The Lady with the Pet Dog

Courtney Morgan

ENG 203

Dr. Owens

February 3, 2016

“The Lady with the Pet Dog”

Both versions of “The Lady with the Pet Dog” express sympathy in the text, but both authors go about expressing it in a different way. All readers may not agree with the character’s decisions or even believe they made the correct choices, but the characters point of view portrays the sympathy readers feel towards the hurting characters. The characters use their point of view to express why they made the decisions they did.

Chekhov’s version of the story expresses sympathy from the man participating in the affair rather than from the main female character. This short story is a tale of two lovers who both have affairs while married to other people. Chekhov avoided moralizing and focused on capturing the “invisible complexion of human consciousness”. He also avoided the “whiplash ending”. This version is told from Gurov’s point of view, which is a dynamic character. During the beginning of the short story, Gurov is not fond of women in general, especially not his wife. He believes women to be inferior, but later we find out he is afraid of their power over him. Gurov meets Anna Sergeyevna, also married, and falls in love with her. The affair ended when Anna was summoned to come home by her husband. When Gurov returns home, he continues on with his life as he had done beforehand, hoping this will help him forget all about Anna and his love for her. One night he decided to visit her because he could not leave his feelings for her alone. After going to see her, she promises that she will visit him in Moscow due to the fact that she also could not get him off of her mind. Anna begins to visit Moscow regularly and carries on with the affair. Gurov realizes his public life is worthless but his private one is very valuable to him. They sat together in the hotel attempting to find a way to be together, knowing it will be very difficult. Chekhov makes it possible for us to understand their...