“The Lady with the Dog” by Anton Chekhov is depicting a story of a forty-year-old man named Dmitri Gurov with a young married woman named Anna Sergeyevna where they ended up having an affair. One thing that caught my attention when I was reading is the plot of this story. It follows a regular story plot where it started with exposition and then conflicts came in that led the story to the climax. On the other hand, the conclusion of this story is quite unique where the conflict ended up unresolved. I am quite disappointed at the end where I was expecting a “happily ever after” ending,
The story began at a sea front of Yalta where Gurov encountered with a woman with a dog, where people know her as “The Lady with the Dog”, that seemed lonely. Gurov decided to make her acquaintance, which this is for the numerous times that he had betrayed his wife by having affairs with many different women. Gurov dislikes his marriage because of her bad-tempered wife. The marriage life was ruined where it seems like Gurov himself was the main problem. He is easily falling in love with an attracted woman, where he states, “every time he encountered an attractive woman he forgot all about his experience the desire for life surged up in him, and everything suddenly seemed simple and amusing” (Chekhov 1524). In addition to that, Anna herself was not happy with her marriage life as well, thus, it leads them to having an affair.
Before they ended up going to Anna’s room, she used to be a very kind and honest women where she seemed affair as something “very special, very serious” (Chekov 1527). She felt that she’s very wicked, fallen woman and sinned. On the other hand, Gurov seemed affair as something that is ordinary for him because he sees women as “lower race” and he does not care about relationship at all. After this incident happened, Anna felt very guilty for betraying his husband that has been loyal to her all that time.
All of a sudden, Anna received a mail from her husband urging her to go home because he was having a trouble with his eyes. They have to separate and Anna was “happy” for that because she thought that she shouldn’t have slept with Dmitri. When she leaves him, she states “It’s a good thing I am going … It’s the intervention of fate” (Chekov 1529). In reality, Anna is sad to go back to her home because actually she loves Dmitri but at one point, she feels guilty for having an affair even though her husband was flunky; she does not know what her husband does in his office. At the end, she knows that it is the right to do for just leaving Dmitri and pretends that they have never met before.
Gurov decided to go back to Moscow where his three children and his wife live. He believes that after a month without seeing her, his feeling to Anna would be just a vague memory. His thought is wrong this time. In every thing that he did, Anna’s face came into his mind. He always dreaming about Anna and smiling for long time. After certain time, his feeling to Anna becomes stronger and stronger until she’s no longer in his dreams but she follows him everywhere. He even says that “when he closed his eyes, she seemed to stand before him in the flesh, still lovelier, younger, tenderer than she had really been and looking back, he saw himself, too, as better than he had been in Yalta” (Chekhov 1530).
At the end of the story, he decided to go to Anna’s house and confessed to her that he never loved a woman the way he loves her. Long story short, they finally met at a theater and Anna was shocked until she turned pale and still she didn’t believe that man he saw was Dmitri. After a long conversation, Anna confesses that she still loves him and she decided to keep the relationship going and she promised to visit him in Moscow. At the end, they forgave each other and forgot the past where they knew that the love between them had changed them.
As a conclusion, this reading is pretty interesting for me because the story is unpredictable where I did not expect that Anna would keep the relationship going with Dmitri. At the end of the reading, the author did not end the story with a solid conclusion where, for me, the conflicts are remaining unresolved.
By Timothy
The story definitely did not have a “happily ever after ending.” Nevertheless I would disagree that it lacks a conclusion altogether. On the last page, just before Dmitri and Anna are getting ready to make love, Dmitri catches a good look at himself in the mirror. He notices how much his appearance has aged since both him and Anna have been getting together. This reminded me of the novel “Picture of Dorian Gray.” In the novel, the protagonist remais healthy in a appearance, however with every immoral act, the picture of him becomes old and withered. This reflects the same expirience Dmitri is encountering. Although he receives pleasures with his alternate life, the secrecy the relationship demands in addition to the sleepless nights he experiences, while absent from Anna’s presence, places a large toll of stress over him which shows through his withered appearance.
In the end, I would argue the conclusion is the sense of incompleteness Dimitri experiences. I’m sure we have all heard the expression the grass is always greener. Dimitri needs to hold on to the thrill that comes along with Anna. In life we need to be chasing toward a goal or a dream, if we don’t it is difficult to find a point to life. While Dimitri thinks he would prefer an easy life with Anna as his wife and for this to be accepted by society. He would find himself in the same boredom he experiences with his wife, not before long. It is the thrill that he seeks and the thrill that keeps his passion burning for Anna.
Timothy,
It is sad you are disappointed with the absence of “happily ever after” ending. The story shows us how the American, British prose differs from European (including French and Russian literature especially). When you read the later you have to be prepared that this literature values not for the story map but for the feelings the story raises.
