One of the sweet comforts in life is to curl up in a favorite chair with a short story that will briefly carry people away from their everyday lives. On rare occasions, a tale mirrors real life in such a way that one is strangely comforted by the normalcy reflected in the words. A perfect example of a story about ordinary life that will soothe the soul in search for some insight on understanding the human behavior is Anton Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Pet Dog.” This style of writing has such a mass appeal because the characters wear recognizable social masks and reflect an everyday reality. In his simple story of a chance meeting between a middle-aged, chauvinistic, repeat-offender adulterer, unhappily married man, and a young, naïve, …show more content…
After becoming acquainted, Anna and Gurov “walked and talked of the strange light on the sea: the water was a soft, warm, lilac color and there was a golden band of moonlight upon it” (Chekov 507). Later, when he is alone in his hotel room, Gurov reflects on her “slim, delicate throat, her lovely gray eyes” (Chekov 507) and his thoughts reveal that he has determined this young, vulnerable woman to be an ideal candidate for another one of his many affairs that he just cannot help becoming involved in. And as the story unfolds, the color gray reveals itself as an integral component in the sort of comfortable, yet, unresolved feeling that the relationship between Gurov and Anna emanates. Finally, when things are heating up between the two lonely travelers, so is the weather, which “was close indoors, while in the street the wind whirled the dust about” (Chekov 507) and their thirst is unrelenting no matter what they eat or drink to quench it. “One did not know what to do with oneself” (Chekov 507), seemingly, with the desire for one another that is beginning to blossom. On this particular evening, the couple makes way for the pier to watch the incoming ship. A crowd of people have gathered with many bouquets of flowers to greet arrivals. The churning ocean echoes the intensity of their attraction for each other, along with the mess of people surrounding them and Anna’s display of uneasiness and absentmindedness. As the crowd thins out,
The next silence comes after a week of continued daily meetings and foretells the relationship’s passage from casual to physically intimate. Before the silence is noted, Dmitri and Anna are at a jetty admiring the sea and watching the boats come and go, and Dmitri is watching Anna closely; as she chatters aimlessly, he notices her movements and the shining in her eyes, all of which are the backdrop for the rising tension that peaks during a moment of silence: ‘“The weather’s improved towards evening,” he said. “Where shall we go now? Shall we take a drive somewhere?” She made no answer.’ Anna’s failure to respond (her silence) marks the height of the tension and is immediately followed by a sudden embrace, a passionate and romantic kiss, laden with the nervousness that comes with public indiscretion, and finally, the suggestion from Dmitri that the two go to a private place to consummate the relationship: “Let’s go to your place…” he said softly. And they both walked quickly’. Once again, after a silence, the relationship escalates. Chekhov uses the device repeatedly as the two fracture over Anna’s guilt and go their separate ways; the extended
This story’s general setting takes place in nineteenth century Russia. But, there are also many particular settings throughout this narrative that largely affect the characters and create many problems the narrator and Anna Sergeyevna have to face. In the beginning of the story Gurov and Anna find themselves taking vacations in the same city to get away from their other lives. But, when they have to part they realize how much they actually mean to each other. This can be seen in the following excerpt when Gurov realizes that Anna has not left his mind ever since they went home, “He would pace a long time about in his room, remembering it all and smiling; then his memories passed into dreams, and in his fancy the past was mingled with what was to come. Anna Sergeyevna did not visit him in his dreams, but followed him about everywhere like a shadow” (Chekhov 172). Therefore, the conflict that the setting creates is the distance between Gurov and
us, no matter how docile and humane our disposition might appear. In this story, the narrator portrays a man who is fond of animals, had a tender heart, and is happily married. Within several years of his marriage, his general temperament and character make a radical
be seen by the way he uses words like “Had we” and “we would”. This is
Throughout the short stories, characters endure circumstances that allow them to realize the unfairness of the world, ultimately causing a change in attitude. In “Souvenir,” the protagonist finds herself in a shop purchasing a pack of condoms for her mentally ill boyfriend while being followed by an old man. With the belief that sacrificing something precious of herself such as her virginity, the teenager initially felt that her love could save him from his mental illness. Those in the store around her, however, forced humiliation upon her, especially the elderly man. Finally becoming aware to those around her, she has an epiphany of those surrounding her in addition to the society she lives in. Witnessing the differences in people’s behaviors and attitudes, she grasps the understanding that people are influenced by others
As the story unfolds, Gurov at first changes subtly. First of all he meets Mrs. Anna Sergeyevna. His attitude at first is still the same, he finds her as another victim of his little game that he plays. He sits and watches, searching his mind for a ways to get her attention like he does for every woman. He still looks at women in the same sort of fashion. Anna and Gurov start spending time with each other more and more, he still plays his game. Each time that he meets her and tries to coax her into have an ice or syrup, yet he still looks at her as “pathetic.” After their first kiss he begins to realize that there is something different about this girl. Unlike the usual women he messes around with, she feels guilty about engaging in this affair with him. Anna does not give him the satisfaction of playing the game along with him. As he spends more time with Anna he becomes fond of her presence. He starts learning more about her, when she talks him listens intently instead of getting bored and rolling his eyes. When Anna gets a letter from her husband asking for her to come home, Gurov acts like it isn’t a big deal, he still believes he is playing his game. At first he forces himself to believe he is ok, but after they are apart for a while he realizes that Anna isn’t leaving him. She follows him everywhere, not just in his dreams. He feels something that he has never felt before, he
The stories of Anton Chekhov mark a focal moment in European fiction. This is the point where 19th realist caucus of the short stories started their transformation into modern form. As such, his work straddles two traditions. The first is that of the anti-romantic realism which has a sharp observation of external social detail. It has human behavior conveyed within tight plot. The second is the modern psychological realism in which the action in typically internal and expressed in associative narrative that is built on epiphanic moments. In consideration of the two sides, Chekhov developed powerful personal styles that presage modernism without losing traditional frills of the form. This essay will discuss the Chekhov's portrayal of women.
