Of all of the characters in this play, Madame Ranevsky is among those with no capacity to adapt to a changing society. Her behavior is irrational, and that characteristic is both her most charismatic quality and her most serious weakness. One moment she cries in panic and despair about how to pay her mortgage, yet the next moment she gives her neighbor a healthy loan to pay his own. Throughout the play, her debts are a symbol of her personality she is an excessive woman who does whatever her emotions incline her to do, regardless of consequences, financial or otherwise. Madame Ranevsky has accumulated many debts upon her arrival in Russia, and cannot pay the mortgage on her estate. She is returning to Russia after leaving him. Madame Ranevsky took a lover in Paris, and abusive man who robbed her and took another mistress. Grisha died approximately five years before Act I. Grisha drowned shortly after his father's death, causing Madame Ranevsky to flee in despair. She had three children with him before his death: Barbara, Anya, and Grisha. She comes from an aristocratic family, but she married beneath her, and her husband was an alcoholic. She is the owner of the cherry orchard estate, and she is a woman with a complicated history. Madame Ranevsky is one of the leading characters in the play.
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