About Love Story Critique - Essay Example

The first example of love is the strangest as it shows how a loving wife would suffer through an abusive husband since she loves him to the extent that she would do anything for him. The characters note with this example that love occurs without any regard for sensibilities or the idea of right and wrong. This is certainly true since love is often considered a maddening predicament that has no room for rank or social standing and even practicalities become mere inconveniences when it comes to love (Chekhov, 1918). I feel that this is a very idealistic approach to love which may not exist in the real world where practicalities often become more important than love itself.

As per the story told by Chekhov (1918), love demands sacrifices and it demands that the lovers be prepared to give up on everything they want the most. As the story shows, when it comes to love, a person may have to suffer through the most gut-wrenching moments without flinching and accepting that what is good for the person they love must be good for themselves as well. Of course, this may not be always true as it was in the case of Alehin, but the situation demanded that the beloved be given precedence over the lover. This precedence also stems from the viewpoint that the lover takes of the beloved when she is described by him with these words: “Her eyes, the elegantly refined hand she gave me, her indoor dress, the way she did her hair, her voice, her step, always produced the same impression on me something new and extraordinary in my life, and very important (Chekhov, 1918, Pg. 1)”.

For Chekhov, this becomes the essence of love since the supreme sacrifice a lover can make is to give up on the love which sustains him/her if giving up that love will make life easier for the beloved. Alehin does that for Anna and even though she is also in love with him, her love is perhaps not as great a love as Alehin has for her. While he is willing to give up what he feels for her just so that she can be happy, she is not willing to give up what she has with her husband. Perhaps her love is more dependent upon the conveniences of society rather than the demands of the heart (Chekhov, 1918). Demands such as these become more important than love as noted in the story when “her husband, her children (Chekhov, 1918, Pg. 1)” become more important for the lover than her love itself.

In conclusion, it is easy to see that Chekhov takes a very broad view of love just as the characters in the story show that there are different sides and different means of loving people. It can be as simple as two people who love each other with passion and as complicated as a woman involved in an abusive relationship who does not leave her partner. Or it can be further complicated in situations where a love triangle develops between three parties in which it is more than likely (and as it happens within the story) that one or more parties will be severely hurt by the love that they have for another even though that love brought them joy and pleasure.