Anna is different and by being so she strikes a chord in Gurov. Gurov sees purity in Anna. He sees naivety and innocence. He made a reference to some of Anna’s actions to the lessons his own daughter did. Gurov throughout the text compared Anna with the previous women he has been with. He described the previous women, some being careless, some being neutral, some being cold. His feeling towards these women was hatred. At first impression, Gurov secretly thought negatively of Anna and was somewhat scared of her. But, as the story progresses we find out he feels differently about Anna. At one point when he saw her his heart contracted, something which didn’t happen in past experiences with women. Anna was different in a way to Gurov, something that broke the cycle of the same types of women. He only realizes that he loves her at the end in Moscow.
One thought on “How does one reconcile Gurov’s apparent misogyny with his newfound of love of Anna Sergeyevna?”
Comments are closed.
Meeting Anna has definitely influenced the way that Gurov views women and relationships. Gurov even goes as far as to call women “the lower race” (page 1) and constantly talks down upon them, despite his reliance on their attention. Even initially upon meeting Anna, he has negative feelings about her and calls her pathetic. However, as their relationship progresses, it is evident that his passion for her strengthens and felt feelings for her that he had never felt for any other women.