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

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