The Lady With The Dog Essay

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.

A story, of any type, is greatly affected by the characters’ outlook on life. A bright, hopeful main character will give the narrative a more lighthearted feel, and cause the reader to feel encouraged and satisfied. If the character has a negative perspective, however, it can elicit sadness, pity, or even irritation from the reader. In Voltaire’s Candide and Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilyich, two characters with very different worldviews are displayed. The lighthearted Candide maintained an attitude of cheerfulness and perseverance even through the hardships of his life, which stems from his deep love and care for others, while the coldhearted despair of Ivan Ilyich is only intensified into anger by the feigned optimism of those around him.

Richard Russo's "Dog" and Amy Tan's "Two Kinds" are stories that illustrate the negative impacts parents sometimes have on their children and the unintended consequences that occur as a result of their parenting. In "Dog," Henry Devereaux grows into an adult who has difficulty connecting emotionally with others, a man who is not easy, and though entertaining, is not comforting. In "Two Kinds," Jing-mei was a failure many times over in her mother's eyes, finally dropping out of college and only accepting of herself later in life.

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

Throughout the short story of “Lady with a Dog” many characters drastically change. Personally, I believe that the person that shows the heavier amount of change is Gurov. Of course, both Gurov and Anna change, but Gurov takes things to a different level considering his past.

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.

After becoming acquainted, Anna and Gurov “walked and talked of the strange light on the sea: the water was a soft, warm, lilac color and there was a golden band of moonlight upon it” (Chekov 507). Later, when he is alone in his hotel room, Gurov reflects on her “slim, delicate throat, her lovely gray eyes” (Chekov 507) and his thoughts reveal that he has determined this young, vulnerable woman to be an ideal candidate for another one of his many affairs that he just cannot help becoming involved in. And as the story unfolds, the color gray reveals itself as an integral component in the sort of comfortable, yet, unresolved feeling that the relationship between Gurov and Anna emanates.

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.

There is injustice in the world everyday and all too often, many bad things happen to good people. In Saki’s short story, “The Storyteller”, the theme that the world isn’t just black and white is shown through his use of symbolism, foreshadowing, and irony. Saki’s use of symbolism is demonstrated through his use of the the color black and white. In the story, ‘black’ represents evil in the world along with death and depression. For example, the colors of the wolf help us explain this symbol of color and that he was a bad wolf. For example, Saki states that the wolf was “mud color all over, with a black tongue and pale gray eyes that gleamed with unspeakable ferocity.” The color white resembles the innocence, purity, and goodness in the story. This is Bertha's dress that she is wearing walking with the medals. For example, Saki says “her pinafore was so spotless white and clean that it could be seen for a great distance. The bachelor uses this color to help the kids' picture what he is talking about and give them a visual note. The theme helps us realize about how there is injustice in this world. For example, Bertha is a good person and she has all these medals for being so “horribly good.” When Bertha is invited the the princes park because of how good she is, she dies by a wolf because of her white dress being so white the wolf saw her first instead of the little pigs. Because of Bertha’s “white” innocence, she is killed by the evil, dark wolf, showing the reader the

In 1899, Anton Chekhov published a story called, “The Lady with the Pet Dog.” This story is about deception, conflict, and love. Several years later, in 1972, Joyce Carol Oates published a story with the same title and characters. Despite the few similarities, these stories are not one in the same. Travelling through the same storyline, the reader experiences the many similarities and differences that are scattered throughout the story. In both versions of “The Lady with the Pet Dog,” the reader is able to compare and contrast the narrator's point of view, the structure of each story, and the overall theme of fate.

Many things one does or does not do in life are based on perception; our perception of someone, their perception of us, and even our perception of ourselves. John Moore says, “your opinion is your opinion, your perception is your perception–do not confuse them with “facts” or “truth.” Wars have been fought and millions have been killed because of the inability of men to understand the idea that everybody has a different viewpoint (Quotations for Martial Artists, John Moore, p 1).” In Kate Chopin 's A Respectable Woman, perception is a major theme; for example, Mrs. Baroda 's perception of her husband’s friend, Gouvernail, shifts drastically throughout the short story. Chopin’s main theme of perception is displayed well because of her use of literary devices such as imagery, setting and dialogue; through these devices, Chopin reveals Mrs. Baroda’s feelings and thoughts, based on the way she perceives Gouvernail before, during and after meeting him for the first time; this paper will discuss the literary devices and how Kate Chopin uses them to portray themes of freedom, identity, desire, as well as perception.

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

Lady with an Ermine is a painting by Italian Leonardo da Vinci from around 1489–1490. During this time on rebirth for the arts some artist decided to take a more natural and abstract view on art while others (like da Vinci) still typically followed the realism route. With that being said his Lady with the Ermine is a very interesting portrait painting. This beautiful woman is dressed in fine red and green garb the contours of her clothing is soft and smooth and almost blends into her pale complexion. Her face is deep and three dimensional, his use of shading and shadow makes her seem like she is standing right in front of you. The line quality of the lady and soft and flowing while the ermine is more wild the lines used to create the ermine is jagged and choppy for create its fur and to contrast to

Two different stories written within sixteen years of each other; could they really be that different? Could they even be so similar? These short stories were written in two different cultural environments. “The Jewelry” was written in 1883 by a man named Guy De Maupassant, who based the story in Paris, France. It tells of a man, his wife, and the wife’s two flaws that actually make the man wealthier. “The Lady with the Dog” was written by Anton Chekhov, who wrote the story in his hometown Moscow, Russia. This author composed a story of a disloyal husband and his adventures with the new foreign woman in town. With those summarizations, it is probably hard to believe that they are actually so similar, really they are. Two different stories that are of such dissimilar content are actually the same. It can be assumed these stories had no influence upon each other. Therefore, environment and the time period is truly of the essence in these short stories. It is brought a couple of times throughout the stories of where they are and how the men feel and act around women. They are both told with such an ironic tone throughout and the protagonists are both men that could not live without women. Both tell a story of how women affect their lives, but do not truly realize how important they are until the women are gone. The men show who they truly think they are early in the stories and slowly, and even painfully, are shown that they are