwright John Priestley characterizes Chekhov's creative style as an “inversion” of the usual theatrical canons. It's like reading a playbook and doing the exact opposite.

Many books have been written all over the world about Chekhov’s creative discoveries and his biography in general. Oxford professor Ronald Hingley in his monograph “Chekhov. Critical-biographical essay" believes that Anton Pavlovich has a real gift of "escapism." He sees in him a person who combines disarming frankness and notes of “slight slyness.”

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