Love in Chekhov's Stories

This research paper describes how the author Chekhovs, characters respond to love in his short stories. The paper will specifically focus on his two short stories the Lady with the Dog, and About Love. Anton Chekhov wrote a short story in the 1800s, called "The Lady with the Dog. In the story, the author reflects his perception and attitude about love and women. The story clearly presents the author's positive attitude towards ladies and love. The story enunciates that a profound love experienced by people manifests to a force for good.It talks about a love affair that is seen through the eyes of a character named Gurov. Uncle Vanya says that Chekhov understood his plays to be comedies. By this, he meant a mixture of hopefulness and lack of hope that he gives an example of real life situations.

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"He rejected the theater of action for a more character'-centered and "impressionistic" work of plot and dialogue. Such an emphasis can be seen in emotionally-charged moments where characters react to their circumstances or atmospheric moments where a certain desire, despair, loss and/or hope dominate," says Uncle Vanya (Shmoop 81).

He believed in the appearance of being true or real that included the action of actual life. In his later plays, this resulted in a form of drama that tended to stress compressed, tight plays. Due to the above, Chekhov's later plays have often been labeled "lyrical".

A man named Dmitri Gurov has an interest of a young woman that he sees walking along the beach with her small toy size dog. Gurov dislikes his wife and, as a result, has many love affairs, in other words, cheats on his wife often. One day, "the lady with the dog" sits next to Gurov then she starts to eat her food that she had brought along with her to snack on, Gurov pets her dog to strike up a conversation. He learns that her name is Anna, that she is married, and that she has come to Yalta on vacation. Over the next week, Anna and Gurov see a lot of each other and grow close. Gurov is an older and married man that is attracted to this younger woman, Anna; she excites Gurov's desire with her fresh and youthfulness. Every evening the couple spends time together and watches the sunset. Anna is also married, but she could not continue the affair with Gurov because she feared that her husband, Von Diderits, will send for her. On Diderits sends Anna a letter asking for her returns, and she leaves Dmitri with relief.

"The Lady with the Dog shows the author's distinction of his style of writing. "He transports emotionally complicated situation in just a few words, and preserving the intensity of his characters' feelings," says spa (Smith, Virginia & Ronald 46). For example, when Dmitri Gurov first sees Anna at the theater, Chekhov expresses Gurov's romantic longing in the passage stating: "she, this little woman, in no way remarkable, lost in a provincial crowd, with a vulgar lorgnette in her hand, filled his whole life now, was his sorrow and his joy . . . He thought and dreamed." The author writes as though he is an artist. The author uses colors to carry the feelings of his characters. For example, Gurov's is an older man with hair that is described as his hair graying, and wears gray suits, and as far as the sea is described the color as "the water was of a soft, warm lilac hue, and there was a golden streak from the moon upon it." Spark mentions that Chekhov talks about Yalta as a romantic place for Anna and Dmitri Gurov, a place that is bright and filled with examples of color and imagery. "The lovers worry about what they mean to one another, Anna fears that Dmitri thinks of her only as a regular woman, while Dmitri thinks that Anna has false impression of him as a kind man because both realized that their relationship is founded on past that they were disappointed with and hoped that there was a future for them, as well as the desires they both had for each other.

Donald Ray talks about beginnings than it does endings." There is no way of getting a straight answer of how Chekhov's narrative works: the story or what will happen. The best way to be able to understand this short story, we have to think of what may happen before reading the story and what will happen to the characters after reading the story (Chekhov & Garnett 74). It is fun to think ahead of the short story just to get the feel and imagination of what possibly will happen then after reading, and if the event is the same or different, it may surprise you. Doing it this way can be fun and exciting, well at least for me it was. Gurov can be described as this older man that is obviously a womanizer and has been that way years because of him being this way for so long; he lets Anna go but then realizes that he wasn't supposed to be this womanizing type of guy. However, the leading character, Gurov, is of the search for his self-confidence. Anna revives Gurov's lost desire for life but also that Gurov's love for Anna complicates the relationship that he had with his wife back home.

The short story ends with the commitment resulting from a failure to make a choice a between alternatives, as Gurov realizes that has been living two lives: living as an unhappily married man that keeps secrets from his wife and lives as if he is still single that complicates his marriage with his new found young lover

About love

Another short story by Chekov that describes the manifestation of love is the short story About Love, where he reveals his perception that love is primarily governed by emotions that do not care of any physical barriers. The story puts forward that love is not only confined to marriage, but also that love is different in every situation.

