What does the story tell us about Chekhov’s beliefs about people’s capacity for self-knowledge?/How does one reconcile Gurov’s apparent misogyny with his newfound of love of Anna Sergeyevna?


This text is significant to me because it shows how little Gurov knew himself. He considered himself a lady killer, but in the end, he proved to be a lovesick man who had not met the right woman. His wife, the person who perhaps knew him best, even if they were not meant to be with one another, is the one that ends up pointing this out to him. She knew that Gurov was no lady-killer. In fact, this might be how Gurov may have gotten away with his affairs, as his wife intuited that he was the type of man to value love and commitment even when he did not realize it. By contrast, Gurov believed himself to be above love, and to only see women as objects. While I am on this topic, I would also like to address the question of how one can reconcile Gurov’s apparent misogyny with his newfound love for Anna. Gurov was definitely behaving in a misogynistic way and that is not to be overlooked. However, it seems to me that Gurov’s misogyny partly stems from his society. He devalues women because his society devalues women to the point that when he actually falls in love, there is nobody to say this to. His society values marriage, faith, and appearances more than actual love and women’s qualities as equal companions. He behaves in a misogynistic way because that is what he knows, until he meets the woman that he actually loves and sees that women can be companions and provide emotional happiness.