The Lady with the Pet Dog by Anton Chekhov - Essay Example

The story attempts to bring about the argument that love and morality can be separated as one is not necessarily a virtue of the other. The story is based on two individuals who have different and separate lives but have not had the experience of true love until they meet one another while on vacation in Yalta. This puts them in a state where they are obligated to choose between continuing their lives as it was before they met once they separate or find a means of exploring their love further which leads to the development of an affair as both characters are married.

The story thus brings out the aspect that true love cannot be ignored by those who are involved. The story brings to light the characteristic that true love is unexpected and cannot be planned ahead of time. This is seen in various parts of the story whereby neither Gurov nor Anna expect to fall so deeply for one another seen in statements such as “In another month, he fancied, the image of Anna Sergeyevna would be shrouded in a mist in his memory, and only from time to time would visit him in his dreams with a touching smile as others did.

” (Chekhov) Gurov assumed that he would be able to easily forget the woman he met while on vacation once he got back to his normal routine but soon found out that this was not possible and to his surprise as time passed on he found he was still not able to stop thinking about Anna. This is seen in the statement, “But more than a month passed, real winter had come, and everything was still clear in his memory as though he had parted with Anna Sergeyevna only the day before.” (Chekhov) Both characters had gone to Yalta on vacation with no expectations of finding love but as a result of circumstantial meeting ended up finding an individual that they could see themselves spending their entire lives with.

The correlation between love and morality also played a part in the story as well. Both Anna and Gustov married young and have been in a relationship for a number of years before they met but this fact does not stop them from falling in love. It is also seen that they are in fact not in love with their spouses when Chekhov states that Gustov “considered her unintelligent, narrow, inelegant, was afraid of her, and did not like to be at home” while Anna refers to her husband as a “flukery” (Chekhov).

The story brings about the question whether one is able to find love in immorality as the two characters are involved in an affair, which is considered a moral taboo but at the same time, are in love with one another. The issue of the use of ambiguity is another topic brought to light through the author’s stylistic methods. This is seen in the fact that Gustov’s wife is not mentioned by name as Chekhov simply refers to her as “his wife”. The town which Anna lives in is also not mentioned and the letter S is used in its place giving the hint that this is the letter that the name starts with.

The end of the story is ambiguous as well as no solution is reached by the two lovers on how they can stop living in secret and bring their love out to the light. The use of ambiguity can be said to be used by the author to keep the reader interested by instilling a sense of curiosity which leaves them guessing at the unanswered questions. It can also said to be used to allow the author to concentrate on the main aspects of the story such as the story of the two characters instead of focusing on peripheral matters.

The realist style used by the