In the story, A.P. Chekhov reveals the theme of the holiday romance in a completely ambiguous, new way. Contrary to established views, the meeting in Yalta for the main characters of “The Lady with the Dog” became fateful. They fall in love, experience a breakup, meet again, realizing their feelings, and become the closest people to each other. The characterization of the characters through their internal monologue gives the plot a touch of sadness and the wrongness of the current situation. In the work “The Lady with the Dog,” the characters are happy because they have found each other and are unhappy because they have to hide and lead a secret life. In the last lines of the story, the author hints that this story may have a happy continuation.
History of creation
The story “The Lady with the Dog” was written in 1898, after a long creative crisis for the writer. Many critics believe that Chekhov began writing the story after a trip to Yalta, where he met Olga Knipper. Perhaps it is to her that we owe the creation of this work.
The idea for the story appeared back in 1896, when the author outlined the basis of the plot in a notebook. At that time, he was already mortally ill with tuberculosis, so he sought to put his collected works in order. At the same time, he was engaged in theatrical productions of his own plays. His busy schedule did not allow him to immediately begin work on the text, so it lasted for two years. And yet during this time he was able to make a completely new, truly unique story, the creative history of which has become a legend. Many eminent literary scholars and critics recognized the work as innovative and unparalleled.
Briefly about the history of the creation of the work.
In 1897, A. Chekhov prepared the initial edition of the work. Over the course of a year, the writer made sketches and accumulated materials for the story. The next year the writer created a story.
At the time of writing the work, Chekhov was in the resort of Yalta. There he met his love. Apparently, these events and the experiences associated with them prompted the writer to write the story.
The work was published in 1899 in the publication “Russian Thought”.
The author in the story “The Lady with the Dog” reveals the philosophical meaning of the traditional love plot. Heroes change their own lives, like a case. In one there is a family with unloved people. In the other - meetings with loved ones. But at the same time, these people cannot openly talk about their feelings.
Genre and direction
If we talk about the genre, it is considered that this is a story, although some literary scholars classify “The Lady with the Dog” as a story. Indeed, the work is divided into parts, and its volume is borderline: too large for a story, but too small for a story. However, the number of heroes still indicates the smallest prose genre.
The direction is realism. The author describes completely ordinary things, inviting the reader to hear a story based on real events. Adultery was not uncommon in those days, as was the unequal marriage of a young girl with an older man.
Composition
The work consists of four parts, each of which tells about the relationship between Dmitry Dmitrievich and Anna Sergeevna, gradually increasing the pace of events. However, the composition of the story “The Lady with the Dog” has its own characteristics. Many critics, including the famous writer Vladimir Nabokov, pointed out that the text does not have a traditional linear structure, where there is a beginning, climax and denouement. It is not clear what is the highest point of tension in him, it is not clear what he wanted to say with an open ending. This story does not have the usual logical completeness.
Such randomness of parts is not the author’s mistake, but his innovation. This was the only way to convey a fragment from real life, where the laws of drama do not apply. He wanted to depict the natural relationship of two real people, and not a story about them. In his text, everything happens as it does in life: smoothly, without pathos or intrigue, as if by itself. The open ending conveys the confusion of the characters, who do not know what awaits them next.
Meaning of the name
Why did the author call the story “The Lady with the Dog”? The meaning of the title lies in the fact that a random woman without a name became everything for Gurov. At the very beginning, he liked the idea of starting a short-term relationship with a nameless stranger whom no one knew in Yalta. Then he foresaw the ease of this victory and impunity, because since no one knows it, it means it is free from public control.
“She was walking alone, still wearing the same beret, with a white Spitz; no one knew who she was and they just called her: the lady with the dog.”
However, in the finale he realized that he could not live without this lady with the dog. The title sounds ironic in relation to the main character: he did not want to know Anna Sergeevna, an affair with a stranger was enough for him, but fate outwitted him, and he could not give up love.
