the lady with the dog
"Discuss the representation of society in "The lady with the dog", showing how it relates to the theme"Anton Chekhov's "The Lady with the dog" is a story of a bored, married banker from Moscow, Dmitri Dmitritch Gurov, who meets a young married woman, Anna Sergeyevna, while on vacation in Yalta at the beginning of the century. They drift into an affair that turns into true love, yet the conventions of society and the couple's need to feel respectable force them to return to their old lives. Over the years they meet, but they cannot find the strength to break with their past. In this story the theme of the effect of society on personal freedom can be examined with reference to Gurov, Anna and their situation. Gurov's life is unhappy. His marriage does not fulfil his expectations and that is why he does not respect his wife. He finds in her many disadvantages and he does not appreciate her as a person ("he secretly considered her unintelligent, narrow, inelegant." P.123). Due to these thoughts he has began being unfaithful to her. His looking for sexual experiences is also apparent from the thoughts he makes when he sees Anna for the first time ("If she is here alone without a husband or friends, i
She married him because she wanted to escape from her family and not because she loved him. Anna is not satisfied from her marriage ("The solitary candle burning on the table threw a faint light on her face, yet it was clear that she was very unhappy"p. For Gurov, on the other hand, it is the first time he has so strange and unique feelings for a woman. Although Gurov has many times slept with other women, he does not divorce his wife and the only reason for that is society. Through this story we understand how society was at the time Gurov and Anna lived and at what extend the moral rules were oppressing each individual's personal freedom. Because of the fact that he had sexual experiences with many women and also because he did not respect his wife, every woman he has something negative to say ("he spoke ill for women and used to call them "the lower race" P. In that short story Chekhov tries to show that for some things, which are very important for us, and from which our happiness is depended, it is better to ignore society's moral rules. "There must be a different sort of life," I said to myself. The irony is that when Gurov and Anna did the right thing, got married and built families, they had an unhappy life and now that they want to do a socially unacceptable action, to leave their families and live together, they are happier and more satisfied than ever. 126), she feels really bad ("Her face dropped and faded, and on both sides of it, her long hair hung down mournfully; she mused in a dejected attitude like "the woman who was a sinner" in an old fashioned picture" p126). Because of the fact that neither in his wife nor in any other woman he has found what he really wanted, he underestimated women and thought he was superior. Anna thought that by getting married she would actually live ("I wanted something better.
Common topics in this essay:
P123 Due,
Gurov Anna,
Anna Sergeyevna,
,
Chekhov's Lady,
Dmitritch Gurov,
gurov anna,
personal freedom,
lady dog,
moral rules,
respect wife,
sexual experiences,
|
Acceptance Essays
