Love in Anton Chekhov’s The Lady with the Dog

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Recommended: Importance of setting in literature

One of the sweet comforts in life is to curl up in a favorite chair with a short story that will briefly carry people away from their everyday lives. On rare occasions, a tale mirrors real life in such a way that one is strangely comforted by the normalcy reflected in the words. A perfect example of a story about ordinary life that will soothe the soul in search for some insight on understanding the human behavior is Anton Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Pet Dog.” This style of writing has such a mass appeal because the characters wear recognizable social masks and reflect an everyday reality. In his simple story of a chance meeting between a middle-aged, chauvinistic, repeat-offender adulterer, unhappily married man, and a young, naïve, in-search-of-something-new, married woman, Chekov paints a picture that gives a startling representation of how these two characters are influenced by the settings in which their chronicle takes place, especially with the budding of their relationship.

Taking place in Yalta, Gurov is a man that describes his wife as a woman with “limited intelligence, narrow-minded, dowdy,” (Chekov 506) and has used these human imperfections as reasons to be unfaithful. And with only minute details about his children and his employment, more emphasis is given to his views on woman, “an inferior race” (Chekov 506), which are no doubt due to the sour experiences he has had in is extramarital affairs. Also, one can use this information and the fact that Yalta is a place where one would go to search out “a swift, fleeting liaison” (Chekov 506) to assess that this man is in Yalta looking for just that. As soon as Gurov gains sight of his prospective candidate and makes first contact with “the lady in the beret” (...

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...d to her different from what he really was, so he had involuntarily deceived her” (Chekov 510).

Chekov has portrayed the complexities of the human condition and the difficulties with communication, both inward and outward. The settings are cleverly represented by imagery that evokes real emotions in the reader who has gazed upon the scene searching for answers to life’s obstacles. There are relationships in life that will change the very way in which one views the surroundings and oneself, and sometimes living vicariously through another’s experience will inflict the same awareness. In conclusion, “The Lady with the Pet Dog” will give any reflective reader’s delicious taste of life in continuous motion, the ongoing cycle of learning to live and accepting being human.

Works Cited:

Chekhov. Anton Pavlovich. "The Lady with the Dog." Trans. Ivy Litvinov. Matlaw

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