Reading Journal #2 - The Lady with the Dog

Male Chauvinism was really common when the short story “The Lady with the Dog” was written.  The short story raises the fundamental question, whether an ardent chauvinist could forsake their view and find a true love, and shows how a hypocritical misogynist can change through true love by portraying the love affair between Dmitri Dmitritch Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna.

Dmitri’s duality is strikingly exposed throughout the story. He considers women as a lower race, but he couldn’t get on for two days without women. After his first encounter with Anna, he only worships her slender neck and lovely eyes, and disregards her character by saying “There’s something pathetic about her anyway.” Furthermore, Dmitri reveals his cold and apathetic nature after he sleeps with Anna. While Anna feels guilty and disconsolate, Dmitri cuts a piece of watermelon and eats it without haste. He doesn’t really care about Anna’s inner conflict and only pursues his own pleasures. He even feels bored and irritated by Anna’s naïve tone, which is quite cold-blooded and selfish.

However, Dmitri gradually changes as he sincerely falls in love with pure and innocent Anna. Throughout the story, Anna is portrayed as a young and callow lady who still possesses innocence and purity. When the couple dates at the harbor, Chekhov writes “She talked a great deal and asked disconnected questions, forgetting next moment what she had asked,” which can be interpreted as the typical caprice of a young and immature lady. Her immaturity can also be seen when she mentions that she doesn’t exactly know what her husband does. Her purity is shown most explicitly when she says that she loves a pure, honest life, and sin is loathsome to her.

At first, Dmitri seduces Anna for impure purpose. However, Anna’s purity eventually makes Dmitri feel genuine love and begins to look back on his life in an objective way. He shows series of change in his behavior and thought. While indulging in the natural beauty of Yalta, he thinks that everything is beautiful except the things that we do when we forget our human dignity and higher aims. He is regretting the life he had before he met Anna. Other evidence is shown when Anna leaves Yalta. He was “moved, sad, and conscious of a slight remorse.” He feels guilty that he unwittingly deceived her with his false image.

As the story draws to the end, their secret love affair becomes more plaintive. When Dmitri returns to Moscow, he was not an unfettered philanderer anymore. He is bound to his family, and he needs to endure his wife’s neglect. He tries to brag his secret affair to his friend, but he is neglected again. The more and more he feels sick about his surrounding, the more precious his memory of times spent in Yalta, with Anna. Now, Dmitri sincerely loves Anna. Dmitri make surprise visit to Anna, and confirms Anna’s affection towards him.

The story ends with an open ended conclusion. Chekhov allows readers to expect how the story would end, and provokes the curiosity. We don’t know what hardships and difficulties this secret couple would face. However, we can know for sure that Dmitri is not the same as before, and he would do his best to keep his true love.