Theme Of The Lady With The Dog

1437 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The relationship between an individual and society

Love is essential to human beings, however at times it fails to surpass certain limits due to a complex reality. In the story; “The Lady with the Dog” by Anton Chekhov, the syntax, tone, and diction all collaborate in order to portray the complications of overcoming temptations. Dmitri Gurov is a banker from Moscow who is fascinated by the appearance of a woman who happens to be walking alone, along the sea of Yalta. Gurov is a married man who also happens to have kids but unfortunately, he despises his wife whom he characterizes as ignorant (Chekhov, 166). Later on, he builds up a strong attraction towards Anna Sergeyevna and develops an affair with her. Chekhov portrays Gurov’s epiphany with a romantic atmosphere but also portrays his moral judgment by describing it as a path that will cause him nothing but misery. His diction and syntax also demonstrates change in the tone of the story, signifying the transformation in Gurov’s attitude towards the adultery he has committed and his attitude towards himself. Chekhov uses a different approach in the tone, in order to demonstrate a development in Gurov’s characteristic which supports the theme; Gurov and Anna’s affair, …show more content…

From the reading, one would assert that dissatisfaction, and isolation are factors that indicates that Anna and Gurov aren’t in love with each other. While, work, marriage, family, social life and life as a whole is a huge motivating factor for action; Anna and Gurov find themselves gravitating towards each other as a result of their own dissatisfied lives. Anna and Gurov are separated from each other due to lack of understanding the world from the others’ perspective. Anna and Gurov feel isolated from the rest of the world, despite being close to each other which to them was a break from

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Anton Chekhov's and Joyce Oates' The Lady with the Dog

    1564 Words  | 4 Pages

    However, even though the two versions of the story "The Lady with the Pet Dog," reinforce this notion, they show the destructive force of such a relationship and the response of the human heart. They validate the secular way of thinking and make us question the strength and sincerity of our moral beliefs. Even though Gurov and Anna have different reasons for having the affair and dealt with their grief differently, they both justify their relationship because they have grown to love each other.

    Read More

  • Non-Traditional Relationships in The Storm and A Doll´s House

    1731 Words  | 4 Pages

    Finally, even though, for a long time, the roles of woman in a relationship have been established to be what I already explained, we see that these two protagonists broke that conception and established new ways of behaving in them. One did it by having an affair with another man and expressing freely her sexuality and the other by breaking free from the prison her marriage represented and discovering her true self. The idea that unites the both is that, in their own way, they defied many beliefs and started a new way of thinking and a new perception of life, love and relationships.

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Love In Happiness, By Junot Diaz

    1303 Words  | 3 Pages

    With the idea of a love that is forbidden it is looked down upon and can cause problems for the people who have fallen for its’ hidden desires. In the short story “Drown” by Junot Diaz, the main character Yunior is conflicted with his sexual preferences due to how his community would react to him being a homosexual. In the short story the “The Lady with the Dog” by Anton Chekhov the main character Gurov finds love with a younger woman while still being married, despite the idea of even being with another woman at that time was strictly forbidden. Whereas Gurov and Yunior are different as Gurov handles a relationship due to having multiple affairs, while Yunior is confused about his relationship with his friend because of his homosexuality,

    Read More

  • Characterization of Dmitry Dmitrich Gurov

    1253 Words  | 3 Pages

    Our aim is to portrait the character of Dmitry Dmitrich Gurov, in the context of the story, extracting those elements that are characteristic of the period in which Chekhov wrote the story. True love is a reason for everything, even deleting the laws of life. People's mistakes and weaknesses are part of life and, without contradictions, the world would not have evolved.... ... middle of paper ...

