The Lady with the dog was written by Anton Chekhov. This is a short story that was first published in 1899 narrates the story of an adulterous affair an older Russian banker who meets a young lady while on vacation in Yalta.
The central conflict in this story is the pull between loyalty and infatuation, security and the unknown, and the failure to truly know if the latter is something real or illusory. Both the man and woman are trapped in shallow lives, both seek a more satisfying relationship, a spark that makes life worth living. For example, when the pair are at dinner," Then both continued eating in silence, like complete strangers, but after dinner they left the restaurant together, and embarked the same where they go, or what they talk …show more content…
Prior to her affair, she had been living a conventional life with her "flunky" husband (Chekhov 2). Yet, her affair with Gurov ignited the spark of life, what it means "to live". In learning that what she wanted in life was "to live," Anna recognizes that there is pain intrinsic to such a condition. Anna is immersed in complete pain because of her love for Gurov, but it is a pain that indicates the essence of life and what it means "to live." As a result of Gurov’s love for her she now sees herself and he as "a pair of birds of passage, caught and forced to live in different cages." There is a sweet pain to this condition of being, one that Anna now knows. While the ending is one in which we are left with more beginnings, Anna has found the essence of being in the world and the pain that goes along with that is now a pat of her condition in the world. This only happens as a result of her relationship with …show more content…
He no longer is the "casual lover" and he no longer sees women in an "inferior light." He has become changed though Anna 's way of seeing him. In Anna seeing him as "kind, exceptional, lofty," he now recognizes that he must act in accordance to how she sees him. He is changed because he can no longer accept a condition of the world where there is in-authenticity evident: “...everything that was of interest and importance to him, everything that was essential to him, everything about which he felt sincerely and did not deceive himself ... was going on concealed from others; while all that was false... went on in the open.” Anna inspires in Gurov a desire for something more than what is, an aspirational desire to transform his being in the world. It is one in which there is more pain evident, but in this new beginnings and a commencement of a new journey is also a part of this
The central conflict in this story is the pull between loyalty and infatuation, security and the unknown, and the failure to truly know if the latter is something real or illusory. Both the man and woman are trapped in shallow lives, both seek a more satisfying relationship, a spark that makes life worth living. For example, when the pair are at dinner," Then both continued eating in silence, like complete strangers, but after dinner they left the restaurant together, and embarked the same where they go, or what they talk …show more content…
Prior to her affair, she had been living a conventional life with her "flunky" husband (Chekhov 2). Yet, her affair with Gurov ignited the spark of life, what it means "to live". In learning that what she wanted in life was "to live," Anna recognizes that there is pain intrinsic to such a condition. Anna is immersed in complete pain because of her love for Gurov, but it is a pain that indicates the essence of life and what it means "to live." As a result of Gurov’s love for her she now sees herself and he as "a pair of birds of passage, caught and forced to live in different cages." There is a sweet pain to this condition of being, one that Anna now knows. While the ending is one in which we are left with more beginnings, Anna has found the essence of being in the world and the pain that goes along with that is now a pat of her condition in the world. This only happens as a result of her relationship with …show more content…
He no longer is the "casual lover" and he no longer sees women in an "inferior light." He has become changed though Anna 's way of seeing him. In Anna seeing him as "kind, exceptional, lofty," he now recognizes that he must act in accordance to how she sees him. He is changed because he can no longer accept a condition of the world where there is in-authenticity evident: “...everything that was of interest and importance to him, everything that was essential to him, everything about which he felt sincerely and did not deceive himself ... was going on concealed from others; while all that was false... went on in the open.” Anna inspires in Gurov a desire for something more than what is, an aspirational desire to transform his being in the world. It is one in which there is more pain evident, but in this new beginnings and a commencement of a new journey is also a part of this