In the story “The Lady with the Dog”, Anton Chekhov shares that every one has one true love . True love cannot be found in just any body. Chekhov used Dmitri Dmitritch Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna to show two different characters that are unhappy until they find love in each other. They are both married but do not love their spouse at all. “It was clear that Anna was very unhappy.” (Chekhov, 469) In the beginning Gurov does not even believe in love. He thinks that no matter who he is with, they will still get sick of each other after time. “every intimacy, which at first so agreeably diversifies life and appears a light and charming adventure, inevitably grows into a regular problem of extreme intricacy, and in the long run the situation becomes unbearable.” (Chekhov, 467) He cheated on his wife numerous times thinking nothing is going to change. He thinks of Anna as just another woman. It is not until Gurov goes back home that he realizes he loves her. “He would pace a long time about his room, remembering it all and smiling” (Chekhov, 472) Anna thought of Gurov often as well. “I have thought of nothing but you all the time; I live only in the thought of you.” (Chekhov, 474) When Gurov finds out about their feelings for each other, his attitude toward love completely changes. “And only now when his head was grey he had fallen properly, really in love - for the first time in his life.” (Chekhov, 476) Gurov even has 3 children with his wife. “He was sick of his children” (Chekhov, 472) This shows that no one can force themselves to love someone else, even if they have a family together. There is only one true love for every one person.
“The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” gives the same message that the heart wants what it wants. In the beginning Mabel Pervin is rude toward everyone, including Dr. Jack Fergusson. “Mabel looked at him with her steady, dangerous eyes, that always made him uncomfortable, unsettling his superficial ease.” (Lawrence, 480) Jack thinks of Mabel as just another patient. “He had never thought of loving her. He had never wanted to love her.” (Lawrence, 484) Yet, he risks his own life to save hers. “He could not swim, and was afraid.” (Lawrence, 482) but he goes in the pond anyway. After he brings her to the house he cannot stop looking at her or leave her side. “There was another desire in him. And she seemed to hold him.” (Lawrence, 483) He realizes at the end of the story that he is in love with her. “And again, from the pain of his breast, he knew how he loved her. He went and bent to kiss her, gently, passionately, with his heart’s painful kiss.” (Lawrence, 486) So, although he had no intention on ever being with her. The true feelings of his heart came out in the end. Love can only come from what the heart wants. This story also gives the thought that life is not complete without love. Mabel “waded slowly into the water” (Lawrence, 482) to commit suicide. However, in the end she is ready to start a new life with Jack. She just wanted to take care of him right away. She gets dry clothes for him, “she had on her best dress,” (Lawrence, 486) and she is ready to make him some tea. Now that she has love in her life she is ready to live again.
Stephanie, I thought that this story was incredible. I like that you pointed out that he actually fell in love with Gurov on page 476, paragraph 120. However the way that Chekhov described how he was with women sounded like he is careless and condescending towards women and he didn't care about their feelings."...he remembered these tales of easy conquests, of trips to the mountains and the tempting thought of a swift, fleeting love affair a romance with an unknown woman, whose name he did not know, suddenly took possession of him." (Chekhov, 468) This really made me despise him. That is amazing how the narrator is able to do such a thing.
ReplyDeleteStephanie, I got the impression from “The Lady with the Dog” that both individuals were very unhappy like you said. The way he admits of his being “unfaithful to [his wife] often” and he tells also how he “almost always spoke ill of women” due to his schooling “by bitter experience” and how he calls them "the lower race". Yet, the tempting thought of a swift, fleeting love affair, a romance with an unknown woman, whose name he did not know, suddenly took possession of him”. He is a man with a wife and three children. The way he describes how free he felt with other women, how he always knew the right words to say makes me wonder what has happened to the love he shared with his wife? The way he describes himself as attractive and elusive as the reason women fall head over heels for him is almost sickening to me. He describes the typical intimate Russian relationship as “inevitably grow[ing] into a regular problem of extreme intricacy, and in the long run the situation becomes unbearable”. How easily he is swayed by the “tempting thought of a swift, fleeting love affair, a romance with an unknown woman” how “every fresh meeting with an interesting woman this [unbearable situation] seemed to slip out of his memory, and he was eager for life, and everything seemed simple and amusing.” I think Dmitri is in love more with the thought of being in love more than the actual act of loving another person. In "The Horse Dealers Daughter", I think Mabel is lonely and in desperate need to feel the love of another individual after the dissolution of her remaining family. I agree that Love truly does conquer all. The way he held and embraced her and carried her from the pond even though, as you say, "he did not want to love her". I also agree with your analysis of what the writer was trying to say about love. Love and happiness are a quest all of us seek in our lives and fate sometimes has a way of making the two meet. I enjoyed your perspective on these two stories.
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