    Read More

  • Egyptian And Chinese Poem Analysis

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    Love and affection is an indispensable part of human life. In different culture love may appear differently. In the poem “My god my lotus” lovers responded to each other differently than in the poem “Fishhawk”. Likewise, the presentation of female sexuality, gender disparity and presentation of love were shown inversely in these two poems. Some may argue that love in the past was not as same as love in present. However, we can still find some lovers who are staying with their partners just to maintain the relationship. We may also find some lovers having relationship only because of self-interest. However, a love relationship should always be out of self-interest and must be based on mutual interest. A love usually obtains its perfectness when it develops from both partners equally and with same affection.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Hills Like White Elephants And The Lady With The Dog

    1207 Words  | 3 Pages

    This story mostly takes place in a vacation spot called Yalta. Throughout the whole story Yalta is explained as peaceful, romantic and with magical surroundings. The weather is warm and the scenery consists of white clouds over the mountaintops. The flowers smell of sweat fragrance and there is a gold streak from the moon on the sea. The two main character’s Gurov and Anna visit this vacation spot to get away from the lives that they are unhappy with. Both are unhappily married. The author explains Gurov as a women’s man, women are always attracted to him. However he thinks of women as the lower race. Knowing that women liked him, he always just played the game. He was always unfaithful to his wife. When he sees’s Anna walking around in Yalta with her dog he thought of it as just another fling. The character Anna is a good honest woman. When she is unfaithful to her husband for the first time she starts to cry to Gurov. She explains how she despises herself for being a low woman. This was the first time a person was not happy with Gurov. The soon realizes that she is unlike other women and describes her as strange and inappropriate. The story then takes a twist and Anna is to return home to her husband who is ill. This was their excuse that they need to part ways forever and stop this affair. Yet when Gurov returned home to Moscow he found himself lost without her. The

    Read More

  • Imagery In Lady With Lapdog, By Anton Chekhov

    1314 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chekhov reminds the readers that Anna is young compared to Gurov. Chekhov’s novel states, “As he went to bed he reminded himself that only a short time ago she had been a schoolgirl, like his own daughter” (3). The images of Anna being a schoolgirl not too long ago, when Gurov has a daughter of similar age, brings the sense of abnormality between the relationship of Gurov and Anna. It’s hard to imagine such a huge difference in lovers especially in the strict culture of Russia in the late 19th century where these occasions were unthought-of. The uncomforting thought of the difference in age goes back to differ the meanings of love and romance in the novel because against all odds and differences, Anna and Gurov hide away from these obvious facts. The thought of love in this culture is between a man and woman of similar age. According to Chekhov’s novel, “He was sick of his children, sick of the bank, felt not the slightest desire to go anywhere or talk about anything” (9). Chekhov’s description of sickness reveals that Gurov has a huge moment of denial, denial of family and denial of age. This denial of age, helps Gurov cope with the oddities of their relationship, the oddities of the love they had with the characteristics of a romance. Gurov was trying to change the definition of their relationship on his own mental terms. While Gurov was trying to bring out a spontaneous, younger

    Read More

  • Love in The Lady with the Dog and Hills like White Elephants

    898 Words  | 2 Pages

    Chekhov’s portrayal of love is as an emotion that solidifies itself only if the precise person is encountered. However, Chekhov takes his idea even further through his characters Dmitri and Anna, by stating through them, that love may be discovered, even after marrying the “incorrect person.” This fact is made clear when Chekhov writes “I don't know what he does there, what his work is, but I know he is a flunkey! I was twenty when I was married to him” through the character Anna. Hemingway on the other hand, instead of giving a view on what love is, his perspective is based on situation that may be mistaken as love. Both of Hemingway’s characters in Hills like White Elephants; Jig and The American, are reluctant to reveal the reality o...

    Read More

  • Adultery in The Lady with The Pet Dog and The Storm

    1184 Words  | 3 Pages

    “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.”

    Read More

  • Love in Lady with the Pet Dog, Anna Karenina, and Pride and Prejudice

    2508 Words  | 6 Pages

    Fulford, Robert.“Surprised by love: Chekhov and ‘The Lady with the Dog’.” Queen’s Quarterly. n.d. Web. 17 November 2013.

