The Lady With The Pet Dog Analysis

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In Anton Chekhov 's story "The Lady With the Pet Dog" the main themes in the story are romance and deception, which both completely contradict each other. In this story there was no climax or conclusion but Chekhov wrote it in a way that keeps readers engaged. There seems to be almost no point to this story by the end, however with Chekhov 's writing technique he was able to create a story that draws readers’ attention. There were multiple internal conflicts in "The Lady With the Pet Dog” that the two main characters faced. Gurov believes that women are the "inferior race" because the women that he usually slept with all had husbands because that it what he got the most pleasure out of. He thought that he was doing all of the other women …show more content…

The main internal conflict is Gurov versus himself and Anna versus herself. The two of them are having trouble keeping the secret of their love from everyone else “at the end of the story, the couple 's problem--how to keep their love for each other alive while hiding the relationship from society--remains unresolved” (Creasman). Gurov also had his own internal conflict, deceiving women and making them cheat on their husbands, because he is not secure with himself and does is not competent in how to be a decent husband. “Gurov expects the encounter with Anna to be as brief and casual as his earlier affairs, and the story turns on his surprised recognition that something more significant has happened to him” (Fulford). Before this he never saw women as equals and called them the “inferior race” since he could make them “grateful to him for the happiness he gave them” …show more content…

Anna and Gurov fell in love with each other quickly. Gurov realized in the middle of the story that he was in love with her and traveled all the way to her hometown to go visit her and tell her how he felt, which is the most romantic thing that he has done in the story. Anna and Gurov did as much as they could to see each other, which creates the second theme of deception. The two main characters snuck around behind their spouses backs to have their secret affair. Anna even lied to her husband and told him that she was sick just to see Gurov. The two themes clash because they are romantic to themselves, but they are creating a distance between their spouses who they have been with for many years and should love

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