Chekhov’s “Lady with a Dog” is the story about changes that occur in our lives under the influence of love. Chekhov asks us if we are capable of fighting, fighting for what is could be called the purpose of living. Chekhov is a very remarkable writer for his talent to depict ordinary life, making us reconsider and restructure our lives; Chekhov forces us to appreciate the life. Precious thoughts are stated in the story: “What wasted evenings, what tedious, empty days!… there was nothing to show for it all but a stunted WINGLESS existence and a round of trivialities…” Chekhov is saying to us: “Look around! Do you want this wingless existence to be your life?! NO? So, change your life, make it Better! Make it unordinary”
Also, I would like to add a remark that Chekhov is a gem for theater plays. Majority of his stories became screen plays for world-known theaters.
I too was pretty disappointed with the ending of the story. The ending was pretty confusing. I thought that it would be a “happily every after” ending like you thought. This story made me think of the soap operas that I used to watch where a man and woman fall in love. They would have this passionate relationship or affair and then one of them for some reason has to leave and then the other after a couple of months have to go search for their true love. Then they would end up together and happy. This story was extremely interesting, I couldn’t stop reading it because I wanted to see what would happen, if he would find her in the theatre and if she would go back to him. As we saw on the story, Anna and Dmitri were unhappy with their marriages. Their spouses were more busy with other things. Dmitri’s wife was definitely a very narrow-minded woman who in my opinion only cared about herself. She called herself the thinker, she obviously wasn’t what she referred herself as according to her husband. Anna’s husband seemed like a busy man who should have spent more time with her. The reason why she went back to her husband was probably because she felt pity for him, since she still was in love with Dmitri when he went back to look for her. Both Anna and Dmitri fell out of love. It’s really sad to see this, but that’s what happens in marriages and that is one of the reasons as to why people have affairs. Even though having an affair is wrong, it’s something that happens and if it does happen then the best thing to do is to end your marriage than to keep living an unhappy life.
In my opinion, this story doesn’t have a happy ending. In the end they probably split up. The title is called lady with the dog, it gives the sense that its just another chapter in a dating book. What I think happened is that after dating for a while, they eventually broke up because they know that the relationship between them could not exist. The society at this time period forbids the affairs. Anna knows the problem between them and yet she continues with it. She often cries because she knows that the relationship wouldn’t last. Although Dimitri often comforts her and make her feel better, eventually they would have the sudden realization that in reality, their relationship wouldn’t work. I think another reason why the relationship wouldn’t work is because that one of the main reason why Dimitri dates Anna because Anna is young and that it gives him satisfaction because it makes him feel young again. I feel like this because of the scene when he looks in the mirror and he feels younger. Because Anna is young and new, there’s something different about her to Dimitri, but once she gets old, he wont like her anymore. The main difference between the couple is difference in the view of the affair. Anna thinks its wrong that’s why shes always crying about it afterwards. She kept crying, even at the end, and it felt like Dimitri was getting tired of it, because he’s like “”Stop crying, my dearest,” he said. “You’ve had your cry, now stop. . . “ Ii think this is a hint that the relationship might not last. Dimitri thinks its ok to have affairs because he show no regret , he has done this many times before and he might do it again, to Anna. I like his story, because it gives the sense of realism and let you see it from your point of view and let you decide what’s going to happen next.
Thank you for the clear summary. Especially, I like the certain contrast between the thought of the man and woman regarding their behavior in the third paragraph of your blog post. I definitely agree with your explanation. In this story, they both have the same feeling each other, and do bad behavior together. However, they think differently about what they do. The man does not feel any guilty because he thinks women are “lower race” than men while the woman feels a lot of guilty for cheating on her husband. I think that it shows the difference of social position between men and women those days, and this may be one of things that Anton Chekhov wants to say about through this short story. The fact that this story was published in 1899 where there were many movements to improve women’s social position supports the idea that the author points out the problem of the difference of social position between men and women. It is similar to the literature “A Room of One’s Own” that its purpose is to give women some advice to be in better social position. So through the story, Chekhov explains not only the unfairness between men and women, but also the necessity that women’s awareness of their position should be changed.
I agree with you I was also slightly disapointed by the ending of the story. I think perhaps Chekhov may have ended it this way simply because it is more realistic or perhaps it is a comment about the uncertainty of Anna and Dmitris relationship. I am sure we all have wondered whether they would remain together after the excitement of there relationship dwindled. I think this is meant to remain unknown because the theme of uncertainty and secrecy runs throughout the story. We see at a certain point in the story Dmitri even begins to question wether it is love he feels for Anna when he says Was it love that he had felt? Had there been anything exquisite, Poetic’ anything instructive or even amusing about his relations with Anna Sergeyevna” nonetheless at a different points we can clearly see Anna is different from the women he previously had affairs with and that she has a transformative effect on him. Anna is very different from other women to him but going back to the theme of uncertainty we also feel this through there constant meet ups in hotels and vacation spots where no one even knows identity in the beginging she is simply The Lady with the Dog. We also get a feeling of uncertainty when we wonder if there secret relationship will be discovered by others. I think this short story speaks to the uncertainties in life. Gurov did not know he would fall in love at an old age he does not even know if it is love he feels he does not know whether or not they will end up together or whether this relationship will be accepted by their society there are so many obstacles therefore i believe the ending is left ambiguous.
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