Why Alyohin and Anna Alexeyevna conceal their love to each other

Anna and Alyohin in the short story concealed their love for each other cowardly due to their reasons. Alyohin is an educated and single man. However, he could not gain the courage to confront Anna despite being in deep love with her. He feared to confront social criticism. He had a perception that his expression of love to Anna would be a betrayal of the love and trust that was exhibited by Anna's children and husband. Moreover, he thought that since he was not financially stable, he could not maintain and keep Anna happy owing to his present financial condition (Chekhov et al. 90). This made him hesitant about expressing his love to Anna. Furthermore, he also feared the heartbreak or difficulties Anna would face when they stop loving one another or when he dies.

Similarly, Anna never expressed her love for Alyohin. He was primarily guided by his ethics not to express his love. Logically it was hard to express her love to Alyohin and ignore or keep away from her marriage and children. Alyohins life was full of problems and her getting into his life could complicate his life much further. Moreover, she was relatively older to begin a new marriage with Alyohin since she was a mother of two children. She had a perception that Alyohin was still young and should marry an intelligent and beautiful girl that could be a helpmate as well as a good wife. Furthermore, it could be perceived as being incorrect and morally unjustifiable. Therefore, it was hard for her to express her love for her.

Love is different in each situation and how love is not confined to marriage

The author Chekov argues that love is different in every situation. Alyohin narrates love stories to his friends on a rainy day while having breakfast. He narrates that Nikanor, who was a cook, was deeply in love with Pelageya, who was a maidservant in the same house. They were not married but in love. Sometimes Nikanor could get drunk and become violent and beats up Pelageya. This forced her sometimes to hide from him to avoid his misconduct. Pelageya despite their contrasting characters and views, she was ready and willing to live with Nikanor, however, she did not want to marry him. It was a mystery that they were deeply in love with each other.

Similarly, Alyohin, who is the narrator while at the University, was in love with another University girl, and they used to stay in the same house. However, the girl was too much concerned about household issues and monetary matters, which did not anchor well with Alyohin. He was ready to devote himself to love, but he thought the behaviors in the girl would be a hindrance and would only lead to dissatisfaction and irritation.

He also talked about his love story with Anna. He narrated that after graduation from the University he got some of the properties that had been left by his father to cater for her educational expenses. He chose to stay in the village to be able to pay off his debts. However, he had to go to town often since he was elected an honorary justice of the court of peace. He met Anna when he was invited by Mr. Luganovich; on the first meeting it seemed he had met Anna from childhood. After that, he visited Anna regularly, and they eventually fell in love. However, due to their fear of social criticism, they never expressed their love for one another. Anna became weary of maintaining two relationships; she detached herself with her family and even became a patient of the nervous prostration ailment. When the disease prolonged, she was advised to seek treatment in Crimea. She was escorted by a huge crowd. Alyohin got into the train to see her off. They looked into each others eyes, and they could not resist the love. They kissed, the train moved, and Alyohin highlighted in the next stage. He went home with a heavy heart. After the story, the friends advised him to focus on his career instead of doing farming.

Chekhov, the author of the story, decided to write a story about an ordinary man Alyhin. He never chose to write about a scholar or a hero because he wanted to present the possible events and general human nature that can happen to any man, in general, society. Human nature is similar to all types of man, either ordinary or a hero. Natural feelings of hatred, love, happiness, anger, grief or emotion are the same in every person and do not make any difference between an ordinary man and a celebrated hero. He fathoms that the feelings are the same to all (Chekhov, Anton & Rosamund 87). In contrast, it is only the educated individuals that may interpret or see things differently and maybe handle things much better. Comparing the perception put forth by the author that only celebrated individuals lead a fulfilled and successful life is false. I believe that every person is made a virtue that is heroic its way.

The setting of the story and atmosphere is presented through various activities described in the story. At the start of the story, few friends are seen to be having a leisurely time. After having breakfast, the cook comes to ask them what they could wish to have for dinner. They are drinking, eating and making stories. An atmosphere of inertia is presented in the sense that they do not have anything major to do but rather drink, eat and talk. At the end of the story, a similar atmosphere is also presented. While Alyohin is giving his narration, the sun sets, while rain stops as the two friends, Iva and Burkin goes out to the balcony to enjoy themselves while watching the fine view of the garden. Both atmospheres presented by the author has a close association with the character trait of Alyohin with the women he loves. Often Alyohin is presented as a lovely person who is sometimes disturbed by good memories of his beloved Anna. He narrates his love story to others most of his free time. This indicates that he got misery and lifelong grief as the result of love with Anna.

The setting of the story is also...