Creative Response to "The Lady With The Dog" by Anton Chekhov

For my creative response, I have teamed up with a peer, Daniel Mata, from a different section of the creative writing course.  We have chosen to discuss the piece together and to talk about what stood out to us.  Below is a transcript from our dialogue:

Daniel:  Firstly, the plot in this story is not that great.  It's pretty much that of a man who found a mistress, they fell in love, and that's that.  It's not like their lives were in danger, and it's not like they had to run away.  They just kept their life a secret, and it's interesting that the author decided to end the story there. Leaving an open ending leaves you wanting more.  

Secondly, it looks like Gurov is confused because meeting Anna was falling in love for the first time. It's intriguing to think about it as if Gurov probably never thought of love as something with enough importance to push him to do the things he did to meet again with Anna. In the beginning of the story, he probably thought of the woman as just another woman with whom he would have an affair, and he's had tons over the years with a bunch of other women.  And not having experienced love before, it took him aback and became fixated on this girl so much.

Robert:  As evidenced by the text, Gurov's surroundings seem to change when he falls in love with Anna.  When he is with her, his surroundings seemingly transform and he lives purely in the moment.  I found this part of the text particularly beautiful:  "Sitting beside a young woman who in the dawn seemed so lovely, soothed and spellbound in these magical surroundings -- the sea, mountains, clouds, the open sky -- Gurov thought how in reality everything is beautiful in this world when one reflects: everything except what we think or do ourselves when we forget our human dignity and the higher aims of our existence."

Daniel: That's a recurring theme which Chekhov employs a lot. That feelings change your surroundings. It's a romantic way of thinking.

Robert:  I really liked this part of the story when Chekhov describes their love as being two caged birds. "It seemed to them that fate itself had meant them for one another, and they could not understand why he had a wife and she a husband; and it was as though they were a pair of birds of passage, caught and forced to live in different cages."  I think this line really highlights their love for one another and how they can't be together because of social restraints.

Daniel:  What stands out to me is how Gurov sees Anna in his waking life. "When he shut his eyes he saw her as though she were living before him, and she seemed to him lovelier, younger, tenderer than she was; and he imagined himself finer than he had been in Yalta. In the evenings she peeped out at him from the bookcase, from the fireplace, from the corner -- he heard her breathing, the caressing rustle of her dress. In the street he watched the women, looking for some one like her."  Dreams are fantastical manifestations of what lies deep in our souls. However, Gurov takes this to another level because not only his dreams, but also in his waking moments, he sees Anna, as if she was presently walking before his eyes. He yearns for her so much, that he sees her in recurring daydreams.

Robert: So how much of that also plays into the idea of how Gurov thinks of the differences between his inner life and outer life?  So Gurov has this idea that he has two different lives:  one that is internal, his romance with Anna, and one that is external, his wife and kids and life as a banker.  Anna has this life, too, kind of like a dual-world life.  They kind of participate in a fantasy world between the two of them, and I think that also plays into their perception of how strong their romance is.  It's almost the stagnancy of their dull lives fuels the passion in their romance.  They want to live in a fantasy rather than the reality they were given.

Daniel:  Also, the moment when Gurov calls to our attention that, even though it was only three degrees above freezing point, snow was still falling, shows how his environment is parallel to his emotion. At the moment, he was about to go and see Anna. He himself feels warmer, and his environment shows to be warmer as well. It's a form of parallelism.

Robert:  I think that the environment plays into the story in other parts as well.  It is a reflection of Gurov's inner thoughts and feelings.

Daniel:  What we've seen in good writing so far, is the ability to put the reader in the scene.  It has a greater impact than just telling what has happened.  In this case, the dialogue places us in Gurov's shoes.  

"Dmitri Dmitritch!"
"What?"
"You were right this evening: the sturgeon was a bit too strong!"

We feel as if we were part of this conversation, watching it from up close. In the story that Chekov tells us, there's no need for dialogue; it's not an essential part. But in this case, the dialogue serves the purpose of showing the scene more than just describing it.


Robert:  One of the recurring things I noticed in the story is Chekhov's use of the word "S----" to describe the city in which the affair happened.  To me, he does this for discretion.  It's a way of keeping the affair secret and showing that it is something taboo.

Daniel:  You know what else it can be?  It could be that the "S---" just stands for the town being so faraway and lost, that no one cares about it.  It's not on the map, yet still he chases her.  As if she is in a faraway land and it's his job to find her.

Robert:  So again, that kind of goes with the theme of his fantasy world versus his reality.  It could be that this place with no name does not even exist.

Daniel:  When Gurov goes to her house and is on the porch, walking up and down, it shows how desperate he is. This story has a somewhat fantastic touch to it.  Even though they are already married, and it would look so bad, somehow they are reunited by fate and found themselves.  He looked at a poster of Memoirs of a Geisha and decided to go.  It doesn't have to do with wit.  It doesn't have to do with the main character deducing or investigating her life to find her; he just happens to find her.  As he says later on, they were meant for each other.  There was no way they were going to be separate.

Robert:  Exactly.  "it seemed to them that fate itself had meant them for one another, and they could not understand why he had a wife and she a husband."  It doesn't matter that they had previous lives.  Actually, their previous lives aren't really even mentioned much; but their romance is what's focused on.  I think it's interesting and admirable that Chekhov manages to create this elaborate romance and deep love in the story, especially when it's only a short story.  It seems like we know these characters well and that we've learned a lot about them in just a few pages.

Daniel: To conclude, I would like to reiterate how much similar characteristics this story shares with other stories from the romantic period. It highlights the importance of the self -- even Gurov says it, when he doesn't want to keep his affair a secret. He just wants to love Anna.  It's him that he's talking about.  He could care for Anna, but he's actually not desperate about satisfying Anna; he just wants to fulfill his own pleasure.  It's just "I, I, I" all over again.

Robert:  You're right.  He doesn't talk much about Anna's pleasure or her love for him.  In a way, this is much about Gurov's fantasy and not too much about Anna's.