Characteristics of the main characters of the story “The Lady with the Dog”
Gurov Dmitry Dmitrich is the main character of the story “The Lady with the Dog.” A philologist by training, but works in a bank, he once prepared to sing in a private opera, but gave up, and has two houses in Moscow. He is in his late forties, he has a twelve-year-old daughter and two high school-age sons. He got married early, as a 2nd year student, he considers his wife to be shallow, he is afraid of her, does not like to be at home, often cheats on her and speaks badly of women, although he prefers their company to men’s, in which he is bored.
The hero meets Anna Sergeevna von Diederitz, who is vacationing here in Yalta, who attracted his attention because she always walks alone, accompanied by a white Spitz. He quickly becomes close to her, counting on a fleeting and unburdensome adventure. They spend some time together - have breakfast, walk, admire the sea, go out of town. Seeing off Anna Sergeevna as she leaves Yalta, Dmitry Gurov believes that they will never see each other again, and then, already in Moscow, he thinks that the pleasant memory of her will soon be covered with fog. Chekhov emphasizes the hero’s experience in amorous affairs and even some cynicism, so that his sudden love becomes all the more unexpected: a month passes, and Gurov’s memory remains as clear as if he had broken up with Anna Sergeevna only yesterday. He begins to be tormented by dissatisfaction with the “short, wingless” current life: unnecessary things, “frantic card playing, gluttony, drunkenness, constant conversations all about one thing”...
In the end, the hero cannot stand it and goes to the city of S., telling his wife that he is going to St. Petersburg to intercede for a young man. There he finds Anna Sergeevna’s house, but for a long time he cannot figure out how to let her know about himself so as not to arouse anyone’s suspicions. Their meeting will take place in the theater, where he unexpectedly approaches her. She confesses her love to him and asks him to leave, promising to come to Moscow and keeping her promise. Since then, they have lived a double life - open and hidden, meeting secretly once every two or three months, during Anna Sergeevna’s visits, and Gurov can no longer imagine life without her. “...Only now, when his head became gray, did he fall in love properly, truly - for the first time in his life.” However, he does not know how to change the current situation, which forces them to hide, lie, and not see each other for a long time. Chekhov ends the story with an open ending: it seems to the characters that a solution will be found and everything will be fine, although they realize that “the most difficult and difficult thing is just beginning.”
Von Diederitz Anna Sergeevna is the main character of the story “The Lady with the Dog” by Chekhov. Short, blonde. Gurov draws attention to her “timidity, the angularity of inexperienced youth” in communicating with strangers, her thin, weak neck and beautiful, gray eyes. She tells Gurov that she grew up in St. Petersburg, but got married in the city of S., where she has been living for two years, that her husband serves either in the provincial government, or in the provincial zemstvo government.
A romance begins between her and her new acquaintance, but after her “fall” the heroine worries and repents, she fears that Gurov will be the first to stop respecting her, and tries to convince him that she loves an honest, clean life, and sin is disgusting to her, which causes some confusion and embarrassment of the lover. She speaks of her husband as a good, honest man, but that despite all that, he is a lackey. After Gurov’s sudden appearance in her city, at the theater, she tells him that all this time she was thinking only about him and that she was unhappy, and then promises him to come to Moscow.
Her meetings with Gurov in Moscow become regular, but such a double life depresses her more than Gurov. During the meeting, the heroine cries “from the sorrowful awareness that their life has turned out so sadly; they see each other only secretly, hiding from people like thieves!” She becomes more and more attached to Gurov, adores him, evoking in his soul not only true love, but also deep compassion. She, like her chosen one, hopes that they will somehow manage to get rid of the “unbearable shackles” and that in the end “a new, wonderful life will begin...”.
Source: Encyclopedia of Literary Heroes: Russian Literature of the 2nd half of the 19th century. - M.: Olimp; LLC "AST Publishing House", 1997
The essence
The main character Gurov is married, but unfaithful to his wife, and the “lady with the dog” herself is married, but not happy. Throughout the story, the reader experiences the story together with the characters, observing how their worldview, attitude to life and desires change. At first, the hero experiences carnal pleasure from meeting Anna and is burdened by her repentance. The purity of a young girl who cheated on her husband for the first time becomes a heavy burden for him, because tears and regrets poison the delight of love. When Anna received news from her husband, she immediately went home, saying that the meeting with Gurov should not have happened. The man, who had cheated on his wife more than once, also decided that it was all over. However, a spiritual rebirth awaited him in Moscow. Short-term communication became the only important thing for Gurov. He was tired of children, work, wife and endless lunches and dinners, which took the golden years of his life.
