year 02; sem 01; literature entry week 09
Tragedy VS Comedy
The cherry orchard
Anton Chekhov
Written in satire to make social criticisms, Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard is questionably a tragedy. Apparently Chekhov was angry that this was titled a tragic play and I understand why. When you title it as a tragedy, audiences tend to focus on that aspect paying less attention to Chekhov’s satire and criticism on society. I myself see it as a comedy, but I also see where the tragedy lies. In the play, there was a line that stuck to me in relation to this debate:
“To weep with joy”
This quote just reminded me of... You may think I’m very strange... but let’s hope not because I know this has happened to you too. There are moments in your life where something horrible has happened or you just found out about some bad news or you hurt yourself or someone hurt you... and all you can do I laugh when you want to cry. And so you get those moments when you are upset and you start crying but you’re laughing at the same time. DON’T DENY IT!! I KNOW THIS HAPPENS TO YOU TOO!! I’M NOT CRAZY! Some part of aches in emotional or physical pain that you are so overwhelmed that you cry. And for some unknown reason we laugh and it is just an outburst. Which emotion do you follow? Well it doesn’t really matter because you can’t follow the emotion for both just completely take over you. And I don’t know why... but whenever these moments happen to me, I feel liberated in a way. Something about it just makes me feel better in the end of my episode. Maybe it’s that fact that you’re releasing all these emotions. Who knows! All I know is that at the end of it laugh at myself for being so ridiculous and laughing and crying at the same time. Well anyway, this quote reminded me of those times. It really is an odd moment to encounter, to weep with joy.
Marie.