The Cherry Orchard Character Analysis

Madame Lyubof Andreyevna Ranevsky

In many ways the play’s main protagonist, Madame Ranevsky, is the head of her family’s estate—although she has, over the last five years, led them and the property into financial ruin. A spendthrift with a… read analysis of Madame Lyubof Andreyevna Ranevsky

Yermolai Alexeyitch Lopakhin

A middle-class neighbor of Madame Ranevsky, Lopakhin is the child of peasants who has recently made his way in the world and acquired quite a bit of wealth. When Lopakhin was a boy, Madame Ranevsky… read analysis of Yermolai Alexeyitch Lopakhin

Anya

Madame Ranevsky’s youngest daughter, Anya, is seventeen years old and, like many of Chekhov’s young ingénue characters, a dreamer. She feels that happiness is just on the horizon, despite the intense financial and social… read analysis of Anya

Barbara

Ranevsky’s eldest daughter, Barbara, has been in charge of keeping house during the five years Ranevsky has been in Paris. Barbara is staunch, stoic, and no-nonsense; she is eternally waiting on a proposal from… read analysis of Barbara

Leonid Andreyitch Gayef

Ranevsky’s brother is a gregarious, sentimental man who talks too much. Always gossiping about somebody or waxing poetic about a feeling, a phrase, or even a piece of furniture, Gayef largely functions as comic… read analysis of Leonid Andreyitch Gayef

Peter Trophimof

Trophimof is the “perpetual student” who once worked as a tutor to Madame Ranevsky’s youngest child, Grisha, before the boy passed away suddenly at the age of seven just a little over five years… read analysis of Peter Trophimof

Firs Nikolayevitch

Firs is the extremely elderly butler whose staunch allegiance to Ranevsky and Gayef—and lamentation of the fact that serfs were ever liberated from their landowning masters—represents the inability of the eldest members of the… read analysis of Firs Nikolayevitch

Charlotte Ivanovna

Anya’s governess Charlotte is a quirky woman of few words. She carries a gun and performs parlor tricks such as card tricks, ventriloquism, and illusions; despite her ability to brighten a room, though, Charlotte… read analysis of Charlotte Ivanovna

Minor Characters

Dunyasha

A servant-girl who longs to take on the affectations of a real lady. She is desperately in love with Yasha, despite his cruelty, and constantly dodges Epkhihodof’s awkward affections for her.

Simeon Panteleyitch Ephikhodof

The family’s clerk. A bumbling, incoherent, miserable young man who has earned for himself the nickname “Twenty-two misfortunes” due to his frequent stumblings and bad luck.

Simeonof Pishtchik

One of Madame Ranevsky’s friends and neighbors, Pishtchik is a large, older man who, like Ranevsky, is perpetually in debt. Unlike Ranevsky, though, Pishtchik is almost always able to miraculously secure funds at the very last minute.

Yasha

Madame Ranevsky’s new manservant. A Russian who hates Russia, Yasha is “cultured”—but he is also cruel, calculating, opportunistic, and dismissive of anyone of his own class.