 Chekov s characters, like all those created by great artists, live in an eternal, timeless dimension: but this "timelessness" in Chekov is particularly outstanding. The characters of The Cherry Orchard are exemplary: a woman in the decline of middle age, who has "lived and loved intensely", a self-made entrepreneur, a squandering brother, two turbulent daughters, an old man servant... These characters are representative of Russian society of the time but also of our own contemporary European society. The man with the money will inevitably buy out and divide up the protagonist s old estate, the woman will resume her anxious escapism, the young will survive, the dead will bury their dead.