Unable to bear it, he went to look for HER. In city S. He found her address and began to wait for the meeting. Tormented by anticipation, he found her in the theater. They went out to a secluded area and declared their love to each other. Since then, she began to travel to Moscow to see him. And so they once again sat and thought what would happen next, what to do? This is where the story “The Lady with the Dog” ends.
Main characters
Gurov Dmitry Dmitrievich | A middle-aged man, Muscovite, married. He has children, marriage is not fun. Gurov loves women, feels young and in demand in their society. He cheats on his wife easily, considers women to be an inferior race. Gurov has no friends. After a vacation in Yalta, where he met Anna Sergeevna, the main character notices that she occupies all his thoughts. This worries and frightens a man, because he is used to treating women lightly. He is looking for a meeting with her, later she comes to Moscow. During the next meeting, the slightly aged Gurov realizes that for the first time in his life he fell in love with a woman with all his soul. |
Anna Sergeyevna | An honest, naive young woman who married without love. She meets Gurov in Yalta, where she is vacationing alone. She is very worried about her “fall”, suffers, torn between conscience and feelings. The holiday romance develops rapidly and ends abruptly. Anna Sergeevna is leaving home due to her husband's illness. Later, in her city, in the theater, she confesses her love to Gurov, and their meetings become constant. |
Characteristics of heroes
The images of the characters in the story “The Lady with the Dog” are not fully revealed. And yet they are presented to the reader only in those aspects that are necessary for him to understand the meaning of the work. The many-wise Litrekon has prepared for you a table with a system of images:
- Dmitry Gurov is the main character of the story “The Lady with the Dog.” The hero lives in Moscow with his family - his wife and children. He is tired of everyday life and is looking for something new. Dmitry got married early, so he quickly got tired of the routine that appeared in his life. He cheated on his wife for quite a long time and often, because he not only did not love her, but also did not respect her. He generally looked down on women and believed that they were an “inferior race.” For him, a holiday romance is a common thing, and a woman is an instrument of fleeting happiness. With the ladies he was cheerful and young, he always knew how to please them, what to say. However, a chance meeting with Anna turned the hero’s life upside down: he fell in love with her and abandoned his usual hobbies. Life in Moscow seemed dreary and meaningless to him. He realized that all this vulgar talk about sturgeon, going to dinner, the appearance of a normal life was a pathetic and useless waste of time.
- Anna Sergeevna is the main character of the story “The Lady with the Dog.” This is a young woman, timid and honest at heart, but forced by circumstances to join love through sin. She married inexperienced and very young, and her husband turned out to be a “lackey,” that is, a person ready to grovel before superiors and live in slavish dependence on their opinions. Life together with him did not work out, and Anna, finding the slightest excuse, went on vacation to Yalta. The connection with Gurov became a great feeling for her. She repented of her action and believed that now he could not respect her. And yet she could not resist the temptation of love. At parting, she firmly decided to forget him, but in her city she only thought about that connection. As a result, she agreed to be Gurov’s mistress and go to Moscow with him, because her kind and flexible nature dissolved in love.
- The image of the dog is assigned to Anna Sergeevna. This image indicates that this lady is from high society. The Spitz is also a symbol of Anna’s loneliness. Only the company of the dog was not burdensome and pleasant for her. When a lover appeared in her life, mentions of the dog stopped.
Essay 2
Anna Sergeyevna
The main character of the work is a young woman who came on vacation alone, with only a white Spitz for company. Anna did not marry for love and hoped to thus find happiness and see the world, but she was mistaken. The image of the girl is unremarkable; it is only said that she has long blond hair and beautiful gray eyes.
