Anton Chekhov's The Lady With The Pet Dog

In the short story “The Lady with the Pet Dog”, Anton Chekhov demonstrated a great ability in mood shift and presenting some of the most dynamic characters. One could argue both of the main characters undergo metamorphosis, but it seems clear that the male character undergoes the most radical transformation. In fact, Charles Stanion argues “One of the story's most impressive aspects is Dmitry Gurov's gradual metamorphosis” (402). Throughout the story, the reader witnesses the transformation of Gurov from treating Anna as a mere conquest to developing a true love for her. Chekhov’s short story is one characterized by many details that support this transformation. In this essay, I will prove how Gurov’s radical change parallels the complexity and precariousness human

relationships can become.
Anton Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Pet Dog” was first published in 1899. The story is one which almost seems like a soap opera following the lives of an older married gentleman, Gurov, and a young married woman named Anna. They both seem to be bored and annoyed by their present married lives. From the beginning of the story, the author describes Gurov’s strong hatred towards his wife and women in general. He is described as a man who is often involved with other women for pleasure and to merely overcome boredom. Anna also dislikes her husband and considers him flunky; hence, she decides to take some time away from him and finds refuge in Yalta. This is where Anna and Gurov first meet. Their love affair soon sparks but then they are separated because Anna must return home to her ill husband. Realizing he is unhappy without Anna, Gurov decides to search for his true love Anna. Eventually, Gurov and Anna reunite and continue their affair. The story ends with Anna and Gurov meditating on their unhappy lives and deciding to begin a new life together, but they also contemplate on the numerous obstacles they need to overcome.
The title Chekhov used is quite confusing because it seems like Anna should have been the most significant in the story. But after further meditation, as a reader we see how this title is actually quite appropriate because it represents Gurov’s first impression of Anna. When he first meets Anna, he only thinks of her as the lady with a small white dog. Furthermore, he is interested in engaging with a woman he does not know. Perhaps he considers Anna as a distraction and nothing more. After the story develops, we see how Anna becomes very important to Gurov. The title is actually very appropriate after serious contemplation of Chekhov’s short story.
The author also chose an omniscient narrator who describes Gurov’s miserable life. He was married young to an older woman who he very much dislikes. In fact, the narrator quickly mentions how Gurov has had many affairs with women, which he considers the “lower race.” Gurov does not seem to have much affection for his children either because they are only mentioned briefly and without names. Overall, Gurov seems to hate woman but at the same time be very dependent on them to feel “free” as he explains the reasons for his affairs. Gurov’s discontent with his family and with his affairs allow the reader to discover this character has never felt true love for anyone. For some reason, Anna Seergeenva, who is also miserable with her husband of two years, changes everything for him. Gurov is immediately drawn to Anna for her youth. After their first encounter, Gurov recalls Anna as a naïve young school girl; furthermore, she reminds him of his own daughter. He recalled “diffidence, the angularity, that was still manifest in her laugh and her manner of talking with a stranger… her slender, delicate neck, her lovely gray eyes.” But alas he regarded her as pathetic and fell asleep.
The next significant scene is when Anna and Gurov are standing on the pier staring at an incoming steamer. Gurov suddenly embraces and kisses Anna but quickly checks his surroundings to assure no one has seen them. They end up in Anna’s room committing adultery.
After Anna and Gurov’s infidelity, their reactions differ greatly.. Anna is troubled and feels remorseful while Gurov is annoyed at Anna’s shameful crying attitude. In fact, he is depicted as bored and eating watermelon in the corner while Anna is nonstop crying. At one point he seems to think she is faking her attitude and this further irritates Gurov. The following morning, the two lovers sit on a bench in front of the sea at Oreanda. The roaring sea and soothing noises set a magical moment of contemplation. This moment reveals a theme of transcendence through love as Anna and Gurov turn to each other meditating on their actions. For the first time in the story, Gurov’s feelings and thoughts evolve from completely misogynistic to a realization of beauty. The narrator explains, “Gurov thought that, when you came to think of it, everything in the world is beautiful really, everything but our own thoughts and actions, when we lose sight of the higher aims of life, and of our dignity as human beings”. This passage reveals Gurov’s feelings could be noble and majestic. He no longer felt annoyed at Anna for her feelings of remorse, but instead, he refers to her as a beautiful young woman. Many walks near the sea followed and the passionate romance grew. But the fact that Gurov was still cautious when kissing Anna in public suggest his romance with Anna was fueled more by passion than actual love (Creasmen 259).
Then Anna receives the letter regarding an ill husband back home that requires her immediate attention. The lovers farewell is characterized by a sad Anna and a remorseful Gurov. He meditates on how “she (Anna) had called him kind, exceptional, lofty; obviously he had seemed to her different from what he really was, so he had unintentionally deceived her.” Gurov returns to his Moscow life and seems to have completely forgotten about his time with Anna in Oreanda. The author did include Gurov’s observations of the winter season, “the white earth, the white roofs…the season brings back the days of one's youth. The old limes and birches, white with hoar-frost.” As author Nathan Rosen suggest, the whiteness “unconsciously brings to mind the memory of Anna and Oreanda (blonde hair, white dog, white clouds over the mountains, morning mist)” (18). From then on, Gurov becomes obsessed with Anna and all his thoughts revolves around her. According to the story, “Anna Sergeyevna did not visit him in dreams, but followed him about everywhere like a shadow and haunted him.” Yet, it is important to note that Gurov has not admitted loving Anna but instead feels a desire to see her. He becomes desperate because he has no one he can express his feelings for Anna too. In fact, the story emphasizes his dissatisfaction with everything (Connolly 2). As the story explains, “He was sick of his children, sick of the bank; he had no desire to go anywhere or to talk of anything.” Gurov can no longer endure his situation and ignore his feelings so he decides to find Anna.
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Gurov stays at the hotel where a new color becomes a motif in the story; the color gray. As Nathan Rosen observes, “each mention of gray is connected in Gurov’s mind with a social institution that enforces obedience to it’s rules”(20). The gray hospital-like sheets, the table covered with gray dust, the gray fence outside Anna’s house are all part of the idea behind Gurov’s gray life. Gurov finally meets Anna at the theater for an opera. This scene is perhaps the most significant because of Gurov’s realization at the precise moment he sees Anna. “Gurov looked at her his heart contracted, and he understood clearly that for him there was in the whole world no creature so near, so precious, and so important to him; she, this little woman, in no way remarkable, lost in a provincial crowd, with a vulgar lorgnette in her hand, filled his whole life now, was his sorrow and his joy, the one happiness that he now desired for himself, and to the sounds of the inferior orchestra, of the wretched provincial violins, he thought how lovely she was.” Maybe to society Anna was of little significance, but to Gurov Anna was his definition of love. He had now accepted Anna as the only source of happiness in his