According to Boyd, there are two main categories that short stories tend to fall in: “the event-plot story” and the “Chekhovian story.” I suppose I am about to state the obvious, but I believe that Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog” would most likely fall into the category of a “Chekhovian story.” Chekhov transformed the idea of the short story through his realistic worldview and his “abandoning the manipulated beginning-middle-and-end plot” and “by refusing to judge his characters, by not striving for a climax or seeking neat narrative resolution” (Boyd, 2006). Chekhov took mundane, everyday life and created moments that were unforgettable; like in “The Lady with the Dog,” Chekhov’s careful attention to detail and his blunt, egotistical protagonist
The issue of living a lonely, meaningless, and depressed life has been a major issue in society for quite a while. This dejected feeling can be shown in two classic American short stories. The first short story, “Brothers”, by Sherman Anderson, tells the story of four characters struggling to find a purpose in their lives’ and desperately seeking out a companion. The second short story, “The Gay Old Dog”, by Edna Ferber, explores the main character’s feeling of isolation and helplessness in his family and personal life. In both short stories, the development of the characters and how they feel and act within the story are similar. Here, the characters feel as if their life is stagnant with nowhere to go, experience severe loneliness, and attempt to make a connection with anyone around them.
In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin describes to her readers a young woman’s response to her husband’s death, or at least his presumed death. The opinions readers will draw from this story will vary from person to person due to personal experiences. The experience and wisdom that I have gained through the trails and tribulations of my life help me to understand, relate, and even despise Mrs. Mallard’s character. On one hand, I feel pity for Mrs. Mallard. I think she felt trapped in a situation that she found to be inescapable. She felt lonely, restless, and did not know how to help herself. Yet, on the other hand, I do not feel sorry for
The truth is sometimes a very frightening thing. In the stories "A Streetcar Named Desire" and “The Lady with the Dog” both seem to demonstrate dominant men trying to manipulate the women in their lives. However, only one changed his toxic ways. The author demonstrates through symbolism and narrating that. While Stanley from “A Streetcar Named Desire” and Dmitri Gurov from “The Birthmark" are comparable in their blatant disrespect for women, they are distinctive concerning love and willingness to develop.
The setting shows the time and place in which a situation occurs. In story “The Lady with the Pet Dog”, the situations take different places throughout the narrative. The story begins with Gurov sitting in a café in Yalta when he first sees the character Anna Sergeevna with whom he becomes fascinated. Yalta is a vacation spot and Gurov is already well known of his adventures and immoral behavior. While on vacation there, he realizes that this place does not have too much to do other than meet new people. Since he has already known many women vacationing on this resort, he decides to switch his interests on the new arrivals. Once he meets Anna Sergeyevna, the setting takes place again in Yalta near the sea. Chekhov provides a detailed description of the sea and the romance of the location including "the chirrup of the grasshoppers," "the heat," and "the smell of the sea.” Chekhov describes a stroll Anna and Gurov take as "the scenery
The book Forty Stories, by Anton Chekhov and Robert Payne, explores many short stories about the trials and tribulations of medieval day Russians with their government and everyday actions, and the differences in class in their society. These stories range from funny and irony, like the story Joy, to a classic Cinderella love story, Green Scythe, to sad Government stories, like Sergeant Prishibeyev. The differences in class are very large and are most attributed to the government that is breathing down everyone's neck.
Dmitri, before he loved Anna, was a dog, one who looked down on women and only thought of the pleasures and benefits he could receive from them. Stuck in an unhappy marriage with his wife to the point that he, “did not like to be at home” (Chekhov, 62). Dmitri, though enjoys the company of women, he acknowledged that “he could not get on for two days together without ‘the lower race’” (Chekhov, 62), the “lower race” referencing women. Consequently, this disgust of his own wife and desire for women causes Dmitri to cheat, “He had begun being unfaithful to her long ago -- had been unfaithful to her often” (Chekhov, 62). Dmitri liked to keep all his affairs simple and amusing, whenever one would begin to be too much work and/or unbearable, he would drop it and proceed to the next one. Though Dmitri is quite an observant person he would focus on the
Gurov, dissatisfied with his monotonous life, goes to Anna because he needs the scandal to relieve a numbness that has taken effect, not because he loves her. She merely reciprocates his affection, not out of love, but to escape the entrapment she feels from her marriage. In a subtle climax during his return home to Moscow, Gurov feels the agonizing absence of anyone he can talk to meaningfully about the personal secrecies of his life, specifically Anna. This intolerable sensation sends him to “S—,“ to find her. Only when Gurov is standing outside Anna’s house does he actually relate to her situation and form some genuine connection. “Just opposite the house stretched a long grey fence adorned with nails…One would run away from a fence like that," thought Gurov, looking from the fence to the windows of the house and back again…He loathed the grey fence more and more, and by now he thought irritably that Anna Sergeyevna had forgotten him, and was perhaps already amusing herself with some one else, and that that was very natural in a young woman who had nothing to look at from morning till night but that confounded fence” (p.230). With Gurov’s realization, he actually escapes his fenced in world and partially enters her miserable one. In sharing a connection, their emotions and psychological needs start to blend together and they become entrapped by the same fence, where inside, the two of them are alone and vulnerable in a shared arena. This isolation