Chekhov limits his story in the same exact way Gurov and Ana limit their relationship with each other. It is obvious that they like each other, even though they are both married. They meet a few times, but it isn’t depicted as more because their relationship isn’t depicted as more. When Gurov kisses her in public, she says “What are you doing,… people are coming this way!” Chekhov depicts surface-level meetings between the two to emphasize the surface-level relationship between the two, though in the end it seems they want to make more of it.
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While their relationship is depicted as being very surface-level, meaning can still be derived from it based on their progressive interactions. Every time that they meet different aspects of their affair-turned-relationship is shown. In limiting the different aspects of their relationship shown, and ending with a “cliff hanger,” Chekhov leaves their relationship open to more interpretation. A degree to which would not be possible if Chekhov were to go into greater detail about the relationship.