Chekhov and Oates "The Lady with the Pet Dog" Comparison

The setting shows the time and place in which a situation occurs. In story “The Lady with the Pet Dog”, the situations take different places throughout the narrative. The story begins with Gurov sitting in a café in Yalta when he first sees the character Anna Sergeevna with whom he becomes fascinated. Yalta is a vacation spot and Gurov is already well known of his adventures and immoral behavior. While on vacation there, he realizes that this place does not have too much to do other than meet new people. Since he has already known many women vacationing on this resort, he decides to switch his interests on the new arrivals. Once he meets Anna Sergeyevna, the setting takes place again in Yalta near the sea. Chekhov provides a detailed description of the sea and the romance of the location including "the chirrup of the grasshoppers," "the heat," and "the smell of the sea.” Chekhov describes a stroll Anna and Gurov take as "the scenery

The point of view in the story is the third person because there is a narrator who

Anton Chekhov in “the Lady with the Dog,” brilliantly displays the quest of one man to find happiness. Anton Chekhov’s short story, The Lady with the Little Dog, is the simple story of a philandering married man who finally falls in love with an unhappily married woman with whom he has an affair.  Though it is a remarkably simple plot, the story is compelling to read because Chekhov’s use of two effective plot devices with diction and symbolism.

The story is written as a second person narrative. This style puts the reader in the position of the main character. We are never told the main character’s name, making it easier for the reader to relate to the character. Writing in the second person also challenges the reader, putting them in the position of the main character.

Although Chekhov emphasized in the beginning of the text that money holds power as shown by Anna and Modest Alexeich’s relationship, Chekhov shifts the power dynamic by introducing Anna’s beauty and sense of empowerment and now Anna has a new sense of awareness and power. Following the ball, His Excellency “[thanks Anna] for her part in the bazaar” and asked her permission to come again (283). After establishing herself and her influence at the ball, His Excellency’s visit to Anna truly places emphasis on her role at the ball. Having one of the highest member of society personally visit and thank Anna gave her the highest sense of empowerment as this moment proves to be significant. Most notably when her husband looks at her with the “cringingly respectful expression that she was accustomed to see on his face in the presence of the illustrious and the powerful,” and she confidently and clearly articulated the following statement, “Get out, you blockhead!” (283). Compared to the confined and powerless young lady Chekhov presented in the beginning of the plot,

In Anton Chekhov’s short story, The Lady with the pet Dog, Dmitry Dmitrich Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna are bound together, not by love, but by their psychological needs. Both need to believe in a phenomenon deeper and more meaningful than each of their despised lives and for this reason; they think the intimacy between them, fueled by desperation, is love. . In reality, the relationship between Gurov and Anna is characterized by lies, boredom with reality, and a desire for self-satisfaction. Physiologically, neither Gurov nor Anna posses the qualities needed to genuinely love another person. In order to do so, one must love themselves, an attribute neither one

“The Lady with the Dog” is eloquently written in realism techniques to instigate the dilemma of contrast between this “sweet delirium” and “ uninteresting, uneventful days” (900, 902). Realism philosophically “relies on accurate, detailed descriptions of everyday actions… within the world and it does not focus on idealistic values“ such as passion and adventure (Adams). “Representative of middle-class lifestyle,” Gurov is guided by Chekhov’s words to “show the audience the lives of ordinary [and perhaps unsatisfied] people” (Adams). Chekhov meticulously writes in length about the grueling small-talk of Gurov and Anna while meeting the first time:

Gurov and Anna ultimately want to be together. The obvious solution is to divorce their current spouses and remarry. Anton Chekhov could have had them create a plan to divorce their spouses, possibly on the basis of unhappiness if the judge required them to give a reason. He had already established that Gurov and Anna were miserable with their current spouses, so they would have been telling the truth. After an appropriate period of suspenseful waiting, Gurov and Anna learn that the paperwork is approved, the marriages are dissolved, and the couple is free to marry each other.

Chekhov in The Name-Day Party focuses on Olga and her relationship with her husband, Chekhov appreciation for women is portrayed (Finke, 2005). Chekhov’s work maintains a continuity of appreciation for the endurance and humaneness of women in the face of afflicted and patriarchal prejudice that fits in this feminist-oriented era. Chekhov, though not liberal or conservative politically have rejected all theories that generalize about life. Chekhov instead has put his faith in the people. On another case, the central female characters in The Lady with the Dog have been portrayed in comparable manner. Dmitri’s wife and Anna are portrayed in same light. They are

In my opinion, Anna Sergeyevna and Emily Grierson are very alike. Despite, being from two different stories Chekhov’s “Lady with the dog” and Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”. However, these women have at least two major differences because Anna was married and Emily was never married. Also, Emily ages more throughout the story than Anna. For example, Emily was dead before the story began, then an old woman and became a young lady. Even though, these women have two major differences. Still, these two women are very alike because they were oppressed by men, depressed and had affairs with men.

Often, the circumstances of a marriage can leave the people involved feeling empty and unloved. These feelings of hopelessness can lead people to make uncharacteristic choices. Adultery, even in a marriage without love, can have a dramatic effect on the people involved. For the adulterous partner, the feelings of guilt and anxiety can often lead to overwhelming confusion. The short story "The Lady with the Pet Dog" by Oates, shows how the act of cheating creates confusion in the mind of the main character thorough use of an unchronological structure, and unusual character development.

Anton Chekhov’s The Lady with the Dog title seems to point to how the main characters first meet each other, though the capitalization of the words Lady and Dog might point that it has another meaning. The title then would not be about how Dmitri first knew Anna, but what their roles are at the beginning of the story. Dmitri was a dog, a beast, a man who seduces women and when he received what he wants leaves with just memories of the encounter and no remorse. While Anna is a lady, mannered, pure, and wholesome. The story follows the two and how their love for one another changes them, from a dog to a man.

However, in Oates’ version, she utilizes the female character, Anna, to develop the story. In Chekhov’s story, the reader is more aware of the masculinity present in the story. Gurov is manipulative of women, and he uses them as a device to remove himself from his marriage. In the story, he speaks of women by saying, “It seemed to him that he had been sufficiently tutored by bitter experience to call them what he pleased…” (Chekhov 2014). He believes that all women are the same and are the inferior race compared to men. Anna’s actions in the Oates’ story contrast greatly compared to Gurov’s. Anna displays the feminine side of the relationship between the couple. Anna is not accustomed to being involved in several affairs, which can be seen through the emotional toll that it takes on her. Following the stereotypical female

Chekov wrote The Lady with the Dog during the time of their separation, starring two characters, Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna, whose lives were similar to both Chekov and Olga’s. Despite the hardships that their long distance relationship

"Angel [The Darling]" and "The Lady with the Little Dog" each take place in several places. Setting is the place where the story takes action, and Chekhov does a tremendous job describing