A fantasy can be as simple as skydiving, or as complex as walking on the Moon. It can be said that most people have a fantasy of some fashion. Moreover, nearly everyone aspires to live out his or her fantasy at some point in time. Both Paul, an adolescent, in Willa Cather’s “Paul’s case,” (1905) and Dmitri Gurov, a middle aged man, in Anton Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog,” (1899) have lives that are against their wishes which urges them to live out their fantasies. The places where they live, and the authoritative figures in their life, though, unfortunately prevent them from permanently achieving their dreams. Both characters in these short stories demonstrate that where a person comes from is where he or she will return, although momentarily a fantasy world can be obtained.
Both of these characters live in a world that they find unfavorable; however, both long to live out their fantasies despite their location. In “Paul’s Case,” Paul misbehaves in school and expresses a strong dislike towards his home life. For example, while returning home after working as an usher at Carnegie Hall, he describes his home and living quarters as “…his ugly sleeping chamber; the cold bathroom with the grimy zinc tub, the cracked mirror, the dripping spigots…” (494). However, on the other hand, he is able to “lose himself” while admiring artwork and music (491). The bedroom typically is seen as a sanctuary for a young adolescent, a place where he or she can be whatever he or she desires, but in Paul’s situation, it is portrayed as a miserable prison where he feels uncomfortable. He has a desire to be a part of the world in which participation in the arts is favorable. Similar to Paul, Anton Chekov’s character, Dmitri Gurov desires to live out his fantasies of love. Gurov becomes interested in this woman named Anna Sergeyevna, however, the only thing in common between them is that they are both are spending time in Yalta. Gurov lives in Moscow and Sergeyevna lives in a location that is referred to as “S___” (514). Despite the fact that he and she live in separate cities, Gurov insists on pursuing an affair with Sergeyevna. However, he knows that, “…ever affair which at first seems a light and charming adventure inevitably grows into a whole problem of extreme complexity, and in the end a painful situation is created” (513).
In “Nevsky Prospect,” the third person narrator pulls double duty by describing two stories that parallel each other in time. After describing the seemingly harmless bustling avenue, mustaches, and clothing of Nevsky Prospect, the narrator happens to come upon two different characters: an artist and an officer. First, he follows the artist and right away, the narrator seems to be absorbed in the world of the artist. We see this occur when it is often hard to tell when the artist is dreaming or awake. The narrat...
Throughout the short story, “The Lady with the Lapdog”, Chekhov’s strays away from the classical love story expectations by realistically portraying Anna's and Gurov's relationship. Chekhov follows the structure for a romantic tale to a bare minimum, but, ultimately, diverts from the commonly known aspects of a love story, as described by author Leigh Michaels’ “The Essential Elements of Writing a Romance Novel”. Chekok’s alteration from a classical love story thwarts the reader’s expectations by demonstrating realism and uncertainty found in human nature. Chekhov’s technique of applying a realistic lens on this couple raises more questions than answers, leaving much ambiguity for the reader’s own interpretation. By exploring the nuances in human nature, Chekhov illustrates a forbidden love that juxtaposes the universal rubric for what a love story should contain.
At the end of “Leopoldina’s Dream” by Silvina Ocampo, we find out that the story has been told, not by a human narrator as we may have assumed in our anthropomorphic self-satisfaction, but by a little dog who, along with his mistress, Leopoldina, has--Virgin Mary-like--been assumed into Heaven. We are left with the puzzle of where this story, this plot, this narrative enunciation, could have come from. Heaven? A dream of Heaven? The end crosses the means; the story undoes the plot. More, since the first part of the story concerns Leopoldina’s miraculous ability to bring back objects from her dreams, the tale, narrative itself here, resembles one of these objects, brought back, mysteriously, from some other place, dream world or Heaven. Leopoldina’s dream-objects, much to the frustration of the little girls she looks after, are poor things, stones, grass. The narrative, likewise, is a poor object, a mundane miracle, produced by the simple yet frustratingly seductive crossing of narrative options.
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 ...
Anna Sergeyevna is a young woman alone on vacation with her dog. We know she is married but the author doesn’t go into her character a great deal, at least not to the extent of Dmitri. Perhaps it’s not important.
Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky, more commonly known in English transliteration as Constantin Stanislavski was a Russian actor and director. He developed the naturalistic acting technique known as the "Stanislavsky method". He was born under the name Konstantin Sergeyevich Alekseyev in Moscow, Russia, in January 1863. He was born into one of the richest Russian families the Alexeyevs. They made their fortune with their factories creating gold and silver braiding for military decorations and uniforms. Stanislavsky was his adopted pseudonym, which he gave himself in 1885, as he had to hide his acting activities away from his family. The idea of becoming an actor was unthinkable for someone of his social status. Therefore, he had to perform
Though Dmitri had a wife, he had a wandering eye and often tried to hook up with estranged women that come visit his city. He packed a bag and set off to Anna's city in hopes of finding her. As he searched high and low he found where she lived and was desperate to be with her again, but did not knock on the door due to the fear of her husband may answer the door. He craved to see her another time, and after camping out in front of her house for endless hours, the door opened and out came an older lady walking Anna’s tongue.
In ‘Paul’s Case’ Paul has created a fantasy world in which he becomes entranced, even to the point of lying to classmates about the tales of grandeur and close friendships that he had made with the members of the stock company. This fantasy falls apart around him as “the principle went to Paul’s father, and Paul was taken out of school and put to work. The manager at Carnegie Hall was told to get another usher in his stead; the doorkeeper at the theater was warned not to admit him to the house” (Cather 8). The fantasy fell apart further when the stories he had told his classmates reached the ears of the women of the stock company, who unlike their lavish descriptions from Paul were actually hardworking women supporting their families. Unable to cope with the reality of working for Denny & Carson, he stole the money he was supposed to deposit in the bank to live the life of luxury in New York. Only a person who felt backed into a corner would attempt something so unsound. After his eight days in paradise, he is again backed into a corner by the reality of his middle class upbringing, and the dwindling time he has before his father reaches New York to find him. The final way out for Paul is his suicide, for which an explanation would be “In the end, he fails to find his security, for it was his grandiose “picture making mechanism” that made his life so deardful.” (Saari). With all the securities of his fantasy life finally gone, his mental instability fully comes to light as he jumps in front of the train to end his
The conflict between good and evil is one of the most common conventional themes in literature. Coping with evil is a fundamental struggle with which all human beings must contend. Sometimes evil comes from within a character, and sometimes other characters are the source of evil; but evil is always something that the characters struggle to overcome. In two Russian novels, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, men and women cope with their problems differently. Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment and the Master in The Master and Margarita can not cope and fall apart, whereas Sonya in Crime and Punishment and Margarita in The Master and Margarita, not only cope but pull the men out of their suffering.
Anton Chekhov lived in a small town in southern Russia ,called Taganrog, with his mother ,Yevgeniya, and father ,Pevel, and five other siblings. His father owned a small shop in town and his mother tended to their children. After Chekhov's father's business failed his family fled to Moscow to avoid debtor's prison. Chekhov ,sixteen now, was left behind for two years to finish his studies. After reuniting with his family and still studying medicine Chekhov was burdened with the responsibility of providing for his family. Producing as many stories as possible was the only way Chekhov could provide for his family, even after becoming a physician. After writing several notable pieces for newspapers he was contacted by Dimitri Grigorovich who
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
Though Anton Chekhov's "The Bet" was written in a different country at a different time, it portrays a timeless theme; greed is a crippling trait of mankind. This message can be seen through the author's use of characterization of both the lawyer and the banker. The banker was a static character; he was greedy from start to finish. The lawyer was a dynamic character and he saw the wrong in his ways and changed them in the end.
The ability to observe different varieties of things on a daily basis is a huge part of everyone’s lives. The power of the individual mind comes from its capacity to apply these observations, which may sometimes incorporate some misconceptions that result in dire repercussions. In “The Devil,” Leo Tolstoy tells the story of Evgeny Irtenev, a young man who finds himself in a position of relentless lust after inheriting his father’s country estate. Before finding the right woman to marry as well as being accustomed to readily available sexual services, Evgeny arranges numerous encounters with a married peasant woman, who he continues to see until he meets his prospective wife. After being in a perceivably happy marriage for more than a year,
First, we take a look at two of the protagonist, Vladimir and Estragon have a very comical and nonsense relationship, completely opposites, they however compliment one another perfectly and offset the lonesomeness and personality of each one another. Vladimir for example is good at recollecting things and events, constantly he reminds Estragon of events past or of things such as the gospels in the Bible, whereas Estragon keeps forgetting things and sometimes cannot remember...
Although these authors don’t concur on the views of society, it is true that fantasy for men will always exist as an optional escape of the reality of the complex and crude world. There needs to be an equilibrium point between reality and fantasy, to avoid insanity in men kind. This balance point among these two ideals is what will keep a culture and society growing strong throughout the ages.