The Lady and the Dog
The Lady and the Dog is a story about the affair between Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna . Gurov was a Russian banker spending a season in Yalta when he takes interest in this new woman that arrives called Anna, a young lady who was always accompanied by a little dog. On my opinion, it was stranger and awkward that these two married characters were on a vacation without their spouses.
One can assume an affair is going to happen, given that these two people are alone in a different city and seem to be unhappy at their marriage. Gurov was living a dull relationship with his wife and hadn’t been faithful to her for a long time. He had many affairs through his marriage, but they never meant anything to him because he constructed his character by bitter experiences and had the idea that women are a “lower race”. Although he did not respect women, he felt better in their company that with men. With other man he was colder and didn’t feel like himself. However, he never got attached to any of his affairs and always needed somebody new to fill his need for relationships.
Gurov got married very young, had three children, and it seems that his marriage had reached that point when he was comfortable enough in being unfaithful but not too unsatisfied with his life that he needed to get divorced. He did not like being at home and despised his wife, who he thought was a shallow woman and was secretly afraid of her. His wife looked like she had twice his age.
I believe when he first met Anna, he thought that would be just another affair, as all the other ones he had throughout his marriage. He was attracted by her beauty and youth, but also by the fact that she was a new woman and soon found a way to get acquainted with her. Because he has had too many affairs it seems he was “good” with woman, he had a way of enchanting them and saying the right things to make them fall for him. And just as he expected they kiss on the first day he talks to her and engage in a romance.
Anna felt bad for cheating on her husband what gives the impression that it was the first time she had done that. They spend a lot of time together but knowing that would have to end and they had to go back home. Anna got a call from her husband and have to go back home. They said their good-byes believing they would never see each other again.
Gurov goes back to his house, his work, and his boring life in Moscow. But this time it was different because he could not forget what happened in Yalta. He could not stop thinking about Anna and the romance they had. Differently from all the other women he had met before, there was something special about Anna. Maybe it was her fragility, maybe it was the fact that she felt very guilty by betraying her husband. Perhaps he fell for her because she was the only woman in whom he saw real feeling. He saw in Anna the confusion between falling in love with a strange man and the guilt of being unfaithful. For the first time in his life, Gurov felt the need of speaking about his feelings to somebody else, for the first time he was in love.
He decided he would find Anna again and would declare his love for her. He goes to Anna’s town and by her last name he easily he finds her house. When they finally meet, she tells him about her feelings too and it is clear hay they were both in love with each other. They carry on with the affair, always meeting in hotels and in hidden places and the feelings they have are growing, but there is a big problem because they are both married. Even though it feels right being together, they both had parallel lives and always stumble on this matter, they knew that the end of this story was far away from them. They wondered that they would have to do to make things work and that it is how the story ends. The author does not present a conclusion and one wonders about a happy ending for Gurov and Anna.
In conclusion, I did not like the ending of this story because I was waiting for a surprise, something unexpected that could happen. But the story ends much like it starts, it presents two people who are not happy with the situation they are living, with the way their lives are going when the most obvious solution it is the divorce.
By Edirlene
I don’t agree with your opinion on “it was stranger and awkward that these two married characters were on a vacation without their spouses.” It’s not really awkward because even if people are married, they can have their own times to enjoy vacations without their spouses. Gurov is just on a vacation in Yalta to have his own time. From the bottom of second page, Gurov says, “perhaps her husband, who also needed a rest, would join her.” Anna has a reason why she is in Yalta without her spouse. Thus, it was not strange and awkward to have a vacation without spouses.
Although I disagreed with being on a vacation without spouses, I have same opinion on the ending. I expected that they will break up and get back to their original lives even though they hated their marriages. I also expected “surprise” for the ending. I wonder why the author puts it into the happy ending because I think it would be more excited and got more attentions if it ends up with surprise.
In addition, I also agree that Gurov was “good” with woman. The author says, “There was an elusive charm in his appearance and disposition which attracted women and caught their sympathies. He knew this and was himself attracted to them by some invisible force” (PG1). It explains that he has confidence to attract women because he knows which things make to allure the minds of women. I believe that he really knows how to enjoy with other women.
to Mindy,
Thanks for your input about my text. However, when I say it was strange to me it is because of my background. Although I’ve been living here in America for a while and became very familiar with how things are, my upbringing was completely different and these are things one carries on through life.
In Brazil, people are more family oriented. We do most things as a family. Married people don’t go on vacations on their own.
I understand that. I also immigrated to here 7-8 years ago, still some of mindset don’t change. Since I moved to here, I try to respect the ideas of each of different people although I think that it’s not right based on my cultural background. Like you said, upbringing is different.
I actually think the ending was very effective. Chekhov gives more to the reader than what he actually wrote. The ending turns out to be only the beginning of the story for these two lovers and it leaves us to wonder what will happen next. This ending is also much more realistic. When love is involved, especially in an affair, people are not certain of what they are going to do. The feeling evoked in the ending is more familiar than the typical happily ever after. I think the ending could not have been better.
cm151530- cindy
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