The lady with pet dog
- Characters and their characterizations
- Guruv Dmitritch: the protagonist of the story, a banker who lives in Moscow, unhappily married.
- Anna Sergeevna: titular character of the story, young at 20, unhappily married.
- Guruv’s wife: she has been married to Guruv for over 10 years and has 3 kids with him
- Anna’s husband: some sort of official in St.Petersburg, flunky, and stoop who seems to be continually bowing.
- Point of view
Third person limited to Guruv and Anna
- Setting
The events take place in Yalta by summer and Moscow, Petersburg by winter, and the prevailing culture in the story is patriarchy
- Irony
Verbal irony: Guruv calls women as (low race) but yet he can’t spend 2 days without their company
- Symbolism
The white dog: symbolize purity and innocence which describe anna’s state before meeting guruv
The Grey color: is a color associated with the meaning of dirt and confusion, which describe the state of Anna and Guruv after having a love affair.
The fence: refers to the obstacles they are facing (society's expectation)
Geisha: is While in S–––, Gurov sees an advertisement for the opening of the play The Geisha and decides to attend because he assumes that Anna will be in the audience. Chekhov's use of this play as the backdrop for Gurov and Anna's first encounter since Yalta is symbolic of their marriages and why they carried on their affair in the first place.
The Geisha was originally performed in London, England, in 1896. The story is a comedy about an engaged naval officer who has fallen in love with a geisha (a professional trained woman to entertain men) at a Japanese tea-house. The play closes with the line, "Every man is disappointed with his wife at some time or another," reflecting Gurov's feelings toward his own wife and indicating that if Anna became his wife, he would experience feelings of disappointment toward her as well.
- Theme
There are 4 major themes "patriarchy", "sexist", " lack of communication between spouses" and society expectation".
Guruv despises his wife and avoids communicating with her. As a result, he has a lustful and a sexist relationship with ordinary women. Anna is the same way; she does not connect with her spouse. In fact, she has no idea what his work's title is, and she refers to him as "flunky." This lack of communication causes her to have a sexual relationship with Guruv.
Guruv and Anna's connection developed into a love story, but would society accept it? No, that's why they've been hiding and living in secrecy for so long, which becomes a problem for them because they cannot live a normal life anymore.
- Plot
1- Exposition: Gurov first sees the lady with the dog at Yalta.
2- Rising Action:
Gurov approaches the dog to start a conversation with Anna.
Gurov and Anna carry on an affair in Yalta.
Both Gurov and Anna return to their homes.
Back in Moscow, Gurov realizes he loves Anna.
Gurov decides to visit Anna's town.
Gurov declares his love for Anna at the opera.
Anna and Gurov resume their affair in Moscow.
3- Climax: Gurov realizes he has grown old and finally fallen in love.
4- Falling Action
Gurov comforts Anna.
Gurov and Anna plan how they can love each other openly.
