Love or Morality.What Takes Precedent - Essay Example

This paper seeks to discuss how love, and morality is intertwined with an aim of finding out which one is precedes the other. It is undeniable that the power of love is greater than any other feeling that man can experience. It makes people do unimaginable things. However, love, like any other aspect of life is governed by social rules and expectations, which are collectively referred to as morality. Gurov, a banker in Moscow had been married for a long time and had two sons and a beautiful daughter.

However, his relationship with his wife was not in good terms. In fact, “he secretly considered her shallow, narrow-minded, and dowdy, he stood in awe of her, and disliked being at home” (Chekhov web). Although there were no conflicts, it was certain that love missed in the marriage. This is a clear evidence of ambiguity since the society thought of the family as a happy and loving family. According to the society, they were expected to remain in their stale relationship in order to maintain moral integrity.

Certainly, the absence of love in the marriage initially made him despise and classify women as “the lower race.” This was notwithstanding that, the same women were the source of love that he longed for. He recounted the many times that he would sleep with other women but would not find the true love “when they discovered their mistake, they went on loving him just the same. And not one of them had ever been happy with him” (Chekhov web). Many of the women loved him not because of who he was but because of who they thought he was.

This is a phenomenon worth noting. Chekhov intended to show that love can make people compromise their moral standards, or at least the moral standards set by the society. However, it is evident that morality failed in this situation where Gurov slept with so many women due to lack of love. Most notably, Gurov was willing to compromise his moral standards and cheat on his wife. However, he was always very careful not to make it known by the society. Therefore, he still maintained a cover over the societal moral standards.

A twist of events happened when Gurov met with Anna. Anna had gone to the town for a vacation and most importantly, to take time off her husband. She too was tired of loveless relationship with her husband. A relationship ensued and the two new lovers began recounting the predicaments that had befallen them in their lives. At this moment, it was evident that Anna had experienced a loveless life with her husband. She felt that she had all along been deceiving herself. She claimed, “I despise myself and have not the least thought of self-justification.

It is not my husband I have deceived, it's myself. And not only now, I have been deceiving myself for ever so long” (Chekhov web). Although her husband was an honest man, she certainly did not love him. Therefore, she experienced the same ambiguous situation with Gurov. It was easy for her to compromise the moral integrity due to lack of love in the marriage. Similarly, she was afraid to put it open to the society in fear of compromising the moral standards set by the society. It does not come by surprise that she slept with Gurov albeit in secrecy.

The two fell in love and it became apparent that they were meant to be together. However, Anna was recalled by her ailing husband and had to go back. Although the two were deeply in love, they still respected the moral values of the family and therefore agreed that she had to go and attend to her