“The Lady with the Dog” Reading Journal – The Story of the Man who Resorts to Love

             Chekhov’s short stories can be characterized by “character over plot.” That is to say, the plot originates from the inner force of its characters, and the story line is never imposed for its own sake. With that said, the character to focus on in this particular story, “The Lady and the Dog,” is definitely Dmitri Gurov for it is he and his changing attitudes toward Anna and himself that drive the plot. “The Lady with the Dog” is a rather scandalous story of its time with obvious themes of relationships, adultery, and love. Through a thorough analysis of Dmitri’s character, I want to explore his take on the whole concept of a relationship and speculate on why such a shift of viewpoint occurred on his part. How did the subject of his sexual conquest turn into the love of his life? How did the adulterous affair turn into his liberation? What is love, anyway? Chekhov, being Chekhov, does not give an answer straight out. However, he gives hints and leaves the readers room to interpret.

             Dmitri, in the initial part of the story, is drawn out as an unappealing chauvinistic player, hardly winning any favors from us. He is bitter and cynical about women and the world as a whole. We learn from the beginning that he is unhappily married, that he is in his middle ages, and that he indulges in frequent adultery. He enjoys the company of women but avoids getting into a deep relationship. “Every intimacy, which at first so agreeably diversifies life and appears a light and charming adventure, inevitably grows into a regular problem of extreme intricacy, and in the long run the situation becomes unbearable.” It seems that our male protagonist is afraid of getting into deep relationships and dealing with “love.” He wants to keep things simple, which is why he takes up another opportunity to enjoy a “swift, fleeting love affair” with the newcomer of Yalta. He addresses her not as a human being but a label, such as “the lady with the dog” or “the lady in the beret,” reinforcing Dmitri’s viewpoint of women being a temporary plaything that does not need naming.

             However, the journalistic, dry prose of Chekhov turns poetic near the end of section I, giving a hint at how Dmitri comes to feel love for Anna. “They walked and talked of the strange light on the sea: the water was of a soft warm, lilac hue, and there was a golden streak from the moon upon it,” is very poetic. In this paragraph, we learn that Dmitri studied to be an Opera singer but works in the confined regulations of a bank. Dmitri probably feels trapped in his life. It is also the first time we learn the woman by name, Anna Sergeyevna. This hints at the origins of his love as this description describes how both are living unhappy lives and Dmitri calls the “lady” by name. When Dmitri goes back to the hotel, he thinks about her youth, her diffidence and angularity, and her “slender delicate neck, her lovely grey eyes.” He is attracted to her youth and frailty. However, he concludes that there is something pathetic about her, and avoids facing his sprouting love for Anna.

             The recurring image of the sea reinforces the hint mentioned above. In the first mentioning of the sea, Chekhov’s prose suddenly took a shift and it revealed their meaningless lives. The sea comes up once again after Anna’s emotional outburst. Dmitri takes her to the sea, and Dmitri’s reflections are revealed. “So it sounds now, and it will sound as indifferently and monotonously when we are all no more…in this constancy,…, there lies hid, perhaps, a pledge of our eternal salvation, of the unceasing movement of life upon earth, the unceasing progress towards perfection.” Through his thoughts, Dmitri’s hunger for something deeper in life, some meaning in life, is shown. Maybe the lineup of affairs he had was just an expression for a longing for intimacy. The sea also recurs when Dmitri parts with Anna. After he ends the affair almost dispassionately, Gurov astonishes himself by finding love. I believe that the sea, with its constancy and sublimation, helps Gurov find meaning in his life and ultimately come in terms with love. I don’t think Chekhov meant it as a direct trigger for Dmitri to find love, but its recurring images of the sea is integrated with Chekhov’s steady realization of love, and thus the importance of nature in Chekhov’s works. The sea reminds Dmitri and the readers that man lives and dies in obscurity (compared to the sea) and to find " a pledge of eternal salvation." For Dmitri, this eternal salvation was love.

