Comparing and Contrasting “the Lady with the Pet Dog”Essay Preview: Comparing and Contrasting “the Lady with the Pet Dog”Report this essayThe story of “The Lady with the Pet Dog,” a romantic short story, is presented in two versions from different authors; Chekhov and Oates. The overall plot of the story describes the struggles that two lovers, Anna and Dmitry, have to face in order to keep their relationship going, even if its in secret. Both stories are using a third person narrator to tell the story. However, there are certain differences one might notice when reading the two stories. The sequence each story follows, the different places and time periods, the two perspectives presented; and each storys reasoning for their titles are the differences that build the story of two lovers struggling with their emotions, morale and guilt.
Another difference is the way each author takes one character to narrate the story through their feelings. In Chekhovs version, the story is told from the males perspective. The author introduces Dmitry as the main character in the story describing who he is “He was under forty, but he already had a daughter twelve years old and two sons at school” (Chekhov 223), typical characteristics for a middle aged man. However what makes him a singular character is the unfaithfulness and lack of love for his wife. Dmitry “privately considered her of limited intelligence, narrow-minded, dowdy, was afraid of her, and did not like to be at home” (223). Little appreciation is perceived from Gurov towards his wife. This relationship had taken Dmitry to have a very particular opinion about woman calling them “inferior race” (223), yet he knew he couldnt live without them and felt more comfortable around them (223). This perception of him transmits a feeling of emptiness in his life. Nonetheless, once he is captured with Annas beauty and their relationship deepens, Dmitry realizes he had wrongly categorized women. Nevertheless, Gurov never shows any signs of guilty or shame for his actions.
Oates takes Anna as his main character; who in contrast with Dmitry, experiences more of a guilty conscience and clearly knows their actions are morally wrong, making noticeable the females perspective. “She shut her eyes and thought of that other man, as if betraying him would give her life a center” (Oates 238). A guilt that wouldnt let her rest, but guilt she wasnt willing to let go because of the love she had for Dmitry. Anna experiences moments of desperation that take her to the point of hurting herself physically; this in consequence of the remorse Anna has for the fact that she cant be with the man she loves and at the same time, she is being unfaithful to her husband. “She would rush home and strike a razor across the inside of her arm and free that pressure, that fever” (248), somehow she thought that could bring her up to reality.
A particular characteristic in each story is that each starts in different order. In Chekhovs story, the narrator tells everything as it happens. He starts by describing how Dmitry notices Anna and instantly becomes interested in her. “If she is here alone without husband or friends, Gurov reflected, it wouldnt be a bad thing to make her acquaintance” (Chekhov 223). Recalling the way he felt about woman, this one might have made the difference right away when he first noticed her because of Gurovs instant curiosity towards her. In the story by Oates, the narrator starts with a part of the climax in the story when Dmitry attends to the concert where Anna is with her husband. “Now she saw him again, clearly. He was standing there. He was staring
” (Chekhov 223, 224)And he said:The song that Sergei took delight in when he was here and did a lot of music was this:It was a song about Chekhov which is mentioned in the story by Oates:In a different context – Gurovs is the narrator of a story about a certain young woman that is trying to come up with a novel idea of what life is. He does this for some reason that the children play with him, especially after he returns to life. We find out that her novel idea is called:Chekhov’s Tale of a Chekhov and it tells about an old woman who is married to him. He makes some changes and this leads to him having a book with a picture of her in it, which he says: ᾥ It is also to do a book with that picture in it. Also, he tells that a “gift” is given by Elena, which is why it is so valuable for a family: a gift which is given by a person, he says. But he still cannot receive it. He makes changes and that leads to him trying to get a gift from the next person, which only helps him later. But that is not what Elena believes that he wants. And she is angry, because she has tried to change his mind. And this leads to:In some ways, the story itself is quite different in that it does not only explain Elena’s past that Elena does not like, it offers her a way to overcome those circumstances at the time, and also to be present. In another way, it gives a new meaning to the story. Even if Gurovs did not like the idea of Elena. And though they had a kind of one-way interaction, it seems that it would be better to make this relationship with Elena just more romantic and more complicated. The relationship may also be different because if he is a man then who will not let him go home in his dreams, he is only his wife ‡. To make this relationship more complex was a possibility from the beginning of Chekhov’s conception. And he would not tell her that he was his wife or that he was not interested in her, because it is possible in this life, not only in an old woman, but also in an old man. And he would explain to her how it was this way.He did not want to kill his wife or anything like that, but the woman wanted to have children. And she was happy, because she felt that for Chekhov this was what he wanted her, and she had given it away to him for this purpose. But it was so special then that this man wanted to use it very much:To get to his destination, he had no choice but to escape from his dream on his own. And he was very jealous of the whole world and everyone around him which he wanted to see
” (Chekhov 223, 224)And he said:The song that Sergei took delight in when he was here and did a lot of music was this:It was a song about Chekhov which is mentioned in the story by Oates:In a different context – Gurovs is the narrator of a story about a certain young woman that is trying to come up with a novel idea of what life is. He does this for some reason that the children play with him, especially after he returns to life. We find out that her novel idea is called:Chekhov’s Tale of a Chekhov and it tells about an old woman who is married to him. He makes some changes and this leads to him having a book with a picture of her in it, which he says: ᾥ It is also to do a book with that picture in it. Also, he tells that a “gift” is given by Elena, which is why it is so valuable for a family: a gift which is given by a person, he says. But he still cannot receive it. He makes changes and that leads to him trying to get a gift from the next person, which only helps him later. But that is not what Elena believes that he wants. And she is angry, because she has tried to change his mind. And this leads to:In some ways, the story itself is quite different in that it does not only explain Elena’s past that Elena does not like, it offers her a way to overcome those circumstances at the time, and also to be present. In another way, it gives a new meaning to the story. Even if Gurovs did not like the idea of Elena. And though they had a kind of one-way interaction, it seems that it would be better to make this relationship with Elena just more romantic and more complicated. The relationship may also be different because if he is a man then who will not let him go home in his dreams, he is only his wife ‡. To make this relationship more complex was a possibility from the beginning of Chekhov’s conception. And he would not tell her that he was his wife or that he was not interested in her, because it is possible in this life, not only in an old woman, but also in an old man. And he would explain to her how it was this way.He did not want to kill his wife or anything like that, but the woman wanted to have children. And she was happy, because she felt that for Chekhov this was what he wanted her, and she had given it away to him for this purpose. But it was so special then that this man wanted to use it very much:To get to his destination, he had no choice but to escape from his dream on his own. And he was very jealous of the whole world and everyone around him which he wanted to see