After reading Act II of The Cherry Orchard, I grew suspicious of Chekhov's comment regarding plays. I wrote an analytic essay on the metafictional techniques Twain employs to mock his readers. Chekhov, I believe, does not stray far from this apparently common act.
Lyubov Andreyevna criticizes the play Lopakhin saw at the theater, explaining how "there was probably nothing funny about it. Instead of going to see plays you ought to look at yourselves a little more often. How drab your lives are, how full of futile talk" (343)! Here, Chekhov directly mocks his audience. He even implies a lack of humor in his so-called comedy. Either we chose two very different texts which both coincidentally insult the reader in some way, or authors' actions as these characterize the literature of the time. Mark Twain lived between 1835 and 1910, while Chekhov's life spanned from 1860 to 1904.
I do not know if I should be happy I uncover these insults, or baffled at why I shrug them off and continue reading such ridiculing texts. I still expect to stumble upon what would define this play as a comedy, for, up until this point, I have not started to laugh.
Curiously, Chekhov alludes to Shakespeare with what appears to be a common citation, now nearing the status of cliché, along with the "to be or not to be" line: Lopakin mocks Varya's conservative beliefs by telling her, "Aurelia, get thee to a nunnery..." (349). Twain cites the same text in the Duke's recreation of Hamlet's speech. They both employ it in their comedies as a mechanism to mock womens' idea of marriage and chastity.
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