“Edwards’s Former Aide Testifies on Their Friendship’s Demise” in connection with The Lady with the Dog

The desperate need for a secret life arises in the New York Times article titled “Edwards’s Former Aide Testifies on Their Friendship’s Demise” on page A12, dated April 12, 2012 and The Lady with the Dog by Anton Chekhov. The character in The Lady with the Dog, Dmitri Dmitritch Gurov, takes an interest to a married woman and has an affair with her. He is also married throughout this affair. He admits that love affairs are a charming adventure that leads to problems (A, 897). However, he cannot help himself in cheating on his wife continuously as he goes on to say, “But at every fresh meeting with an interesting woman this experience seems to slip out of his memory, and he was eager for life, and everything seemed simple and amusing” (A, 897).

It is important for one to pay close attention to Dmitri’s statement of being “eager for life.” He feels that by having love affairs with new women, he is “living life”, so to speak. Furthermore, he feels that, “…[E]very man had his real, most interesting life under the cover of secrecy  and under the cover of night… All personal life rested on secrecy…[P]ersonal privacy should be respected” (A, 905). Apparently, every man not only has a need for a private life, but in fact does partake in one.

Finally, in connection with the New York Times article, John Edwards refutes accusations against his former aide for using funds meant to support his campaign to finance and hide an affair with another woman. He was also married during the affair. Based on Dmitri’s hypothesis on a man’s need for a secret life, it would seem that Edwards desperately desired to have something in his life that no one would know about. Could it be because his life was so public? Seeing that women also partake in secret lives and affairs, it could be that all people need a part of their life hidden that no one knows about.