Joyce Carol Oates Lady With The Pet Dog

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Anton Chekhov and Joyce Carol Oates created different perspectives on the short story “The Lady with the Pet Dog.” Chekhov’s version offers a less dramatic and more comprehensible approach to the story’s situation.They express their ideas through their own unique structure, concept of fate, and character’s guilt. The unique structure of Oates’s and Chekhov’s story are differentiable. The structure of Oates's story is circular whereas Chekhov’s is linear. Oates's version starts off in later portions of the story and comes around to the same portion at the end. Chekhov’s story goes from point A to point B. The two authors have comparable styles with different layouts. While following the same story, they create their own unique version with contrasting writing styles and structures. Chekhov’s style is much more common and easier to follow for readers. Another comparable topic is the idea of fate. …show more content…

Oates's variant introduces Anna as severely depressed. Chekhov's version presents the character Anna Sergeyevna as risky and more open to cheating. Oates proclaims, “...[Anna] drew a razor drew a razor blade lightly across the inside of her arm, near the elbow, to see what would happen” (Oates 230). On the other hand, Chekhov mentions “Anna Sergeyevna was growing more and more attached to him” (Chekhov 223) and that “[...Anna Sergeyevna began coming to see him in Moscow” (Chekhov 222). Evidently, the two women in the stories have contrasting opinions on their love life. Anna from Oates’s version resorts to self harm and feels overly guilty whereas Chekhov's Anna Sergeyevna appears to do as her heart pleases in disregard to her marriage. Even though both of the Annas are reportedly guilty, they differ in how they take the matter into their own hands. Anna’s unstable emotions are a cause for a downfall in the story, therefore making Chekhov's version more

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