The Lady with a Dog Literary Analysis

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

Anton Chekhov hardly restrained from writing the dreary aspects of life during his writing career. Noted as one of Russia’s most prominent realist writers of the late 19th century, Chekhov’s work ranged from critical issues concerning the mental health system in “Ward No.6” to illustrating the tiresome cycle occurring for ordinary people sensing they are incomplete with their dull, normal life in “The Lady with the Dog.” “The Lady with the Dog,” in particular portrays characters of Chekhov’s facing an unreachable desire; Gurov and Anna. This desire emulates two contrasting forces represented by the double-lives the couple lives, one being that of realism and boredom, and the other of strict passion and romanticism. Gurov and “the lady with

In this paper, I will explain how the article “The Lady and the Tramp (II): Feminist Welfare Politics, Poor Single Mothers, and the Challenge of Welfare Justice” by Gwendolyn Mink relates to the thematic focus of working women and the Marxist and socialist branch of feminism. In Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction, Rosemarie Tong explains that Marxist and socialist feminists understand women’s oppression as a labor issue. Women’s work is not viewed as a productive contribution to society. One of the ways Marxist and socialist feminists sought to improve women’s oppression was through the wages-for-housework campaign of the 1970s, which fought for work done in the domestic sphere to be paid and respected by society. In this same vein, Mink’s article can be viewed as a continuation of sorts of the wages-for-housework campaign. Mink suggests that poor single mothers have the right for their work to be recognized by society and supported economically like the Marxist and socialist feminist in the 1970s.

In the beginning of the story, we learn that Gurov has many affairs because of his troubled marriage. As the plot develops, Gurov meets a young and naive woman named Anna while vacationing in Yalta. Anna and Gurov have an affair together, which leads to Gurov becoming emotionally invested with her. The story is told through Gurov and his emotional instability is especially accentuated. "But more than a month passed, real winter had come, and everything was still clear in his memory as though he had parted with Anna Sergeyeva only the day before. And his memories glowed more and more vividly" (Chekhov 272). Once Gurov and Anna part, he finds it difficult to move on from her. The third person narrative allows the audience to see the turmoil in this affair through the perspective of Gurov. Although Anna plays an important role in the development of this story, we do not fully understand her perspective of the affair. The audience is however, able to interpret that Anna is feeling guilty from her affair. Overall, despite the fact that we can understand Gurov's emotional attachment to Anna, it is difficult for the reader to understand how Anna is thinking and feeling. By using third person narrative, the narrator provides the audience with a look into the

Later in the story, during one of Anna's Moscow visits, she cries again and as Chekhov foreshadows, Gurov reacts similarly. This time Gurov slips off the bed, out from beneath Anna and sits in an armchair. Paying no attention to her sorrows he then, ". . . rang and ordered tea; and then, while he drank tea, she went on . . ." (309-310). Not only is Chekhov's foreshadowing similar in both stories, he also uses magnificent details in the setting that intensify the reader's interest.

Part I is really the start of it all, where we discover Dmitri Gurav’s honest opinion of women, and it is not a good one. He thinks all women are pretty dumb, and even cheats on his own wife all the time. He talks about her in a degrading way often. “She read a great deal, used phonetic spelling, called him husband, not Dmitri, but Dimitri, and he secretly considered her unintelligent, narrow, inelegant, was afraid of her, and did not like to be home” (Chekhov 291)

It is here that Chekhov first has Dmitri note that, “a new person had appeared on the sea-front”; Anna Sergeyevna. By beginning the story with this observation, Chekhov is already suggesting to the reader, through his uses of setting, that this pair will be involved in an affair. This is also deceptive though, as the reader is induced into the line of thought that their relationship will be casual when, in reality, it becomes apparent that it is the opposite which is the case.

