ABSTRACT
The second act forms a quiet interlude before the storm finally breaks over the heads of the owners of the cherry orchard and the Gayev estate. Its approach is sensed by Lyubov who is haunted by the fear that something awful is going to happen, just as though, she tells Lopakhin at the beginning of the act, 'their house was going to collapse on top of them'. The only change that has taken place during the intervening weeks among the servants is that Dunyasha, who had been so excited by Yepikhodov’s proposal of marriage, has fallen in love with Yasha. Charlotta, modelled by Anton Chekhov on an English governess he had met at the country house of some friends and taken a liking to, finding her ‘a very jolly girl’, is the first to speak. While mending the strap of her shotgun, she gives a brief sketch of her life.
