The Cherry Orchard

Act I (pages 20 - 23)

Lopakhin leaves the company of all assembled in order to attend an urgent business. It appears that he
is the only one who has a purpose and plan for what needs to be done – for himself as well as for all the
others.

Everybody else, especially Ranevskaya and Gaev , and Pishchik seem to either live in the past or envisage
a future where things would be in perfect harmony, failing to accept reality and live and change
accordingly. --- this is the modern predicament, one of the many aspects of modernisms seen in the play
– the protagonists deliberate running away from reality.

Pishchik – another landowner - is introduced to the audience as someone who is constantly borrowing
money , falsely hoping that he would return the borrowed money soon.