Adultery in The Lady with The Pet Dog and The Storm

Infidelity is depicted as an extremely negative thing in the United States, and is often blamed for trust issues, psychologically damaging the spouse and their children, tearing apart marriages and families and more. People who commit adultery are often shamed and told how wrong what they did is and what a terrible person they are for doing it. According to the Journal of Martial and Family by the Associated Press, however, 41% of “marriages where one or both spouses admit to infidelity, either physical or emotional.” Clearly, while infidelity is generally viewed negative by society, many people either decide that it is not as negative as it is portrayed, or do not care and do it anyway. “The Lady with the Pet Dog” and “The Storm” both go against the typical view of adultery being a negative thing in a relationship by showing that it can actually have a beneficial outcome and leave some, if not all people happier.

“The Lady with the Pet Dog” exhibits Anton Chekhov’s to convey such a powerful message in a minimal amount of words. He uses the element of color to show the emotions as well as changing feelings of the main characters, Dmitri Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna, and the contrast of them being apart to them being together. For example, when Anna leaves and they are apart, Dmitri seems to live in a world of grey. As he begins to age, his hair begins to turn grey, and he is usually sporting a grey suit. Yalta is where they met, and it is described as a romantic spot filled with color and vibrancy and freedom, like when Chekhov writes “the water was of a soft warm lilac hue, and there was a golden streak from the moon upon it.”

In addition, Chekhov also utilizes allegory, imagery and symbolism. The Geisha, for example, serves as an a...

... middle of paper ...

... 1800s. Therefore, they both were written during a time when divorce was not usually an option and seen as a very negative thing, whereas now it is much more widely accepted. Something that makes the stories different, however, is that Dmitri and Anna clearly wanted to be together, whereas Calixta and Alcee did not, they simply needed a release and burst of freedom from their loving spouses. “The Storm” has a positive ending for all characters and everything is better than ever before, and “The Lady with the Pet Dog” had a melancholy ending, when they realized that they could never truly be together in this lifetime and they would most likely always be unhappy in their marriages.

Works Cited

http://www.statisticbrain.com/infidelity-statistics/ http://divorcesupport.about.com/od/infidelity/a/inf_effects.htm http://www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com/shows_g/geisha.htm