The lady with the dog, By Anton Chekhov (1899)

 The lady with the dog, By Anton Chekhov (1899)

8.5/10

For the first two parts of the story, I supposed this story was either an immoral, outrageous propaganda written to beautify cheating on partners, or a sort of cliché tragedy in which impossible love leads to emotional suicides and murders and such. Therefore, I was surprised when the author ended the story with the two lovers agonizing about their future.

However. once I read the story again and thought about it a few days after my first run, I felt that the behaviors of Gurov and Anna is something that should not be judged by our modern mindset. Instead, I began to understand the reason of their actions. A man internally disgusted by his monotonous life who never thought he would find real love met a woman he could finally love. What they thought to be a short immoral entertainment became the most important thing of their life, saving them from the distress of life.

Although I won’t change my thoughts that what Gurov and Anna are doing is wrong, I think Chekhov did an amazing job in showing the strange avidities and restrictions of life.

Thus, I rate this story eight point five out of ten. (197 words)

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  1. Mr. Garrioch2022년 2월 27일 오후 6:23

    Good. I'm glad you noted the "ending" or lack of ending as important to the story. Chekhov isn't interested in drama. He is interested in the questions as he always is: what will humans accept as right or wrong, or bad or good? It is a messy question to answer.

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