Lady With The Pet Dog - Book Report/Review Example

Anton Chekov was known for greatness in delivering objectivity and mood in his work, particularly one of his best works, “The Lady with a Pet Dog.” He gravitated towards presenting a close-to-the-real life, no matter how ironic or complex it may be, rather than a clearly invented one. Living a life in the 19th century, he saw the complexities and ironies of both the regal life of the higher class and the simple and difficult life of the peasants. Because of this he was well aware of what was happening with the different economic classes of his society and this was clearly reflected in his works (Anton Chekov Biography). This can be seen through his description of the background of his characters in “The Lady with a Pet Dog” and the description of Yalta and how Dmitri interacts with the people in his society and what he thinks of his life in Yalta. The ironies in his life experiences are exemplified in his works. “The Lady with a Pet Dog” defines his personal beliefs regarding the life as a middle-class man, as a working man and as a part of the Moscow society. His main character Dmitri characterizes himself. The underlying theme of the story is freedom from the duality of human nature. This is presented, though, in a very simple and realistic way, the way how humans react to certain situations presented in the story. Chekov used the emotions and inhibited actions of the main characters to show how the human nature is full of irony. He developed his storyline in a modernist manner wherein there is no prominent conflict and resolution in the story. The conflict that is presented in the story is the underlying theme of freeing oneself from the constraints of human nature itself. The main storyline of “The Lady with a Pet Dog” revolves around an adulterous relationship wherein the two characters met in circumstances when they want to be free of the boredom, so it seems, of their own lives. Anna wanted something more than or more from her marriage and Dmitri was not satisfied of his relationship with his wife, who he described as intellectual but narrow-minded and of whom he was afraid of. Both lacked attachment in their relationships and both were unsatisfied with their present lives. Dmitri, however, did not realize that he wanted something more than his everyday life as a flirtatious man until the time when he realized he was beginning to get attached to Anna through the memories they had together in Yalta. The intricate details of the complexities of the lives of two people in a relationship along with the complexities of the society are presented in a very objective yet emotional way. Chekov presented his story without any inclination of interpreting the actions of both characters. There was also no intention whatsoever of reprimanding the morals of the characters. The conflict is readily presented all throughout the story. There is little effort for one to understand what he was trying to relate through his characters. And what he was showing was just mere facts, he related it as objective as possible. The conflict and the storyline were basic. The characters were longing for something that they don’t have though when they managed to realize what they wanted, they couldn’t afford to tell their story to anyone else because of social constraints. Though there is no happy ending nor a sad one to the story, Chekov was able to encompass in his work truthful and intense emotions that both the characters and the readers feel. He presented the beauty and the ugliness of life, the happiness and the sadness within the story, that while one experience something good, he also experiences something unpleasant. Chekov realized that by presenting the truthfulness of his characters emotions, he was not mastering them to present something that he wanted to present, but instead he let them live and breathe on their own. And that is the greatness in his work. He was able to present reality with his stories; he managed to let his characters show their story through their own words. He let them let out their own emotions and thoughts while the story is progressing. This, in turn, allows the readers to feel the truthfulness and reality of their situation. He did not characterize his characters instead he lets them create themselves. Chekov wrote with a realistic tone. He wrote with very little symbolism, and if he did, he used the most basic ones. He wrote about his characters emotions and feelings as what it is and he concentrated on letting them develop the story through those emotions. He didnt use grandiose words to describe the intensity of his characters emotions. He made it as natural as possible in order to respect the people and things for what they are not for what Chekov wanted them to relay to people (Huber). In fact, “The Lady with a Pet Dog” did not relay any message from Chekov but it relayed a message from the characters themselves, and this is prominent whenever Anna rants that Dmitri doesn’t respect her, whenever she says that her life is a bore and she wanted to escape it and when Dmitri describes his wife, his life and Anna (Huber). With this, he was able to preserve and maintain the truthfulness and realistic nature of his story. The reality that this might be happening somewhere in the world is exemplified because he made his narration simple enough to describe the complexity of his characters nature and situation. The complex human nature was presented by Chekov in an ironic manner. This could be seen in how Dmitri sees and treats women. He sees them as an inferior race but he cannot live a day without being surrounded by