The girl is well educated and brought up. A decent family instilled in her the concept of fairness and dignity. This conscientious lady experiences strong emotions when a love relationship begins to develop between her and Dmitry Gurov, who she met in Yalta. Anna suffers from her passion for this man, while experiencing deep guilt. But the emerging feeling overcomes her. And even after rest, separation haunts the woman, and their meetings continue.
Dmitry Gurov
The second key character of the work is a middle-aged man who also came on vacation. The man is quite well off, is a bank employee, wanted to sing in the opera, but did not study. Dmitry Dmitrievich has a family, a wife and three children, but marriage weighs on him. This hero tries to stay away from people, he has no friends, he does not make unnecessary acquaintances.
Gurov has a special attitude towards women; he considers them unequal to men and always uses them only for his own pleasure. He commits treason easily, without experiencing any remorse. Having met Anna Sergeevna, he perceives her only as another hobby, fun, despite the fact that she sacrifices her moral principles for his sake. Upon returning to Moscow, the hero begins to understand that the holiday romance has become something more, because Anna now occupies all his thoughts. Gurov realizes that he has fallen in love for the first time and this changes his relationship with women. The lovers cannot refuse each other and their meetings continue.
Gurov's wife
Gurov's wife is the absolute opposite of Anna. She is a lively, respectable, tall woman who considers herself very educated. She gave her husband three children, but at the same time they remained complete strangers to each other. Dmitriy
Dmitrievich does not respect his wife and despises her, considers her to be narrow-minded and does not see anything attractive in her.
Anna's husband
Anna's husband is an honest and good, but characterless person. He has a decent position in society and material wealth. According to his wife, he is too noble, and with his actions and actions he looks like a lackey.
Despite the fact that it would seem that this is a simple holiday romance, it absolutely changes the lives of the characters, the author leaves the reader hope for a happy future for the lovers.
Subject
The theme of the story “The Lady with the Dog” returns us to questions traditional for Chekhov:
- Love
. The leading theme of love in the story rightfully takes first place. Gurov portrays naive and sincere love, which Anna “falls for”. But the lady herself was truly carried away by Dmitry. Love in this story is viewed from two planes: false and sincere. Anna's frank and strong affection was transferred to Gurov, and for the first time in his life he, too, felt something different from his usual adventures. The feeling transformed him: now he renounced his past delusions and began to see life more clearly. His false life suddenly became meaningful and truthful. This means that love acts as a means and stimulus for spiritual rebirth. - The landscape and its role
in the story “The Lady with the Dog” are very significant. Nature emphasizes the state of mind of the heroes: the southern abundance of the sun symbolizes the flowering of feelings, the cold of Moscow conveys Gurov’s melancholy. The author tries to bring a little poetry into the story, hinting to the reader that the resort hobby is not really an affair, but a deep feeling that will not leave the heroes for a long time. - Dream
. The author likes dreamy Anna, who thinks that everything will change soon, and Gurov is a gift from fate that can help her find herself, her place in the world. He sees in her isolation from the real world, in her wanderings and aspirations, a beautiful soul that is tyrannized by her environment. Gurov's daydreaming comes down to fleeting desires. He doesn't think about the future, he enjoys the present. - Fate.
The theme of fate also plays an important role in the story. Anna literally fled to the south; she was unable to put up with an unwanted marriage. And the result of this escape was true love. Chance or fate? The author does not give his answer, but from the outside it looks as if providence itself had brought two unfortunate people in need of deep feelings together.
