what people are made of all around me. One has only to begin to do anything to see how few honest, decent people there are,ö (Chekhov 1963, 89).
Madame RanevskyÆs need for money makes her unable to prevent the selling of the cherry orchard. Because of her heritage and past high lifestyle, Madame Ranevsky is emotionally-based and proceeds to do or say just about anything she chooses to. Her background and her familyÆs name and wealth have enabled her to get away with such behavior without having to pay any consequences for it. She is not in the situation any longer, but she cannot come to terms with the fact that a serf such as Lopakhin should be so successful while she is now threatened with losing her estate. Like many southern plantation owners who lost everything in the Civil War, Madame Ranevsky is incapable of dealing with new realities. She cannot adjust to a changing society in which serfs or nobles have access to success and are considered equal. Even once she sells the cherry orchard Madame Ranevsky cannot admit change. Instead, she continues to same extravagant ways that forced her to sell the estate, like hiring expensive servants and seeking out her lover despite his former abuse of her. Like Lopakhin remains obsessed with business to the point where he undermines his own humanity, Madame RanevskyÆs refusal to adapt to change and modify her behavior makes her sacrifice all that is valuable to her. As she says upon leaving the estate, ôOne last look at the walls, at the windows. My dear mother loved to walk around this room,ö (Chekhov 1963, 117).
The main characters in MarlowÆs Heart of Darkness are the protagonist and narrator Marlow; the successful manager of an ivory production facility in the Congo, Kurtz; MarlowÆs supervisor, Manager;
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