Love and Morality “Lady with Lapdog” is a short story written by a well known writer, Anton Chekhov.
Chekhov writes a realistic story about Gurov and Anna, who fall in love, but are confined to their old lives with their other spouses. The overall message of the story is what love is and whether love is more important than morality as well as how “love” can transform someone. Chekhov uses many strategies as well as his straight forward writing to help address what love is and why love is more important than morality. One factor that leads us to believe that Chekhov values love over morality, is his characters, Gurov, Gurov’s wife, Anna, and Anna’s husband. Gurov, The main lead is constantly unfaithful to his wife and it is clear that he
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Before Anna arrived Gurov believed that women were of a “lower race” and had multiple affairs with women that he had no connection with and at first Anna seems no different from the rest. When Anna leaves Yalta Gurov can’t help but feel sad of her departure and his encounter with her seemed to spark a change in Gurov, “He was moved and sad, and felt a slight remorse. After all, this young woman whom he would never again see had not been really happy with him. He had been friendly and affectionate with her, but in his whole behavior, in the tones of his voice, in his very caresses, there had been a shade of irony, the insulting indulgence of the fortunate male, who was, moreover, almost twice her age. She had insisted in calling him good, remarkable, high-minded. Evidently he had appeared to her different from his real self, in a word he had involuntarily deceived her. . . .”(2) Gurov realizes that he hasn’t been his true self because he's been living a double life one with his family and another in Yalta. After Gurov returned to his home town of Moscow, he told himself that he would forget about the time he spent with her and that he would continue with his ordinary life, but that was not the case. Love drove Gurov to see her again. “He would pace up and down his room for a long time, smiling at his memories, and then memory turned into dreaming, and what had happened mingled in his …show more content…
For example, Yalta is a vacation spot where Gurov meets the love of his life Anna, making it a place of excitement and new beginnings. “...these stories of easy conquests, of excursions to the mountains, came back to him, and the seductive idea of a brisk transitory liaison, an affair with a woman whose very name he did not know, suddenly took possession of his mind.”(1) This shows that Gurov has been in Yalta before and it helps convey the excitement of being in Yalta away from his family. But when Anna leaves Yalta, the mood changes and Gurov loses the excitement of being there and returns back to Moscow. “There was an autumnal feeling in the air, and the evening was chilly. "It's time for me to be going north, too," thought Gurov, as he walked away from the platform. "High time!”(2) While back in Moscow the mood of the story completely changes going from a warm, exciting encounter to a cold and lonely return. “When he got back to Moscow it was beginning to look like winter; the stoves were heated every day, and it was still dark when the children got up to go to school and drank their tea, so that the nurse had to light the lamp for a short time. Frost had set in.”(3) The setting goes with the mood as Gurov longs for Anna in the cold and lonely place of Moscow. A smaller example of setting can be witnessed during the first love scene Gurov has with Anna, “Her room was stuffy and smelt of some
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,
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 ...
... destroy and reinstate the bonds of family and Russian nationalism. Turgenev explores hoe this generational divide interacts with the division among classes and how the powers of the aristocracy affects the younger generation and feminine identity. Throught these interactions the power of love as redemption is seen in the relationship between Arkady and Katya as well as Anna and Bazarov. The women in Fathers and Sons symbolize the diversity found within the same class and generational margins these women challenge the men they encounter and cease power over their relationships. The struggle for power, between the sexes is dependent upon the roles and social standings of the perspective character. The female characters whether aristocratic or dependent, “mothers” or “daughters” find power in their gender and utilize their womanly intellect to find eventual resolve.
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
In addition, Chekhov also utilizes allegory, imagery and symbolism. The Geisha, for example, serves as an a...
The story Heart of a Dog brings us to the flat of an outstanding surgeon of 20s, Philip Philipovich Preobrashenzky, who makes money by rejuvenation operations. One day he decides to experiment with his work on restoring youth by injecting hypophysis of a dead man into the brain of the stray dog Sharik. However, everything goes completely wrong when Sharik starts to turn into human. Unexpected transformation leads to an arrogant and ungrateful person Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov. He is rude with people, drinks a lot, harasses women, and with all that is firmly convinced in his rightness. Sharikov gets acquainted with the prolet...
Anton Chekov is said be extremely modest about his extraordinary ability to empathize with the characters that he wrote about in his stories. He was careful not stereotype any of the characters he portrayed nor did he over dramatize the story’s plot. The characters emotions and reactions to those emotions were the vehicle for the stories plot. Chekov only desired to write about real people with real feelings which allowed his writings such as “The Lady with the Little Dog”, the seriousness and sympathy it deserves. Chekov emphasized on the man and the woman always being “ the two pole [of every story] (p. 949). Just as there are pulls toward poles of the earth so are the pulls on the characters in his stories; these pulls being forces of life and life circumstance. “The Lady with the Little Dog” demonstrates how reality forces undesired role play between a man and woman in love which is one of the definitive of literary realism established by Professor Agatucci; “[The Lady with the Little Dog] is an example of “A slice of life” such as ordinary people of contemporary times live in society caught up by social forces” (p. 3). The story’s main characters, Anna and Dimitri, their desire to be together are conflicted with the duties they have in common which are husband and wife to two different people. However, the love that Dimitri and Anna share represents the struggle of duties just as the desire for most people in society to want to break from reality.
It seems as though Pyotr and Alexeich both represent different aspects of Chekhov’s father, and Chekhov himself is Anna. Chekov’s father was aloof from his family and came from a lower class background; like Modest Alexeich, Chekhov’s father also fawned at the feet of his social superiors. Chekhov, in contrast, was an unconventional boy. He eventually broke from his family’s lower class position and became a doctor; however, throughout his school and career he performed additional odd jobs to earn money he could send to his father. Also like Anna, Chekhov loved to be with people (Payne xiii, xvii-xxi). Comparing the two, then, it would seem as if Chekhov identifies with Anna as she struggles to find her social identity and wrestles with her desires and the needs of those she loves. This tone gives the story a melancholy mood and leads to a bittersweet conclusion. The ending seems happy for Anna, yet the reader is left to wonder what the ending represents. Did her father and husband receive the dues for their behavior? Are Anna’s actions a normal product of the transformation from youth to adulthood, or did she come to completely discard respect and
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
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
The motif of infidelity is predominantly evident in the love affair between Vronsky and Anna. From their very first encounter at the train station, it was clear that this relationship was destined for destruction. Their relationship takes on a very deceptive and superficial quality. Vronsky knew from the very beginning about Anna’s marital status, yet this did not dissuade his attraction to her, or his adulterous relationship with her later on. It is important to note that it is Vronsky’s frivolous nature that is responsible for his inability to fully love Anna with the passion that she so desperately needs from him. Vronsky initially believes that he loves Anna, but Tolstoy shows the reader that Vronsky’s love for her is not absolute. His love is not based upon firm emotional commitment, and it is easily questioned and redefined. Eventually, Anna’s love becomes burdensome to him because he remains steeped in the pursuit of his own freedom and pleasures, without placing importance on Anna’s tormented existence. Vronsky is dishonest with himself. He begins a relationship that he is not ready for. He believes that he can love Anna in “the right way,” yet he cannot. Their relationship will be destroyed not by an outside party but by their own hands.
“The Lady with the Dog” by Anton Chekhov, is a story about love and admiration. Dmitri loved Anna because she seemed to be so much like himself for they are both in unhappy loveless marriages. I
"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.
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 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.