Lady with a dog
Tolstoy did not like the story. “People who have not developed a clear worldview that separates good and evil. Before, they were timid and searched; now, thinking that they are on the other side of good and evil, they remain on this side, that is, almost animals,” he wrote in his diary on January 16, 1900. And, apparently, he not only wrote it down, because three days later Chekhov finds out about it through third parties. Surprisingly, reflections on “animal instinct” are also found in Chekhov’s notebooks at the time of his leisurely reflection on the future plot: “Animals have a constant desire to reveal a secret (to find a nest), hence people have respect for other people’s secrets, like a fight against animal instinct!” Literary scholar and critic Zinovy Paperny
Zinovy Samoilovich Paperny (1919–1996) - literary critic, writer. He specialized in the works of Chekhov. He wrote scripts for two Soviet comedies - “New Year's Abduction” by Yuri Saakov and “The Last Crook” by Vadim Mass and Ian Ebner. In the early 1970s, he became famous as the author of a parody of Vsevolod Kochetov’s novel “What Do You Want?” The parody was circulated in samizdat under the title “What is he wanting?”, because of it Paperny was expelled from the CPSU. I am sure that understanding the mystery is one of Chekhov’s main “creative routes” when working on a story; he points to the episode in which Gurov accompanies his daughter to the gymnasium on the way to Anna Sergeevna and thinks that he now has “another” life that occurs “secretly from others” and constitutes “the grain of his life.” It is the presence of this secret that lifts him above simply following animal instinct.
She sat down in the third row, and when Gurov looked at her, his heart sank, and he clearly understood that for him now in the whole world there was no closer, dearer and more important person
Anton Chekhov
By the time “The Lady with the Dog” was written, the attitude of writers towards each other’s ideas was generally restrained. Having experienced a passion for Tolstoyism in his early years, in the 1890s Chekhov became disillusioned with many of the ideas of his beloved writer - in light of the theme of adultery, it is indicative, for example, how Chekhov’s attitude towards the “Kreutzer Sonata” changed. First, he writes about the significance of the story, although he notes certain shortcomings in a letter to the poet Alexei Pleshcheev on February 15, 1890:
“Not to mention the artistic merits, which are amazing in places, I thank the story for the mere fact that it excites thought to the extreme. <…> True, she has very annoying shortcomings. <…> Thus, his judgments about syphilis, educational institutions, women’s aversion to copulation, etc. not only can they be disputed, but also directly expose an ignorant person who did not bother to read two or three books written by specialists during his long life. But still, these shortcomings fly away like feathers from the wind; in view of the dignity of the story, you simply don’t notice them, and if you notice, you will only be annoyed that the story has not escaped the fate of all human affairs, which are all imperfect and not free from stains.”
Very soon, after a trip to Sakhalin, Chekhov becomes disillusioned with the story. “Before the trip, the Kreutzer Sonata was an event for me, but now it’s funny to me and seems stupid. Either I have matured from the trip, or I have gone crazy - the devil knows me,” he writes in 1890 to his publisher Alexei Suvorin
Alexey Sergeevich Suvorin (1834–1912) - writer, playwright, publisher. He gained fame thanks to his Sunday feuilletons published in the St. Petersburg Gazette. In 1876, he bought the newspaper “New Time”, and soon founded his own bookstore and printing house, in which he published the reference books “Russian Calendar”, “All Russia”, and the “Cheap Library” series of books. Among Suvorin’s famous dramas are “Tatiana Repina”, “Medea”, “Dmitry the Pretender and Princess Ksenia”. - and to him in 1894: “Tolstoy’s morality has ceased to touch me, deep down I am unfriendly towards it... Peasant blood flows in me, and you won’t surprise me with peasant virtues...” In the story “Gooseberry” there is already an open criticism of the worldview Tolstoy - Chekhov calls his withdrawal from the bustle of the world selfishness and laziness, and in response to the thesis about three arshins of earth he says that, of course, a person needs “the whole globe.” Chekhov does not agree with Tolstoy's attitude towards family and marriage, or rather, with his moralizing approach to human nature. In this sense, the plot of “The Lady with the Dog” most likely polemically refers not even to “Anna Karenina,” but to the later “Kreutzer Sonata,” which is much more filled with Tolstoy’s morality, which is alien to Chekhov. At the same time, despite ideological differences, the writers remained on cordial terms. They continued to admire each other's prose; Tolstoy visited the ill Chekhov and was deeply saddened by his death.
Problem
The problematics of the work “The Lady with the Dog” are full of pressing questions that many people ask:
- Selfishness.
