Chekhov's Portrayal of Women

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.

Anton Chekhov hardly restrained from writing the dreary aspects of life during his writing career. Noted as one of Russia’s most prominent realist writers of the late 19th century, Chekhov’s work ranged from critical issues concerning the mental health system in “Ward No.6” to illustrating the tiresome cycle occurring for ordinary people sensing they are incomplete with their dull, normal life in “The Lady with the Dog.” “The Lady with the Dog,” in particular portrays characters of Chekhov’s facing an unreachable desire; Gurov and Anna. This desire emulates two contrasting forces represented by the double-lives the couple lives, one being that of realism and boredom, and the other of strict passion and romanticism. Gurov and “the lady with

The passage of time is the lens through which characters Anna and Dmitri’s relationship matures in Anton Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Little Dog”. In the story, Anna and Dmitri begin having an affair out of boredom with their own lives, which eventually blossoms into a loving relationship. Anna and Dmitri’s relationship does not seem like it will have a chance of surviving; Anna is much younger than Dmitri, they live in different cities, and they have spouses, and are a part of different social classes, and yet they are able to overcome these differences to be together. It is only as time goes on that Anna and Dmitri realize the importance of their relationship and love for each other. However, the passage of time is seen as a linear change in the story and contradicts to the unconventional manner in which Anna and Dmitri’s relationship evolves.

Pushkin even goes so far as to blatantly label the woman as an individual who is regularly withstand or endure repetitive sufferings; a scapegoat for the Countess’ displaced aggression. As a result of the negative outcomes of servitude, Lizaveta Ivanovna’s social life paid a heavy price. Ironically, her stark beauty could not save and overpower whatever unknown curse had befallen the young woman. “In society she played the most pitiable role. Everybody knew her, and nobody paid her any attention.3” But Lizaveta Ivanovna was drawn to the glamorous life of lavish social gatherings and possible cordial dates with military officers. Reduced to no more than a moth hypnotised in the lure of an open flame; she was imprisoned once again. She was forced to become a wallflower—an outsider in world that was never meant for her. Here on this stage of putting on heirs and haughty attitudes, Lizaveta Ivanovna reverently searched for this fanciful notion of being rescued from her perpetual woes. However, escape didn’t come so easily. Even in this bubble of pleasant fantasies of freedom, she was still a foreigner of this opulent life—a conduit was needed. Oh caged bird, are you not tired of singing the same tune? To whom do you weep

Traditionally, women have been known as the less dominant sex. They have been stereotyped as being only housewives and bearers of the children. Many interesting characters in literature are conceived from the tension women have faced with men. This tension is derived from men; society, in general; and within a woman herself. Kate Chopin‘s short story, “The Story of an Hour”, focus on a woman’s dilemma near the turn of the 19th century. Contradicting the “normal” or sad assumption of death, “The Story of an Hour” illustrates the significance of death representing freedom. The Story narrates about an hour of Louise Mallard’s life, as she tries to understand, and deal with her feelings of her husbands death.

The short story “Story Of An Hour” written by Kate Chopin is considered as a scandalous story of political reflection and an unethical message about a woman, who is told that her husband has been in a fatal car crash. After receiving the news she walks off and stares into the window and smiles. Professor reading this would think that the window is a symbol of freedom, and once she steps out in the new world she is free as a bird. ” Scandalous” is what reporters would say in this era because a woman without a man had as much hope of making it in the world, as a dog that could did not bark around strangers. It’s possible, but it never happens.

n “The Lady with the Dog,” Chekhov uses setting to enhance the mood of the story. The story begins on the coastal town of Yalta during the hot summer. The “strange light on the sea,” the “soft warm lilac hue” of the water and the “golden streak from the moon upon it” sets the tone for a budding summer romance. The fact that the two main characters’ first meeting takes place in a garden setting signifies a love about to bloom. Chekhov also uses the season/weather in his story.

