The Lady With the Dog

A detailed Summary of The Lady With the Dog


In reading the short story The Lady with the Dog by Anton Chekhor one can make many assumptions about the main characters. The short story is about an affair that leads to something more than the two main characters expect it to be. Throughout the story, Chekhor shows the portrayal and transformation of the main characters through different events in their lives. The end leaves the reader with little idea of what's going to happen to the main characters.

We first meet Gurov in Yalta where he is taking a holiday alone. Gurov is an attractive man form the upper class. He is dissatisfied to say the least with his present situation and his marriage to his wife. Chekhov shows this by stating, "...and though he secretly considered her shallow, narrow-minded, and dowdy, he stood in awe of her, and disliked being at home" (1524). Not yet forty, he has already become an experienced seducer. His affairs always end badly, but he cannot resist starting new ones. His doomed adulteries have left him cynical and bitter. Chekhov presents Gurov in a mostly unfavorable light manipulation, hatred of women, and no moral sense, and yet th


Gurov eventually manages to meet Anna at the theater one night. They both admit that they are in love. She promises to meet him in Moscow. Once again, she does not tell the truth about her reasoning of leaving. Anna and Gurov thought, "that fate had intended them for one another" (1535). Although they remain trapped in their marriages, the couple have a secret world of happiness and dream.

When Anna leaves Yalta, her affair has apparently concluded. Chekhov then clearly shows the reader what was suggested all along. That is to Gurov the romance had little emotional depth. He had not sought love but only the emotional excitement of an infatuation. He was not even attracted by anything particularly personal about the young woman but instead just to her excitement of pursuit. The affair with Anna was merely, "one more of the adventures in his life" (1529). The affair in the end leaves him "moved, sad, and slightly remorseful," but certainly not heart broken (1529). He returns to Moscow in hopes to forget her as the months go by.

e author refuses to reduce his protagonist into a villain. Chekhov states, "There was

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Approximate Word count = 759
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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