women. He loves to be in their company but he is known to ditch women after flirting with them. Dmitri’s personality takes on Cherovs own. While he sympathized with women, and just as he sympathizes with the harshness of human condition, he remains unattached. This exactly indicates how he saw human nature. His own belief about the irony of human nature and how it could profess love and hate at the same time can be seen in how he presented Dmitri and Anna. The way Dmitri transforms from a cynical and heartless womans man to a sympathetic and emotional lover shows that Chekov indeed believed that human nature is capable of being good and evil at the same time though in different situations and progressions in life. Dmitris plight in love is also a glimpse of Chekovs own, on how he realizes that his own love journey would be bittersweet since he found his love late in his life and at the time of his sickness. Human nature for Chekov is full of ambivalence and irony. He wrote without covering up or reasoning with his characters mistakes and failures. He did not present arguments with morals and he does not suggest a right or a wrong. His story flowed as it was; his characters react to their own thoughts and actions. While reading his work, the reader can feel the authenticity of the story, that it can be real and that it can happen to anyone. Chekov concentrated on defining the characters’ emotions and thoughts on their situation rather than looking at how the situation may affect other people outside of the two characters. The story showed how the characters react and reason with each other’s mistakes, failures and happiness. Chekov’s work in “The Lady with a Pet Dog” doesn’t offer a resolution to the character’s complex situation. It doesn’t give a proposal to what they should do. The narrator’s standpoint is just a plain narrator in which he tells the reader what is happening in the minds and the hearts of the characters. The human nature is shown to be very contradicting and complex in nature. This presentation shows the readers a glimpse of the author’s personal beliefs in which he sees life as full of paradox and ambiguities. Aside from showing this through the character’s personal thoughts and emotions with each other, like with Dmitri’s ambiguous love with Anna in which he saw her as naïve to the point of being annoying, and Anna’s description of their affair as disrespectful for her and evil, Chekov also managed to present it through Dmitri’s annoyance in the Moscow society. When Dmitri went back to his normal everyday life after Anna left for her hometown, he realized the intricacies of the life in his hometown wherein it was full of boredom and unessential things (Chekov). This can be clearly seen when Dmitri tried telling his colleague about Anna to which he replied, “You were right this evening, the sturgeon was a bit high,” a reply which was so very commonplace but very far from what Dmitri was trying to converse about (Chekov). This made Dmitri describe his society as a “madhouse or a prison” (Chekov). And this realization made him realize his passion and love for Anna that he set off to find her (Creasman). Chekov’s “The Lady with a Pet Dog” presented a couple truly in love though throughout the story their love was shown as ambiguous and unsure. It seemed mere passion and lust at first, however as the story developed, it signified that the couple was truthfully in love. That is the strength of Chekov’s work. He was able to show the truthfulness and the reality of an ambiguous relationship, unaccepted by the society’s morals through a style which consists of developing emotions and thoughts of the characters rather than explaining what is happening with the couple’s relationship. There is very little optimistic value in Chekov’s story. All he did was present something that could be a common situation in anyone’s life. The underlying theme of an unaccepted relationship and a break from the monotonous and meaningless life could be anyone’s life at the real world. He presented his story in a realistic manner in which he described the surroundings of the characters in intricate details of color and lack of luster. Also, Chekov used the imagery of nature to depict the sadness or the happiness of the couple. Anna’s hometown was described as lackluster. Yalta, the place wherein their affair started and where they are meeting up secretly, was described as full of color and happiness. The simplicity of the story added up to its realistic nature and truthfulness of the story. He used the story of a transcending love, through Dmitri’s emotions all throughout the story, to depict the theme of the issue of one’s existence (Creasman). Chekov’s “The Lady with a Pet Dog” is truly a great work because of its simplicity and naturalistic approach to the situation. It doesn’t talk about morals or resolving the issue of the main characters but it talks about how human nature reacts to certain situations, especially situations wherein a person contradicts himself. The story actually presents an observation of a very common scene in individuals, the paradox of their judgment, the contradictions between their thoughts and actions, and the ambiguity of their emotions. Chekov’s work is real to the readers. And that exactly defines his work and how he is as a person. References: Chekov, Anton. “The Lady with the Pet Dog.” Creasman, Boyd. “ Gurov’s Flights of Emotions in Gurov’s The Lady with the Pet Dog. Huber, Eric. “The Lady with the Pet Dog.” Short Stories for Students. Detroit:Gale, 2002. Anton Chekov Biography. http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/chekhovbio.html Read More