Summary Of Anton Chekhov's Women In Despair

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

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.

Gurov, dissatisfied with his monotonous life, goes to Anna because he needs the scandal to relieve a numbness that has taken effect, not because he loves her. She merely reciprocates his affection, not out of love, but to escape the entrapment she feels from her marriage. In a subtle climax during his return home to Moscow, Gurov feels the agonizing absence of anyone he can talk to meaningfully about the personal secrecies of his life, specifically Anna. This intolerable sensation sends him to “S—,“ to find her. Only when Gurov is standing outside Anna’s house does he actually relate to her situation and form some genuine connection. “Just opposite the house stretched a long grey fence adorned with nails…One would run away from a fence like that," thought Gurov, looking from the fence to the windows of the house and back again…He loathed the grey fence more and more, and by now he thought irritably that Anna Sergeyevna had forgotten him, and was perhaps already amusing herself with some one else, and that that was very natural in a young woman who had nothing to look at from morning till night but that confounded fence” (p.230). With Gurov’s realization, he actually escapes his fenced in world and partially enters her miserable one. In sharing a connection, their emotions and psychological needs start to blend together and they become entrapped by the same fence, where inside, the two of them are alone and vulnerable in a shared arena. This isolation

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

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.

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” examine the complex relationship between a husband and wife. The two works take two different approaches to convey the same message: Marriage is not a fairytale, it requires sacrifice and unselfish behavior in order to work. Relationships are difficult to begin and harder to maintain. Mr. and Mrs. Mallard and Aylmer and Georgiana are two relationships that shatter the surreal perception of marriage and expose readers to the raw truth, marriage is not a fairytale.

The stories of Anton Chekhov mark a focal moment in European fiction. This is the point where 19th realist caucus of the short stories started their transformation into modern form. As such, his work straddles two traditions. The first is that of the anti-romantic realism which has a sharp observation of external social detail. It has human behavior conveyed within tight plot. The second is the modern psychological realism in which the action in typically internal and expressed in associative narrative that is built on epiphanic moments. In consideration of the two sides, Chekhov developed powerful personal styles that presage modernism without losing traditional frills of the form. This essay will discuss the Chekhov's portrayal of women.

“The Lady with the Pet Dog” written by Anton Chekhov and “The Lady with the Pet Dog” written by Joyce Carol Oates illustrate what goes through the mind when committing adultery. Both are tales of love lost and love found, including romances with adulterous spouses and secret meetings. “The Lady with the Pet Dog” written by Chekhov and Oates present the actions and decisions of two very unhappy married individuals, whom one could say meet by chance. In both short stories the plot line is extraordinarily similar; both love affairs end up finding true love from each other; however, the emotions and general idea differ from the point of view analyzed. Although both short stories illustrate immensely similar qualities, the short story by Joyce Carol Oates is more effective in three main areas. The three main areas where Oates story is more effective include the use of the female characters, the use of point of views, and the use of dogs.

Many people have believed that marriage validates a woman’s life and also defines her. Once this idealized milestone has been reached, she then begins to define herself through marital expectations. These stereotypical expectations include bearing children, maintaining a home, and living up to the preset standards that a woman should. Women have upheld this traditional role for centuries and have been reluctantly accepting while doing so. The problem with this traditional belief is that orienting a life around marriage—without experiencing the joys that exploring individuality brings beforehand—will only result in a woman’s unhappiness; Mrs. Mallard, the main character in “The story of an Hour,” experiences just this, for she is consumed by a severe depression that also effects the health of her tender heart. Her marriage becomes oppressive and renders disappointment and un-fulfillment in all that it entails, leaving her bereft of both metaphorical and physical life. She was never able to feel satisfied with her marriage because she never experienced life beforehand. In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin uses irony to illustrate that a traditional marriage harms a woman both physically and mentally.

Marriage is a union of two companions who are deeply in love with each other; however, this is not always the case. In Chopin “Story of an Hour” Louise weeps of her husband’s death, but then comes to the realization that she was now a free, independent women who no longer feels oppressed by marriage. Louise; however, never gave a specific way in which her husband oppressed her, which Chopin hints that marriage suppress both men and women. In Gilman “The Yellow Wallpaper” reveals that gender division had the effect of keeping a woman in an adolescent state of ignorance and prohibiting further development. Gilman critiques the position of women within the establishment of marriage and criticizes the traditional nineteenth century middle-class

Through an exploration of the boundaries between social constraint and inner compulsion, Melville and Chekov reveal the restrictions forced upon one’s personal desires as they struggle to find a balance between conflicting values and social norms. Anna and Gurov in ‘The Lady with the Dog’ are restrained by the socially expected conventions in their marriages, inhibiting their ability to express their inner compulsion of desire. Chekov reveals their yearning to escape their individual lives as they cope with personal troubles by distancing themselves from marriage

In the United States right now 60.8 million people are married. Marriage is the concept of two people who are in love who devote themselves to each other till death do them part. Marriage in our century has been contemplated many times whether it be the concepts or confusions on the potential meaning. The two, “The Story of an Hour” by Chopin and “Trifles” by Glaspell allegorize the definition of marriage. Both writers reveal interesting ideas within the plot about their views of marriage, by comparison, using symbolism and ironic circumstances.

As the story unfolds, Gurov at first changes subtly. First of all he meets Mrs. Anna Sergeyevna. His attitude at first is still the same, he finds her as another victim of his little game that he plays. He sits and watches, searching his mind for a ways to get her attention like he does for every woman. He still looks at women in the same sort of fashion. Anna and Gurov start spending time with each other more and more, he still plays his game. Each time that he meets her and tries to coax her into have an ice or syrup, yet he still looks at her as “pathetic.” After their first kiss he begins to realize that there is something different about this girl. Unlike the usual women he messes around with, she feels guilty about engaging in this affair with him. Anna does not give him the satisfaction of playing the game along with him. As he spends more time with Anna he becomes fond of her presence. He starts learning more about her, when she talks him listens intently instead of getting bored and rolling his eyes. When Anna gets a letter from her husband asking for her to come home, Gurov acts like it isn’t a big deal, he still believes he is playing his game. At first he forces himself to believe he is ok, but after they are apart for a while he realizes that Anna isn’t leaving him. She follows him everywhere, not just in his dreams. He feels something that he has never felt before, he

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

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.