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The lady with the lapdog analysis
The lady with the dog analysis
Thesis statement about chekhov
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Many face the moral question of doing what is right by society or by what is right according to their own moral code. The main characters of the short story “The Lady With The Pet Dog” by Anton Chekhov are forced to do just that. This short story describes a couple in the early 1900s in Russia. Its plot revolves around two people finding true love; the only complication is that they are both married. The same story is then rewritten by Joyce Carol Oates and it is given a modern twist. Both of these stories show how complicated and complex love can be. Most people would agree in saying that the original story, by Anton Chekhov, is the better story of the two. This can be shown through the analysis of both versions of the short stories in their theme of love, structure, and the different perspectives among each version.
Anton Chekhov is the original writer of the short story “The Lady With the Pet Dog” and embedded within its contents is the complicated theme of love. Throughout the story the reader sees that Gurov has finally found his true love but while he is already part of a loveless marriage. Most would think that finding true love would be a joyous occasion, but this passion for his lover, Anna, soon
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Though the writing of these two pieces are 73 years apart, Chekhov still holds onto the better story of the two. The theme of love is presented better, the structure is easier to read and has more of a fairy tale aspect that the reader can fully enjoy and finally the perspective of Gurov shows more of what is really going on in his and Anna’s hectic life of secrecy. With all of these points, “The Lady With the Pet Dog” cannot be written quite like the
In “Hills Like White Elephants” and “The Story of an Hour”, the woman in each story imprisons in the domestic sphere. In “Hills Like White Elephants”, the woman in this story conflicts between keeping the baby or getting abortion although the relationship with her boyfriend would not improve as he said. In “The Story of an Hour”, even though Louise Mallard, an intelligent, independent woman understands that she should grieve for Brently, her husband and worry for her future, she cannot help herself from rejoice at her newfound freedom. The author of this story, Kate Chopin suggests that even with a happy marriage, the loss of freedom and the restraint are the results that cannot be avoid.
Both the princess and Natalya know that they lost their loves and know that they cannot change that outcome. However, the authors both have different manners of showing the pain of each women, with Stockton’s being more effective in feeling the pain, fury, and passion of the princess. Although Chekhov’s version does not contain that similar intensity in his story, the reader can still acknowledge the despondence Natalya has when she realizes her mistake. As stated before, these two stories revolve around the theme of lost love, even if the lessons that are expressed through these themes are distinct. The manner in which these authors wrote their stories affected how compelling they were, showing two different perspectives with different tones, all while sharing a theme that can easily be related to, no matter the time period or
“Like a river flows so surely to the sea darling, so it goes some things are meant to be.” In literature there have been a copious amount of works that can be attributed to the theme of love and marriage. These works convey the thoughts and actions in which we as people handle every day, and are meant to depict how both love and marriage can effect one’s life. This theme is evident in both “The Storm” by Kate Chopin and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman; both stories have the underlying theme of love and marriage, but are interpreted in different ways. Both in “The Storm” and in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the women are the main focus of the story. In “The Storm” you have Calixta, a seemingly happy married woman who cheats on her husband with an “old-time infatuation” during a storm, and then proceeds to go about the rest of her day as if nothing has happened when her husband and son return. Then you have “The Yellow Wallpaper” where the narrator—who remains nameless—is basically kept prisoner in her own house by her husband and eventually is driven to the point of insanity.
We first meet Dmitri Gurov, a married middle aged man with children, who has been unfaithful to his wife many times. He has a great contempt for women and refers to them as “the lower race”. But strangely can’t get enough of them, “ It seemed to him that he had been so schooled by bitter experience that he might call them what he liked, and yet he could not get on for two days together without the lower race”. He is a player, a playboy. He doesn’t feel comfortable around men so he focuses his energies on the ladies, “In the society of men he was bored and not himself, with them he was cold and uncommunicative; but when he was in the company of women he felt free, and knew what to say to them and how to behave; and he was at ease with them even when he was silent”. He tells women what they want to hear so he can get them to bed, “ In his appearance, in his character, in his whole nature, there was something attractive and elusive which allured women and disposed then in his favour; he knew that, and some force seemed to draw him, too, to them.” This keeps life simple for him.