Gurov is the egoist in this story. Usually people in love set the same goals and have the same desires, but not in our case. Gurov is a simple womanizer who wanted something new. He does not try to understand Anna’s problems, that for her this is an extremely risky and painful step. Dmitry doesn’t care at all, and he is burdened by his mistress’s remorse. But gradually true love helps him get rid of this moral illness. - Indifference
. Gurov suffered because he was indifferent to women and even considered them a “lower race.” He enjoyed their affection, but deep down he despised them for who they were. That is why he shamelessly cheated on his wife and did not even think about how this would affect his family. He was indifferent to Anna at first, but then he realized that he was mistaken: she was not just another affair, but a beloved woman, without whom he could not live. - Caseness
. Each of the heroes had their own case, which helped them protect themselves from reality and their surroundings. Gurov took refuge from an unsatisfactory family life through infidelity, Anna through travel and even through “women’s illness.” Each compensated for their loneliness: Anna got a dog, and Gurov whiled away his days with people who meant nothing to him, just so as not to go home. - Freedom
. The symbol of bondage in the work “The Lady with the Dog” is the gray fence behind which Anna was languishing. Gurov was on duty with him every day when he came to see her, so as to accidentally meet her on the street. Then he thought that behind this fence she should feel unhappy. And indeed, every person is surrounded by such a fence, a screen of everyday life, behind which he hides his secret personal life. It would seem that Gurov was free before meeting Anna, but it was not so: only love allowed him to throw away boundaries and fear, to take and hug her in front of people. - Treason
. The problem of betrayal in this story is practically in the first place, because the entire plot is built around infidelity. Traditionally, people condemn betrayal, but the author is trying to prove that they do not always have the right to do this. Sometimes there is no longer love in a marriage, but society, the church and the law prevent the divorce. However, the heart cannot vegetate without love; it reaches out to another heart. And then a difficult moral choice arises: either change and go against everything, or be a hypocrite and maintain the convention of marriage. Which of these is more moral? There is no answer, there is only life, which forces you to go beyond the rules and traditions. - Moral Issues
. The author also raises moral issues such as morality and duty. He revises the usual concepts, showing the hypocrisy and falsehood of family life, not illuminated by love.
I
They said that a new face had appeared on the embankment: a lady with a dog.
Dmitry Dmitrich Gurov, who had lived in Yalta for two weeks and was used to it here, also became interested in new faces. Sitting in the pavilion at Vernet's, he saw a young lady, short, blonde, wearing a beret, walk along the embankment; A white spitz ran after her. And then he met her in the city garden and in the square several times a day. She was walking alone, still wearing the same beret, with a white Spitz; no one knew who she was, and they simply called her: the lady with the dog.
“If she is here without a husband and without acquaintances,” Gurov thought, “then it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get to know her.”
He was not yet forty, but he already had a twelve-year-old daughter and two high school-age sons. He was married early, when he was still a second-year student, and now his wife seemed one and a half times older than him. She was a tall woman, with dark eyebrows, straight, important, respectable and, as she called herself, thoughtful. She read a lot, did not write in letters, called her husband not Dmitry, but Dimitri, and he secretly considered her narrow-minded, narrow, ungraceful, was afraid of her and did not like to be at home. He began cheating on her a long time ago, cheated on her often, and that’s probably why he almost always spoke badly about women, and when people talked about them in his presence, he called them like this:
- Inferior race!
It seemed to him that he had been taught enough by bitter experience to call them whatever he wanted, but still, without the “inferior race” he could not live even two days. In the company of men he was bored, uncomfortable, with them he was taciturn and cold, but when he was among women, he felt free and knew what to talk about with them and how to behave; and it was easy for him even to remain silent with them. In his appearance, in his character, in his whole nature there was something attractive, elusive, which attracted women to him, attracted them; he knew about this, and he himself was also drawn to them by some force.
Repeated experience, indeed bitter experience, taught him long ago that any rapprochement, which at first so pleasantly diversifies life and seems like a sweet and easy adventure, among decent people, especially among Muscovites, slow-moving, indecisive, inevitably grows into a whole task, extremely difficult, and the situation eventually becomes difficult. But with every new meeting with an interesting woman, this experience somehow slipped from memory, and I wanted to live, and everything seemed so simple and funny.
