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THE LADY WITH THE DOG (1899)

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

ØTells the story of an affair
o  Wealthy Banker (Dmitry Gurov)
o  Young Wife (Anna)
ØBuilds off of what is expected
o  Affair was thought to be a quick experience
o  These characters were surprised to find that not the case
o  Specially the Banker 
ØAfter short affair they meet again
o  Rekindle their relationship
o  Develop a new chapter in their lives
o  Discover themselves
ØThe writer presents the Theme and Ideas
o  Progression of Character:
§  Moving from stereotype to developed
§  Dmitri: Rich playboy with no depth becomes entwined with Anna.
§  Anna: Moves from The Lady with the Dogto someone with a name.
·      Relates to getting to know people as well as individual development.
o  Open Ending and the Ability to always Discover:
§  Feels through the beginning as if he knows who he is
§  By the end he understands in old age he can still change and find meaning
·      The continual development of life
·      Illustrated with Chekhov’s open endings
§  Unhappiness and being Bored
·      Anna finds she is not happy with her husband
·      Dmitri finds he is not happy with routine after Anna
·      Desire of continual progression and curiosity drives them
o  Very different span of boredom compared to The Flowers of Evil
§  Ability to escape Average life:
·      There is a shift, a grasping of opportunity
·      Again, different from other Russian authors
§  Being judgmental or categorizing people:
·      Dmitri thinks he can win Anna and that she is the lesser
·      Anna assumes Dmitri is a careless flirt who will provide no true emotion
·      Both discover that they’re wrong
o  Commentary on general society and conduct

Dmitry Gurov, under the age of forty years, Muscovite (a resident of Moscow), a philologist (the humanistic study of language and literature) by education, but working in a bank, is having a rest in Yalta. In Moscow remained unloved wife, who he often cheats, the daughter of twelve years, and two sons-schoolboys. In appearance and character of his is something attractive and mysterious which dispose (position/cast out) women to him. He himself despises (hate) women, considering them as an inferior race, and at the same time cannot do without them and is constantly looking for love affairs, having great experience with it. On the waterfront (seaside/riverside), he meets a young lady. This is a woman of medium height, wearing a beret (cap), with her small Pomeranian dog (spitz-breed of very small compact long haired dogs) following her. Vacationers (travellers) called her "the lady with the dog."Although the protagonist disparages (mocks) women and calls them "the lower race," he secretly acknowledges that he is more at ease in their company than in men's. One day, "the lady with the dog" sits down next to Dmitri to eat in the public gardens. The man pets her dog in order to strike up a conversation. Their conversation begins in the usual way.

Anna Sergeyevnawas born in St. Petersburg, but came from the city of S-, where she had been living for two years, being married to an officer by the name of VonDiderits(his grandfather was a German, and he is Orthodox). The work of her husband is not interesting for her she cannot even remember the name of his place of service. Apparently, she does not love her husband, and is unhappy in life. Their romance begins a week after they met. She is going painful through her fall, considering that Gurov is the first who will not respect her. He does not know what to say. She intensely swears that she always wanted to have clean and honest life, that her sin is disgusting. Gurov is trying to calm her down, cheer, depicts passion, which he is no likely to experience.

Their affair flows smoothly, as if nothing threatened them both. One hopes that her husband will come. Instead, he asks in a letter his wife to come back. Gurov sees her off to the station. When parting, she does not cry, but looks sad and sick. He also is touched, sad and feels a slight remorse. After the departure of Anna he decides to return home.
Moscow life captures Gurov. He likes to Moscow, its clubs, dinners in restaurants. It seems that he forgets about Yalta affair, but suddenly for no apparent reason, the image of Anna begins to worry him again, he could hear her breathing, gentle rustle of her dress. On the street he watched the women, looking, no one like her. Love awakens within him, and it is even more difficult to carry it no having anyone to share his feelings.

Finally Gurov decides to go to the city of S. He takes a room in a hotel, the doorman knows where Diderits live, but as he cannot directly pay them a visit, lies in wait for Anna in the theatre. He sees her husband there, in whom there is something servile and modest and who fully meets the provincial boredom and banality of the town S. Anna is frightened with the meeting, pleads Gurov to leave and promises herself to come to him. She lies to her husband that she was going to consult about a female disease, and every two or three months meets Gurov in Moscow in the hotel "Slavic Bazaar".

At the end their meeting is described - is not the first and probably not the last. She cries. He orders tea and thinks, "Well, let her cry..." then goes up to her and takes her by the shoulders. In the mirror, he sees that his head begins to turn grey; he became older and plainer during the last few years. He understands that he and she have committed in life some fatal mistake, he and she were not happy, and only now; when old age is close, really know the love. They are close to each other as husband and wife; their meeting - the most important thing in their lives.


Anna is in tears as they both lament their plight: in love with each other but married to other people. They discuss and debate, trying to find a way to be together despite the circumstance. They know there is a long road ahead, and that the most difficult part is just beginning. And it requires a little more - and the solution will be found, and then a new, beautiful life begin; and both were clear that the end is far, far away and that the most complex and difficult only begins.
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