Lady With the Dog by Anton Chekhov

¶ … Lady with the Dog" by Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov's short story, entitled, "The Lady with the Dog," is a love story between the two main characters, Dmitri Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna, and the struggle that they experienced as they try to prevent their affair from happening, especially since they are already married and have their own respective families to live with. In addition to their love story, the primary focus of the story is the illustration of the development of Dmitri Gurov's character.

Dmitri's development as the main character in the story can be illustrated through a study and analysis of his life and outlook in life before, during, and after he met Anna Sergeyevna, referred to in the story as the 'lady with the dog.' The first analysis of Dmitri Gurov's character can be seen in his life before he met Anna, and this is found in Chapter 1 of the story.

Dmitri Gurov is introduced in the story as an already married man, and has one daughter and two sons from his marriage. Dmitri's life is full of treachery and boredom, mainly because he lives with a woman whom he does not love, and has a profession which he does not want to practice (Dmitri was interested in the arts, but has been given a job at a bank instead).

The following passage from the short story illustrates how Dmitri's life can be described as 'lifeless,' as if Dmitri had no life to live at all. Chekhov tells his readers: "In the society of men he was bored and not himself, with them he was cold and uncommunicative; but when he was in the company of women he felt free.. " but Chekhov also tells his readers that Dmitri "..

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." These passages tells us that before meeting with Anna, Dmitri is a bored man who finds relief from boredom through adultery, but his relationship with other women also becomes 'unbearable' for him, since Dmitri seem to look at women as 'temporary relief' from his dreary and boring life.

Thus, Dmitri Gurov is shown as an irresolute and heartless man who finds women as mere commodities to suit his need to experience fun and excitement in life, and to boost his deflated ego and pride as a result of his living with an 'unbearable' woman, his wife. During his brief affair with Anna in Yalta, Dmitri undergoes gradual change and development in his character.

When he first met Anna, he felt a sense of excitement and anticipation, which he often feels when he is about to meet a beautiful and young woman like Anna. However, the readers can see once again that Dmitri is quite irritated with Anna when she confides in him her thoughts about her adultery to her husband. The irritation that Dmitri feels can be found in Chapter 2 of the story, wherein Dmitri comforts Anna despite his irritation over her fears in their relationship.

In this part of the story, Dmitri has not yet realized what effect Anna has on her, but he feels something for her, which is beyond what he felt for other women before, and these feelings will further develop in the latter part of the story. After Anna had left back o her husband's home, Dmitri began feeling a certain kind of emptiness in life.

What he used to think as fun and enjoyable pursuits in life, such as drinking, card-playing, and having affairs with women, seemed to be trivial now, since his mind is always preoccupied with thoughts of Anna. In the latter chapters of the story, especially in Chapter 3 of the story, Dmitri.