life.
During intermission, Gurov finally has the opportunity to search for Anna. They head to a secluded area and he embraces a terrified, surprised Anna. Unlike the past, Gurov does not mind the two school boys above them while he kisses Anna. She quickly pulls him away, begs him to leave, and promises to visit him in Moscow. True to her word, Anna visits Moscow every two or three months telling her husband she is visiting a doctor. As Gurov explains, he now lived two lives a public and a secret life. The former one included his family, job, and friends. The latter one included a nightlife characterized by being very private and mysterious.
The final scene begins with Gurov entering the hotel room and catching the sight of Anna in wearing “his favorite gray dress.” This time, the color gray is an appeal to him just like her soft “lovely gray eyes” had caught his attention the first time they met in Yalta. Anna is crying because she cannot find conform in their double lives. Gurov reaction is very different from the time in Yalta when he sits at the corner of the room eating watermelon. This time, Gurov is sipping tea as an expression of sadness, weariness, of bitter consciousness of the impossibility of helping his beloved. At the same time, he catches a glimpse of his aging self in the mirror, which served as a reminder that he no longer had good looks and his old life was fading. Most importantly, “now when his head was gray he had fallen properly, really in love -- for the first time in his life.” He realizes then they cannot tear apart now when they have found each other. They decide to find a solution to end the secrecy in their relationship and to free themselves from the cage they were trapped in for being married to people they did not love.
Anton Chekhov decided to end the story with no definite solution to Gurov and Anna’s situation. The reader can imagine the couple had a couple of possibilities. Gurov and Anna could have run away to a distant land. This would imply them forgetting about their spouses and children in the case of Gurov. This option is a possibility because such a decision could have been made by a man that did not feel affection for his wife or children. Another outcome, could have been the separation of the two because of all the difficulties that existed for them to be truly happy and together. Whatever the outcome, the only certainty is Gurov’s transformation into a humble and noble man. He has ditched the cocky attitude he one had towards life and towards women. In the last sentences, we see Gurov defeated by his perpetual circumstances. The final sentence resumes both Anna and Gurov’s feeling in the most effective way, “And it seemed as though in a little while the solution would be found, and then a new and splendid life would begin; and it was clear to both of them that they had still a long, long road before them, and that the most complicated and difficult part of it was only just beginning.” There is a sense of idealism and realism present. They recognize their life will not be easy but they just might be willing to overcome all odds for a beautiful life.
The modern human relationship is also characterized by being complex. Humans never stop growing or changing. It took Gurov a lifetime to experience love in a relationship. Our expectations in life and for relationships can be impacted in unexpected manners and times. As Chekhov himself wisely remarked, “All of life and human relations have become so incomprehensibly complex that, when you think about it, it becomes terrifying and your heart stands still.”