Symbolism In The Lady With The Dog

Author Chekov’s personal life was very similar to the story in which he wrote. On the 25th of May in 1901, Chekov married his wife Olga Knipper, a stage actress. Together they maintained a long distance relationship, Chekov was living mainly in Yalta and Olga in Moscow as she continued to seek her acting career (Hingley). While Chekov and Olga were separated, they continued to uphold a stable marriage as they lived apart for most of the year. Around the time, Chekov wrote The Lady with the Dog, which included two characters, Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna, whose lives were very similar to both Chekov and Olga. Despite the hardships that their long distance relationship brought the couple, they remained married until Chekov’s death in 1904. In The Lady with the Dog, Chekov uses the symbolism of the fence, the color grey and The Geisha performance to develop the theme of dissatisfaction. …show more content…
As Gurov and Anna both parted ways in Yalta, they only hoped that they would reunite once again. Once Gurov returned back to Moscow, he realized that his love for Anna was something he had never appreciated before. The memories that he made with Anna lingered in his mind; he began to construct an elaborate plan to meet with Anna once again. When he reached Old Gontcharny Street, Gurov identified the house where Anna resided, he noticed that Anna’s husband was home. He wondered if he were to deliver her a letter, if the letter would end up in the wrong hands and ruin any fate he had. Rather than confronting Anna, Gurov just stared at, “[the] long grey fence adorned with nails [and]…thought ‘one would run away from a fence like that’” (Chekov). The fence symbolically confines Anna within her home, similar to restriction of happiness that she faces trapped within her marriage. The hardness of the nails illustrates the theme of dissatisfaction as the two of them struggle to love each other as they are both already