The ominous and tragic atmosphere infusing the consummation of their relationship gives a foresight into what is going to happen in the rest of this relationship which is ill-fated. Their love fails to give them the perfect happiness that they envisioned and therefore they begin blaming the social circumstances for their dissatisfaction. The social and familial disapproval that Vronsky encounters angers him. "They have no conception of what happiness is, and they do not know that without love there is no happiness or unhappiness for us, for there would be no life" (Tolstoy, 167). After the fulfilment of their initial desire for each other, they strive to satisfy another desire, a further one. They need to be set free from the need for dissembling and lies, "it was necessary to put an end to all this falsehood, and the sooner the better" (Tolstoy, 168). Vronsky puts it, "throw up everything and let us two conceal ourselves somewhere alone with our love" (Tolstoy, 168). The two lovers eventually achieve
No matter how one may interpret either story, the fact remains that both authors had differentiating assumptions on love and as thus, so is the purpose of their story. It must be stated their purposes are different because although it could be argued that both try to give different views on love; Hemingway’s story is actually lambasting people who believe and claim they are in love, and yet can’t even communicate efficiently with their love interest. Chekhov on one hand states what love is, while Hemingway defuses what many people could understand as love. Chekhov while more descriptive and elaborate, does not hold the opinion I favor. Hemingway although, vague with character description, in the dialogue, is very expressive in the use of symbols, and as thus manages to create the notion I favor the most out of the ones expressed by the discussed stories.
Conception of Love in The Kreutzer Sonata Perhaps Tolstoy's short story, “The Kreutzer Sonata”, truly captures one definite conception of love, albeit a very negative one. To understand more about what is brought to light in this story, we need to take a look at it, more importantly at the character of Pozdnychev. Pozdnychev has just spent several years in prison for the murder of his unfaithful wife, as we find out early in the story. His tale is a sordid one, as he relates his past life, before his wedding, the meeting of his wife, their marriage, their dreadful relationship up to the murder itself and the tribunal. What is interesting in his story remains the unique perception he has on love, on marriage, and on society in general.
The principal characters from the short stories, ‘’The Lady with the Dog’’ by Chekhov, and ‘’Hills like White Elephants’’ by Ernest Hemingway are dishonest with the one they love and with themselves, they hide their real feelings about the person they are with, they are living an untruthful relationship, and as a couple they lie to each other. In ‘’The Lady with The Dog’’, Dmitri Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna, they are both unhappily married to other characters, and after a while they engage in an affair, hiding their feeling to each other, just because they do not want to break up their marriages, they do not want more responsibility of what they have with each other. The same matter happens in the ‘’Hills Like White Elephants’’, The American
“The Story of the Hour” by Kate Chopin portrays an opposing perspective of marriage by presenting the reader with a woman who is somewhat untroubled by her husbands death. The main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard encounters the sense of freedom rather than sorrow after she got knowledge of her husbands death. After she learns that her husband, Brently, is still alive, it caused her to have a heart attack and die. Even though “The Story of the Hour” was published in the eighteen hundreds, the views of marriage in the story could coincide with this era as well.
“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 this essay I would like to emphasize different ideas of how love is understood and discussed in literature. This topic has been immortal. One can notice that throughout the whole history writers have always been returning to this subject no matter what century people lived in or what their nationality was.
I have never considered that a book about a dog could be so appealing and full of deep thoughts. But I changed my viewpoint after reading the autobiographical novel “Marley & Me” written by John Grogan which depicts an astonishing story about the neurotic and loyal, clumsy and loving dog named Marley. In fact, as the author mentioned in some interviews, he intended to write the “dog story”, but soon after he realized that it was impossible to do so without including the family life [2]. That is why the title “Marley & Me” encapsulates the main topic of the book such as the relationship between a human and a pet. To start with let me introduce main characters: John, Jenny, and Marley.
Despite Tolstoy’s intentions of ultimately turning “Family Happiness” into a novel, an intention which one would expect would render any temporary stopping place awkward and convey the wrong idea, the ending of the story is not actually as disjointed or raw as one would perhaps expect of an unfinished work. There is ample suggestion from the beginning of Sergey Mikhaylych and Masha’s relationship that the two lovers do not fully understand each other or themselves, and set expectations for their marriage based on these misunderstandings so that neither character’s expectations can possibly be met. Masha’s eagerness to appear mature enough leads her to put on the affectations of the personality she thinks Sergey is seeking in her, and in doing so she suppresses her own desires by casting them off as childish. Sergey, on the other hand, overestimates the maturity and wisdom of his own feelings by failing to see the distinction between life experience, of which he has a great deal, and romantic experience, of which he has virtually none. He substitutes the former for the latter in his perception of the situation, but in doing so, misconstrues his own desires. These misunderstandings of both themselves and each other are established in the story before the couple marries, and while it is possible for their love to change shape or to end altogether, it is impossible from its beginning for it to maintain its initial passion.
"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.
The story “The Darling” by Anton Chekhov, illustrates a woman that is lonely, insecure, and lacking wholeness of oneself without a man in her life. This woman, Olenka, nicknamed “Darling” is compassionate, gentle and sentimental. Olenka is portrayed for being conventional, a woman who is reliant, diligent, and idea less. Although, this story portrays that this woman, known as the Darling needs some sort of male to be emotionally dependant upon, it is as if she is a black widow, she is able to win affection, but without respect. Only able to find happiness through the refection of the beliefs of her lovers, she never evolves within the story.