Reading “ Changes “ in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Ozamu Dazai’s The Setting Sun

Obviously, in writing “The Setting Sun”, Osamu Dazai ( 1909–1948 ), a Japanese writer, must be influenced by “The Cherry Orchard” , a Russian play by Anton Chekhov ( 1860–1904 ). Chekhov wrote his most beloved play before the great Russian Revolution in 1917 whereas Dazai created “The Setting Sun” after World War II, many years after that watershed event.
A Literature major, Dazai must have known, read and loved this beautiful play by Chekhov like millions around the world. Still one wonders how on earth products of totally different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds like these two could ever find a common ground. ‘ Changes’ must be the answer. “The Cherry Orchard”, a symbol of the then changing Russia, according to Chekhov, must have left a profound impact on Osamu Dazai as a writer. In this play, Chekhov simultaneously celebrates a new Russia, a Utopia where all Russians would have equal chances to a better life and yet at the same time he mourns the beauty of old Russia symbolized by the blossoming white cherry orchard.

The feudal Russia of bygone era was falling apart against the advent of the new mercantile class. Only a master like Chekhov could capture this historical transition with empathy, humanity and with great beauty. As he claims his art is a “a slice of life”, Chekhov shows us life exactly as it is. He portrays the events that unfold objectively, yet melancholically in front of us. Life as it changes, time as it passes. Somehow we witness with humility and acceptance the tragic fate that his characters go through.

Written many years after “The Cherry Orchard”, Dazai’s “The Setting Sun” also conveys Japan in her transitional period when Aristocracy gave way to the crasser, yet more practical and more adaptable class. He aptly entitles his novel “The Setting Sun” which succinctly symbolizes the crumbling Aristocrat class in Japan. The novel portrays the struggle of one Aristocrat family as seen through three major characters of the novel : Mother representing Japanese nobility of the old era, Kazugo, the eldest daughter who is torn between old traditional and new Japanese values, finally Naoji, the rebellious youngest son who desperately wants to shed the nobility that clings to him like shadow and hopelessly tries in vain to adapt himself to the crassness of the new rising materialist class. In the last analysis, Dazai seems to create Kazugo, not only in the role of the new woman, but as a representative of the new Japan. This point will be discussed in details later on in the last part of the article.
As said, while the shadow of the Russian Revolution looms over the background of “The Cherry Orchard”, the second World War in which Japan lost to the West serves as a backdrop to “The Settting Sun”. It is almost impossible to overlook the mood of nostalgia and yearning for the beautiful old past in the former work, whereas it is rather shame and guilt that seems to shroud the latter one. Changes and the passing of time are definitely central to both works. Like all great literature, “The Cherry Orchard” and “The Setting Sun” help us understand the truth of life. One can never hold onto the past, however great or beautiful. What one can and must do is to live in the present, however bleak or ugly. Acceptance is the best one can do.
Aside from the common theme of changes, “The Cherry Orchard” and “The Setting Sun” help us appreciate the beauty of life, the wonder of our physical world. Chekhov’s white cherry orchard, useless as it is, takes our breath away. Like its owner, the leisured feudal class who do not understand a thing about money, the cherry orchard is useless and unprofitable. Just like art, its value is aesthetic not utilitarian. But what’s the use of beauty in the age of money. Look at the character of Lopakhin, a son of the old serf of the cherry orchard. He represents a rising, self-made mercantile class. He is now very wealthy, yet still clumsily and tastelessly attired. He is always seen in a hurry, in a hurry since time is money for him. Gleefully winning the cherry orchard auction, hence owning the place where his ancestors once served, he is, however, not an evil man. Again Chekhov’s greatness as a writer lies in his objective portrayal of “a slice of life” unravelling before him. Empathy, not judgement, is what he gives to his characters. No moral tone is found. This is the way things are. Such is life.
In “The Setting Sun” despite the adversity that the three members of the former noble family go through, their new unfamiliar world does not seem to be completely hostile to them. While Ranaevskaya takes in the delicate beauty of the white cherry blossoms, Kazugo and her mother watch fragrant plum petals falling slowly into the tea cups that they are sipping in the dusk. Both writers seem to reassure us that our world is just beautiful as it is. It’s humans who tarnish it, not the other way around. It is the human mind that causes its own misery.
If what has been detailed so far does not sufficiently prove the affinity between Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” and Osamu Dazai’s “The Setting Sun”. The name of Lopakhin, a character in “The Cherry Orchard” that Kazugo mentions in a conversation with her suitor testifies quite clearly the influence of its Russian counterpart in Dazai’s novel. Most importantly, Kazugo ( the protagonist of the novel, undoubtedly ) calls Uehara Jiro, her lover ‘M.C.’ Kazugo earlier explains that she calls Uehara ‘M.C.’ because it is the abbreviation of My Chekhov. Kazugo wants to tell him that he is her Chekhov, that Russian writer. In her next letter to him, she again calls him ‘M.C.’, but this time she explains that ‘M.C.’ stands for My Child because she wants to bear his child. In her last letter to him, she still insists on calling him ‘M.C.’, but now ‘M.C.’ changes into My Comedian. The last ‘M.C.’, in other words, My Comedian is the key that Dazai uses to transfer the Chekhovian theme to his novel.
Chekhov calls his play, ‘A Comedy in 4 Acts’. Before “The Cherry Orchard” is put into stage, Stanislavsky, the then director of the famous Moskow Art Theatre argues with Chekhov whether the play should be called Tragedy due to its melancholic mood rather than comedy. Chekhov persists his play is a comedy, not a tragedy. In a nutshell, life is a comedy for those who can thrive, laugh and love despite its misery and sorrowfulness. That is Chekhov’s message. Hence, Osamu Dazai ends his novel through the character of Kazugo in a tragic-comic tone. The journey of ‘M.C.’ from My Chekhov, My Child to My Comedian is the theme that runs through the whole novel of Dazai.
This article will be left unfinished without emphasizing the pivotal role of Kazugo, the eldest daughter of this former Aristocrat family. Osamu Dazai highlights the role of woman as the one who gives birth to the next generation of the new Japan. Kazugo is the narrator of the novel and its obvious strongest character. It is not possible to overlook her gradual transformation during the course of the novel and interesting to witness how she sheds little by little the conventional image of a traditional Aristocrat lady into a coarse working class woman. True, she is not a blatant rebel like Naoji, her brother, but her non-conformism is subtle, intelligent and more effective. Not so decadent as him, she is somehow even bolder and more goal-oriented. Dazai intends to have his female protagonist to be the sole survivor in this new, unfamiliar role because she is the resilient one, the survival of the race. The birth of her baby symbolizes her own rebirth as much as the rebirth of the new world, the emerging Japan from the destruction of war. Its debris of old traditional values are blown away with the wind of changes.
Finally, it is the woman that Osamu Dazai, who eventually took his own life, leaves hope with. One could only hope he did not make a wrong choice.