This description truly captures the reality of Anna and Gurov’s relationship, and one of sudden awkwardness we would expect as they both did not know how to react to the presence of one-another in such a public setting. It is evident that this scene was meant to remind us that the threat of scandal always looms. For these two adulterous lovers, their reputation is forever at risk, as are their marriages and lifestyles. Henceforth, the details presented after their interaction proves to be significant and quite understandable.

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.

Gurov has found a woman he can love for the rest of his life, and he hates the fact that she is not with him. She has left him just as the way he would leave the women he has had affairs with. He feels that she is the only woman to make him happy in the world. His own past has doomed him; He knows he can never be with Anna but trys to make a effort to see her again in S--. He arrives at her home to see that she is enclosed by a long fence, slammed in with nails, a prison he imagines it to be. Desperately seeking to find her he attends a theater at night. He sees her there with her tall husband, wearing a uniform. While her husband is gone, Gurov approaches her to speak with him, as she leaves the auditorium to avoid him. Gurov catches up to her and they speak for a short while and Anna promises to him that she will come to Moscow to visit him.

He does not feel anything toward women and in fact, refers to them as “the lower race” (1) and that “their beauty aroused hatred in him and the lace on their linen reminded him of scales” (118). As the story ends, the readers learn about Gurov’s consciousness and that his feelings towards women have changed. The motive for his alteration begins with Gurov’s love for Anna, and later these feelings makes him “sleepless and restless” because of continuous thinking and dreaming about Anna.

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

If one takes the dream and extends the concept of the mare to represent the different women in Raskolnikov’s life, it is clear how the dream reveals to the reader the workings of Raskolnikov’s superego––his good conscience, if you must. While on the exterior, Raskolnikov entertains the idea of being an extraordinary man––granting himself the ability to kill and purge–subconsciously, Raskolnikov is revealed throughout the novel to have a (unwilling) sense of justice and fairness. This is emphasized most when, in his dream, the young Raskolnikov rushes out to help the mare without caring about his own well-being. Our more mature protagonist, whether out of a sense of duty or righteousness, follows this same impetuous train of thought throughout the novel––specifically in how he helps the women in his life. Take, for example, Raskolnikov’s actions whenever Marmeladov is killed. In the same way he rushes after the mare without thought to his own welfare, Raskolnikov gives his last bit of money to the Marmeladov family, despite the fact that it is all he has. This underlying sense of duty and desire to help provides a marked departure from his more animalistic wish to be extraordinary and kill. In his dream, we can take the young Raskolnikov to

Why is it that Gurov cannot shake his feelings for Von Diderits? Is it possible that out of all the women to have been in bed with Gurov it is Anna that steals his heart, and if so does this prove that love could change a man? According to the book, Gurov is unhappy with his marriage and frequently cheats “He had begun to be unfaithful to her long ago-had been unfaithful to her often” (p.172). Gurov came to Yalta to get away from home and “relive some stress”, Gurov never once

The story begins on Irina’s birthday with all three sisters sitting around having a conversation. Olga cannot stop talking about their father’s death which happened a year earlier. Each sister seems saddened but not completely distraught over the situation. Masha is dressed in all black, and the audience can presume that she is dressed for mourning. The scene continues, and servants and visitors alike flutter in and out wishing Irina the best on her birthday. Olga and Irina wish for nothing more than to travel to their home city of Moscow and vow to return in the coming months. Near the end of this portion, Andrey proposes to Natasha, and as the next scene occurs, they are both residing in the house and have a child. During the rest of the play, each sister has her own problems occurring. Olga comes home tired each day from working with the children in her class. She is becoming disillusioned with being alone and wishes for a husband to have and to hold. While attempting to stay sane in her teaching position, she also is trying to keep the household from falling apart. Irina begins working at the telegram company but quickly becomes exhausted with the mundane, repetitive tasks of working for a living. She also struggles with the idea of being courted by the Baron, in fear that she will never be able to return to Moscow. Masha is unhappy with her marriage to Kulygin, feeling as if he is rather annoying and she got married too young. She