Dunyasha's Conduct

I read Act II but the long Russian names and quick jumping from person to person dialogues and the incoherence in some responses confused me. So, I saw the play. I realized then I had been making the mistake of reading the play as a novel and forgotten the fact that it should not be read but watched. It’s meant to sense the character’s personality, to hear their tone, to interpret their facial expressions and to feel the drama that is going on. And I understood.

Dunyasha triggers me, she is a maid, comes from a peasant family, and has served Madame Ranevesky since she was little because her family was servants too, but, she seems to be part of the higher class. Dunyasha’s role is key to the theme Chekhov plots of social classes. Yet, it confuses me. The play starts out with a dialogue between her and Lopahin. Watching this dialogue on YouTube it seemed to me that Lopahin, a merchant, felt attracted to Dunyasha. He had a peasant origin like hers but unlike her, he owns wealth now as a merchant. And then Epihodov, more so like Dynuyasha, in terms of money, proposes to her, but it does not appeal to her. In Act II a character is introduced in to us in the emotional life: Yasha. Yasha is a valet, according to the book, but watching the play he seems more like a high class man, well-dresses, smoking cigars, and even disrespectful and arrogant in front of the higher class people. Dunyasha loves this man, his overconfidence attracts her. “I’m passionately in love with you, Yasha; you are a man of culture- you can give your opinion about anything.” He then brags about the validity of his opinion and diminishes her for “loving anyone”, and pushes her away when he hears others approaching. So, why would Dunyasha like this guy? Is it because she is used at being degraded? Although Yasha is her same social class, he behaves contrary to it, making her fall for him. Poor Epihodov who sings to her but she finds him ridiculous, and so does Yasha, who is too of a “cultured” man to like Epihodov.

Social classes implicate a feeling of superiority or inferiority. Duyasha is caught between the two feelings, “I have quiet grown out of peasant ways, and, my hands are white, as white as a lady’s.” She knows her status but feels differently. Yasha on the other hand, feels differently to his status and believes himself from a higher one. Ironically he tells Dunyasha “Of course a girl must never forget herself; what I dislike more than anything in a girl being flighty in her behavior.” (pg.83)That is exactly what his behavior is like. Epihodov acts accordingly and has no rush to be superior. There is a desirability to be from a higher class and rejection to lower the status, we can see that throughout the play. Dunyasha’s conduct portrays this class belonging ambiguity the Russians are going through at the time.