One of the sweet comforts in life is to curl up in a favorite chair with a short story that will briefly carry people away from their everyday lives. On rare occasions, a tale mirrors real life in such a way that one is strangely comforted by the normalcy reflected in the words. A perfect example of a story about ordinary life that will soothe the soul in search for some insight on understanding the human behavior is Anton Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Pet Dog.” This style of writing has such a mass appeal because the characters wear recognizable social masks and reflect an everyday reality. In his simple story of a chance meeting between a middle-aged, chauvinistic, repeat-offender adulterer, unhappily married man, and a young, naïve,

In 19th century Russian literature there was often a gender inequality depicted between the male and female characters. Women were expected to get married, start a family, and obey their husbands. Women often made sacrifices and married men they weren’t fond of in order to support their families. Anton Chekhov’s writing questions these gender relationships. The female characters have a strong presence within Chekhov’s works, and they transcend typical gender roles.

The Storm is a fiction short story that was written in July 1898 by Kate Chopin and focuses on the sexuality of the lead character Calixta. The story begins when Calixta’s husband Bobinot and his four year old son Bibi are caught by a storm at the Friedheimer's store. Meanwhile Bobinot’s wife Calixta is back at home and finds herself in a great storm of her own. The storm in this case has been used by Chopin in a symbolic manner that would mean dreadful occurrence of sexual passion that Calixta experienced; it led her to commit adultery with a former lover named Alcee. This story describes the desire to seek sexual fulfillment and freedom outside of marriage.

More so than that of most other comparably illustrious writers, a number of Vladimir Nabokov’s works beckon near polarizing discrepancies in interpretation and actual author intent amidst literary circles. In a letter to the editor of The New Yorker, he concedes to constructing systems “wherein a second (main) story is woven into, or placed behind, the superficial semitransparent one” (Dolinin). In practice, such an architectural premise is complicated further by his inclination to dabble in the metaphysical and occasionally, in the metafictional. Nabokov’s inclusion of meticulous description and word choice coupled with his reliance on unreliable narrators—in “Signs and Symbols,” “The Vane Sisters,” and “Details of a Sunset”-- permits him

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

The Russian attitude toward love during Chekhov’s time is very patriarchal and is considered normal to marry for practical reasons, parental pressures or other considerations rather than for love. The feelings that accompany love, such as passion and spirituality, are not a societal consideration and this institutional attitude toward human emotion is the catalyst for Chekhov’s story. When a person is deprived of love, he or she builds up a futility of life which consumes the human soul. In Anton Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog”, the readers are placed in a setting where the main character Gurov, and his love interest Anna, are given the emotional freedom to feel love toward one another. This freedom is the driving force in the story

Dmitri, before he loved Anna, was a dog, one who looked down on women and only thought of the pleasures and benefits he could receive from them. Stuck in an unhappy marriage with his wife to the point that he, “did not like to be at home” (Chekhov, 62). Dmitri, though enjoys the company of women, he acknowledged that “he could not get on for two days together without ‘the lower race’” (Chekhov, 62), the “lower race” referencing women. Consequently, this disgust of his own wife and desire for women causes Dmitri to cheat, “He had begun being unfaithful to her long ago -- had been unfaithful to her often” (Chekhov, 62). Dmitri liked to keep all his affairs simple and amusing, whenever one would begin to be too much work and/or unbearable, he would drop it and proceed to the next one. Though Dmitri is quite an observant person he would focus on the

Although the concept of morality in shades should not particularly be alien to the reader, Chekhov does provide an interesting take on morality – for instance, that he believes love, or feelings, to be an important factor of human morale – which he expresses using the colours white, black, and grey. However, the reader should not expect to learn about morals through this story, as everyone possesses his or her own opinion, but rather should reconsider what they value is right and wrong. The exploration of colour in “The Lady with The Dog” proves insightful in understanding the author’s perspective towards morale of actions, even though Chekhov does not entertain the reader with an absolute verdict. Colour is in the art and the art is literature; what this exploration reveals is only just one shade of the