           Another recurring image is the color grey. Starting from the grey eyes of Anna and Starting from the grey eyes of Anna, then the table grey with dust, the grey army cloth, the grey fence, culminating in the greying of his hair. I believe that this recapped readers and the character with the idea of age. We know that Dmitri is in his middle ages, which leads one to think if he’s in a midlife crisis. I think it is safe to say that Dmitri was attracted to Anna’s freshness and inexperience. He was trying to recapture his youth. However, at the end of the story, he recognizes that Anna too will age like him (relating back to her grey eyes), but still he loves her. I believe that this can work to his selfishness. Since Dmitri is aging, his days of easily seducing women are limited. He needs not a string of lovers but one he can grow old with, and Anna, who is so dependent on him and adores him, is the subject of his final love.

             Thus, I think for Dmitri, love is pretty selfish. He comes to terms with genuine love because he wants to find meaning in life (reinforced by the sea) and  because his age (shown through the images of grey) is telling him to settle on one woman. He resorts to what he thinks is “true” love. However, there are some implications that his condescending air has not completely gone. During both of Anna’s emotional outbursts, Dmitri is eating something – a watermelon in the first and tea in the second. However, there are still implications of a bright future, a happy ending, if you will. Ultimately though, the relationship between a man and a woman can never be defined, thus the ambiguous conclusion. 

“The Student” Reading Journal: The Strange Mixture of Misery and Joy

Joyce Lee

       While reading the student, I could not help but feel that Chekhov’s use of language evokes much feeling and conveys the emotions of the narrator, Ivan. Chekhov skillfully manages to mix in emotion within his dry, objective, and somewhat journalistic tone. The shift in his descriptions and sentence structure echoes the shift in Ivan’s emotions, which speaks of the main theme of the short story.

       “The Student” starts out with images of desolate bleakness. The description of nature is predominant in the first part of the story. “Something alive droned pitifully with a sound like blowing into an empty bottle,” and “a penetrating wind blew inappropriately from the east,” culminating into a feeling of cheerlessness, remoteness, and loneliness. The language is crude and laconic. The following mentioning of the figures of the past, Ivan the Terrible, Peter, and Rurik arouse the thought that this desolate gloom is a chronic state. It seems to speak of misery as being a integral and perpetual part of human nature. "The same darkness, the same feeling of oppression - all these had existed, did exist and would exist, and the lapse of a thousand years would make life no better." This powerful description of desolation and depression dominates the first part of the story.

       Then, right after this bleak introduction and insight into the misery of humans, Ivan encounters two widows and tells them of the (rather simplified) Biblical narrative of Peter and Jesus. Religion was a dominant factor in 19th century, and it seems that after being depressed after his rather dooming insight, Ivan and his young 22-year-old self wanted to relate and share the suffering of the past with someone. To gather sympathy of the bleakness of life? To garner reverence for his knowledge? Perhaps. But what he gets is an emotional outburst from the two women. This response from the widows ignites joy from Ivan, as powerful as the depression portrayed in the beginning of the story. The rhythm of the language brings out this happiness of the student who learned something new - the response and connection of those suffering in the present to those who suffered in the past. The last paragraph is composed of one thick paragraph, with thoughts flowing freely from the river by the ferry to the chief thing in human life in a single sentence, Ivan excited to share his discovery. There is no evident logic and the last paragraph gives an ambiguous conclusion but it hopes for a happier future.

      Chekhov mingled the past and present by the subtle parallelisms of Peter's betrayal and the setting surrounding the two widows. As he shows, sufferings and misery are indeed constant. However, they also have meaning and significance enough to evoke emotions in the present, which makes suffering have some meaning and significance. This rather strange, somewhat paradoxical theme continues on to the language of the conclusion. The last paragraph juxtaposes the ominous image of the "cold, crimson sunset" and a beacon of hope, the "narrow streak of light." Chekhov said that "The Student" was his favorite "optimistic" work. The final notes of the story focus not on the coldness and dejectedness of the suffering, but resound of enchanment, happiness, and beauty. Apart from whether this story is realism or not, Chekhov's mastery of language to convey a deep message about of suffering and joy itself is simply amazing.