And then one evening he was having dinner in the garden, and a lady in a beret slowly approached to take the next table. Her expression, gait, dress, hairstyle told him that she was from a decent society, married, in Yalta for the first time and alone, that she was bored here... There was a lot of untruth in the stories about the uncleanliness of local morals, he despised them and knew that such stories most are written by people who would willingly commit sins themselves if they knew how, but when the lady sat down at the next table three steps away from him, he remembered these stories about easy victories, about trips to the mountains, and the seductive thought of a quick, fleeting connection , about an affair with an unknown woman whom you don’t know by name and surname, suddenly took possession of him.
He affectionately beckoned the Spitz to him and, when he approached, shook his finger at him. Spitz grumbled. Gurov threatened again.
The lady looked at him and immediately lowered her eyes.
“He doesn’t bite,” she said and blushed.
-Can I give him a bone? “And when she nodded her head affirmatively, he asked affably: “Have you deigned to come to Yalta for a long time?”
- Five days.
“And I’m already in my second week here.”
There was a little silence.
- Time goes by quickly, and yet it’s so boring here! - she said without looking at him.
“It’s just common to say that it’s boring here.” The average person lives somewhere in Belev or Zhizdra - and he is not bored, but will come here: “Oh, boring! Oh, dust! You'd think he came from Grenada.
She laughed. Then they both continued to eat in silence, like strangers; but after dinner they walked side by side - and a playful, easy conversation began between free, happy people, who didn’t care where they went or what they talked about. They walked and talked about how strangely the sea was lit; the water was lilac in color, so soft and warm, and there was a golden stripe running along it from the moon. They talked about how stuffy it was after a hot day. Gurov said that he was a Muscovite, a philologist by training, but he worked in a bank; once prepared to sing in a private opera, but gave up, has two houses in Moscow... And from her he learned that she grew up in St. Petersburg, but got married in S., where she has been living for two years, that she will stay in Yalta for another a month and perhaps her husband will come for her, who also wants to relax. She could not explain where her husband served - in the provincial government or in the provincial zemstvo government, and this was funny to her. And Gurov also found out that her name was Anna Sergeevna.
Then, in his room, he thought about her, about the fact that tomorrow she would probably meet him. It should be. Going to bed, he remembered that so recently she had been a college student, studying, just like his daughter now, he remembered how much timidity and angularity there was in her laughter, in conversation with a stranger - this must be the first time in her life that she she was alone, in such an environment when people were following her, looking at her, and talking to her only for one secret purpose, which she could not help but guess about. He remembered her thin, weak neck, beautiful, gray eyes.
“There’s something pathetic about her after all,” he thought and began to fall asleep.
main idea
The point of the story “The Lady with the Dog” is to reconsider the usual moral taboos on which society rests. People should not blindly live the rest of their days, trying to disguise their dislike for each other. Hypocrisy cannot be a reliable foundation; it cracks. This is exactly how the relationship between the Gurov spouses broke down. They were unable to speak frankly among themselves and only hid the brewing problems. In the end, none of them were happy. Only sincere love can be the basis of marriage, and if it is not there, then you should not maintain the appearance of a family in order to please society. This only exacerbates social evils.
The main idea of the story “The Lady with the Dog” is expressed in the fact that love frees a person, liberates and improves his personality. Only after meeting Anna does Gurov realize the petty-bourgeois vulgarity of his environment, understand the importance of love and do a brave thing - he goes to HER. That same insignificant reveler and womanizer Gurov transforms into a passionate and loving man, ready to stand guard at the fence to catch HER.
What does it teach?
The moral of the story “The Lady with the Dog” is to make your dreams come true. Do what you want, not someone else. Gurov initially chose the wrong profession that he wanted, and as a result, he suffered all his life. Anna was not happy next to her husband, which also caused her a lot of grief. If each of them had made a choice in favor of what they loved, their lives would have turned out differently.
