with
             them to take action. The family continues to ignore the future for the estate as
             personalities are developed in each of the characters. A very comical character is the
             clerk Yepikhodov, also known as "Twenty-two Calamities." In his entrance he stumbles
             over a chair while babbling at whatever comes to his mind. Firs, a senile manservant, is
             the next to add comic elements as he hobbles across the stage also talking to himself. As
             if the characters themselves weren't funny enough, their interaction and dialogue
             between each other is just as comical. Gayev, Mrs. Ranevsky's brother, continues to spit
             out billiard shots as the conversation continues, after which he weeps over the nursery's
             bookcase. Pishchik, a neighbor who is also in financial struggle, grabs Mrs. Ranevsky's
             pills out of her hand and swallows them all for no apparent reason. Again in this scene
             Firs mutters to himself as he trails off of the conversation taking place. The characters, it
             seems, are being warmed up for some sort of comic routine.
             Yet through this dialogue, unpleasant truths spring forth. The mortgage has not
             been paid in a while due to Mrs. Ranevsky being broke. And while Mrs. Ranevsky was
             in Paris, Varya has not been paying the mortgage. This is somewhat tragic because the
             estate is now going to be lost because of Mrs. Ranevsky and Varya not being able to pay
             off the estate's debts. When Lopakhin proposes his idea the family finds it impractical
             and Gayev even calls the idea "utter nonsense" (Chekhov 226-296). Pishchik also
             ...