    Read More

  • Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

    1560 Words  | 4 Pages

    Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is a novel about love and marriage among the Russian aristocracy in the 1870s. Anna is young, beautiful woman married to a powerful government minister, Karenin. She falls in love with the elegant Count Vronsky and after becoming pregnant by him, leaves her husband Karenin and her son Seryozha to live with her lover. Despite the intervention of friends such as her brother Oblonsky, an adulterer himself, she is unable to obtain a divorce, and lives isolated from the society that once glorified her. As a man, Vronsky enjoys relative social freedom, which causes Anna to have increasingly intense fits of jealousy. Because of her constant suspicion, she thinks that Vronsky’s love for her is dwindling. Their story is ended by an exciting finale that moves the reader.

    Read More

  • Characteristics Of Anton Chekov's Dichotomy Of Characters

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    This is especially true for Gromov, who is intensely affected by the events that take place around him, which mentally to drives him crazy. His sense of involvement makes him overtly hyper-vigilant, even if those events have nothing to do with him. “For some reason it suddenly seemed to him that he, too, could be put in chains and led in the same way through the mud to prison” (Chekov 176). Even the sight of prisoners is enough to drive him into hypochondria. Similarly, Anna becomes too involved with the sexual relationship with Gurov, which was supposed to stay as a casual intimacy. Instead of treating it like it is, she gets emotionally attached to the idea of what she has done: being unfaithful to her husband. Her involvement and innocence certainly affects that way Gurov perceives her. Anna seems to take the whole relationship seriously, rather than having a disregard like Gromov and other women that he encountered in his life. “‘How can I justify myself? I’m a bad, low woman, I despise myself and am not even thinking of any justification. It’s not my husband I’ve deceived, but my own self!’” (Chekov II). Chekov uses these overly extroversive personalities to transform his introverted

    Read More

  • Social Relationships In Anton Chekhov's The Lady With The Dog

    1490 Words  | 3 Pages

    First, the characters understand that their relationship is based on future aspirations and second, they have historical relationship disappointments. This third insight into the psychology of love supports the fact that many relationships and marriages often fail because of unrealistic expectations. Psychology research SHOWS that individual expectations for relationships actually sows the seeds of discontent. People are expected to provide not only provide safety, security and support, but also facilitate personal growth and freedom. Even though they come from an older period in history, Anna and Dmitri are stereotypical people who have unhappy pasts and hopeful futures. They are thrown into an intense relationship with limited mutual understanding. Chekhov’s limited dialogue and straightforward narrative leaves plenty of cognitive room for readers to ruminate about their own experiences and how they relate to the

    Read More

  • Feelings in Anton Chekhov's The Bear

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    "The Bear," which is a classic one-act play written 1900, is one of the great works of Anton Chekhov, which is very much about a widowed woman. The Bear can be regarded as a comedy since it is to give the audience entertainment and amusement. This comedy reveals the fine line between anger and passion. The theme is about a strange beginning of love between Mrs. Popov and Smirnov. It demonstrated that love changes all things it touches. Dialogue of the characters, the action of the characters, and the characters themselves shape the theme. Unbelievable actions and change in mood on the part of the characters show that love can sometimes come from an odd turn of events.

    Read More

  • Analysis of The Darling, by Anton Chekhov

    1562 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Conclusion, this story portrays a woman who is insecure, lonely, and looking to love and to be loved. This love is something which Olenka searches for in males, both adults, and boys, she thinks she finds this love, in her husbands and, lover. She what she thinks to be love, in her first husband, and then her second, but the third male in her life, her lover, known as Voldichka is there only for his satisfaction. Olenka does get the fulfillment of love needed y Voldichka. Olenka than tries through a boy named Sasha, Voldichka’s son. It is true to this reader that even though Olenka experienced these relationships with these men and the boy, Sasha, she still never found a complete fulfillment in life. Olenka did not experience respect as a woman, but someone who would be there as needed. Olenka never earned respect as most women do, she to this reader only was a filler for others, others of the gender known as male.

    Read More

More about Theme Of The Lady With The Dog

Open Document