The moral conclusion from this book can be drawn as follows: you should not create the appearance of life and enslave yourself in a case of comfort. You need to live, love and even suffer in order to experience the fullness of life.
Summary
Chapter first
Gurov was on vacation in Yalta and noticed that a new girl had appeared among the resort guests. She was a young woman who was accompanied on every walk by a white Spitz. Those around her nicknamed the stranger “the lady with the dog.”
Gurov himself has long been fed up with women. He got married while still a student. Now his wife, in his opinion, has become old and ugly. Her company was a burden to him, and he did not like to come home, preferring to have fun on the side. He treated women with disrespect, classified them as a lower race, but at the same time he could not do without representatives of the fair sex for two days.
Gurov spoke to the woman and struck up an acquaintance with her. He told about himself: he works in a bank, although he received a philological education and came from Moscow. A new friend lived in another city, where she moved from St. Petersburg after marriage. She arrived in Yalta alone and was waiting for her husband, who should soon join her. The lady could not remember who her husband worked as. From her story, the man realized that she was not very happy in her marriage, and felt something like pity.
Over time, Gurov liked Anna Sergeevna. He was so drawn to her modest manners, her beautiful face and the way she carried herself.
Chapter two
The walks continued for a week. One evening, Gurov unexpectedly attracted Anna to him and kissed her. He suggested privacy in the room. From that day their whirlwind romance began. Anna Sergeevna did not refuse meetings. They enjoyed relaxation, the sea and new relationships.
Gurov noticed that his new acquaintance was not like the previous women. She succumbed to new feelings, but suffered from remorse. She admitted to Dmitry that she did not love her husband and married him out of pure curiosity. The thirst for new sensations brought her to the resort. But now that she has found them, she is ashamed of her betrayal of her husband, who did not deserve it. Anna did not want to sin, she dreamed of pure and sublime love, which she did not have. The woman was afraid that Gurov would despise her. Dmitry Dmitrievich consoled her for the sake of appearance, although he was not touched by his companion’s experiences.
Soon, Gurov’s new love was forced to go home, as she received news of her husband’s illness. Gurov saw her off and cynically thought to himself that his next hobby had come to an end, which he would soon forget about.
Chapter Three
Dmitry Dmitrievich's vacation also ended, and he returned to Moscow. At first, he did not remember Anna, led a normal life, went to various events. But then, for some unknown reason, her image began to appear in front of Gurov again and again. This has never happened to him. Love suddenly awoke in Gurov. He did not understand what was happening to him, slept poorly, could not concentrate on work, and completely ruined his relationship with his family. What made it even more difficult was the fact that you couldn’t share your condition with anyone.
On the winter holidays, unable to bear the obsession, Gurov went to the city where Anna lived. He lied to his wife that he was going to St. Petersburg on business. Arriving at the place, Dmitry Dmitrievich found the house where the von Diederits lived. The house was surrounded by a high fence. Gurov walked around, but did not dare to go in, assuming that Anna’s husband could be at home.
Wanting to see his beloved, Gurov headed to the theater and was not mistaken. Anna and her husband came to the performance. Gurov approached her during intermission, taking advantage of her husband’s absence. The pale Anna at first wanted to leave, but then admitted that she had also been thinking about him all this time. Gurov took the woman into his arms and released her only after promising to come to him.
Chapter Four
Anna began to regularly visit her loved one. For her husband, she came up with a story about a doctor whom she allegedly went to for examinations. The husband did not object to the trips, but did not believe his wife’s explanations.
In Moscow, Anna occupied a hotel room in which secret meetings took place. Both of them were burdened by their double life. But breaking family ties and starting openly new relationships was not so easy. No matter how Anna lamented that the secret relationship humiliated them, she could not stop it.
On one of these dates, Gurov accidentally saw himself in the mirror. He was amazed at how he had changed. Dmitry Dmitrievich realized that love came to him only now, along with gray hair and wrinkles. Before this meeting, they lived with people they didn’t love.
Both understood that life had brought them together for a reason, that this was true love and that the hardest part was yet to come.
