Lady with the lapdog by Anton Chekhov - Research Paper Example

Chapter summary: Lady with the lapdog. The lady with the lapdog is a short interesting story written by Anton Chekhov. It is a four chapter, fiction story written with great expertise and discloses an adulterous affair between the Russian Banker, Dmitri Dmitrich Gurov and the lady with the lapdog Anna Sergeyevna. Chapter1. The banker, Dmitri Gurov during his vacation in Yalta encounters the lady with a white Pomeranian. He sees her as a young, fair and not very tall lady. Dmitri assures himself that if the lady is all by herself; then it is no crime making acquaintances with her.

He proceeds outright and makes his first move. Even though his view towards women is that they are of a lower race, he admits enjoying their company more than that of men. He is married mind you! Dmitri pecks Anna’s Dog to initiate a conversation during their initial meeting in a restaurant at the pack. He soon sets the young woman talking. They converse quite a lot and soon grow to be fond of one another. Chapter 2. Anna, through her lorgnette, scans the passengers probably looking for her husband.

He isn’t there and this thrills her. They move together to Oreanda and then back to town. They love each other more. Anna receives a letter from her husband, as had not been expected, urging her to return to Town of S, Anna’s place of residence. This worries Gurov especially at the train Station where they part ways. Anna is glad the affair has come to an end and prays they never meet again. Gurov also thinks of making a return journey to Moscow. Chapter 3.Gurov assumes the normal Moscow life when he returns; Clubbing, playing cards, reading newspapers and working in the bank.

He had believed that he would soon forget about Anna. He had not. The desire to see Anna burns to the point of him actually setting on a journey to the town S just to see her. He gets an opportunity to see her and Anna assures him of a visit. In chapter 4, Anna visits Gurov in Moscow and during one of her visits, at their common visit place at the Slavyanski Bazaar, they resort to settle the issue of their going public with their affair and while discussing, the story ends with no resolution.

Analysis The story displays a dual setting. Yalta as the story begins is seen as a place of immorality, a vocational place which is dull in nature. Despite all these, it is a place where a fast, fleeting love relationship is born, full of romance. In the second Chapter of the story, the setting changes to that of Gurov’s normal routine. The writer uses the imagery, symbolism and allegory styles. Gurov remembers seeing the playbill of the opera and hence attends hoping that Anna would make an appearance.

She did and the opera itself tells a story of a man who falls in love with a Geisha despite his love for a woman. The opera features an interesting line “every man is disappointed with his wife at some time or another.”(Shmoop) Anna is symbolically detained by the fence outside her husband’s home. Gurov is a detainee in his marriage just like Anna. They both seek an opportunity to free themselves and this can only happen, according to them, when they are together. The genre is open and straight forward showing two people fall in love.

The tone is objective with no moral judgment. The title is “the lady with the lapdog but the story majorly talks of Gurov. The ending is controversial to the normal norm of ending short stories. There is no resolution to the conflicts. (Shmoop) Irika Kirk’s analysis of “the lady with a lap dog” is quite helpful in the understanding of the short story. First, she concurs with Gorky’s analysis that Chekhov is killing realism. She discusses the first and the second lines of the first paragraph.

She makes me understand the transition from physical to metaphysical symbolism. She discusses the setting as controversial and this enables me understand further, the setting of the short story. She explains how the second chapter deals with the theme of Adultery and how the third chapter talks about Gurov’s life in Moscow. Her analysis of the controversial nature of Gurov during the initial meetings with Anna and then thereafter; makes me understand how Gurov’s feeling change from a relaxed cynicism to a nervous one.

She concludes her analysis by maintaining that even though there is no realistic solution to the problem, at least Gurov and Anna are optimistic that their love, pains and sorrows would always be shared.