— Anonymous
Anton Chekov’s “The Lady with the Dog” teaches the readers never give up on finding your true love, as the arranged marriage could be suffering for both the parent and the children. However, many people won’t follow this notion in real life due to many reasons. In my experience so far, I have witnessed several people around me responded differently to the idea of finding the true love. In the Chinese culture, arranged marriage has been existed for a long time and it is still quite popular among the young people today. Some of my cousins were first tried to find their other half by their own, however, they failed. One of my cousins turned up to arranged marriage. She accepts the boy her family refers to her, because she wants a family, so there will be someone she can relies on when she gets old. However, two of my cousins decided to stay single, because they think it is better to be single rather than to live with a person you don’t truly love. It will be suffering for both the man and the woman in this love relationship. Furthermore, one of my aunties remained single after her husband deceased couple years they got married. Now she regretted she didn’t take her father’s advice seriously, which is to find another partner. Now she lives alone and all by herself for everything. In the Chinese culture, the idea of the marriage is very important, because the Chinese treat the blood line as the top priority. You will be judged if you don’t give birth to a boy or even more seriously if you don’t have any kids at all. As I read Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog”, I can feel what Dmitri feels. I understand Dimitri doesn’t want to shame his family, so he marries the girl whom he totally doesn’t love. He’s compromised to arranged marriage but not love. Likewise, I have witnessed a similar story from my friend. My friend’s father got two families, because the wife he married to didn’t give him a boy and she can’t give any birth since they already had two girls and the Chinese One Kid Policy at that time put a heavy fine on them. After my friend’s whole family immigrated to U.S., her father had an affair with another lady in hope she can give him a boy. Actually, she did. Her father and that lady had one girl and one boy. Sadly, the wife knew everything and can’t do anything about it. She still stays with him. I can see the commonalities between Dimtri and my friend’s father. They both did not want to shame their families, so they compromised. They treat the reputation more important than the true love. Chekhov’s text is still relevant in 2020, because some people will end up compromising to arranged marriage like Dmitri as they fail to find their true love at first or because of the family reputation, while some people will end up being single. Sometimes, people don’t really have a choice while they pursue love. There are many factors affecting them to find the true one, such as family social status, income, expectations, and family structure.