The Image of the Garden in A. P. Chekhov’s Play The Cherry Orchard

The aim of the study is to clarify the functions of the garden image in A. P. Chekhov’s play The Cherry Orchard as a dynamic meaning-bearing structure. The main body of the work consists in an analysis of the garden image carried out on three levels: figurative-verbal, spatial, and dramaturgical. The scholarly novelty lies in the fact that this image is considered as a dynamic meaning-bearing structure unfolding under conditions of the scenic de-visualization of the object. It is established that the garden cannot be reduced either to a landscape decoration or to an unambiguous symbol of the decline of the gentry estate: for Ranevskaya and Gaev it is connected with the motif of memory, for Lopakhin it becomes a sign of economic independence, and for Trofimov it acquires an ethical dimension. The study shows that the key idea of the play is the thought of the change of cultural epochs. The garden acts as the meaning-bearing centre of the work, linking the motifs of nostalgia, guilt, material superiority, historical rupture, and hope for the future.