Death of a Salesman Doll\'s

¶ … Death of a Salesman

Doll's House, and "The Lady with the Pet Dog"

Love is never easy and hardly ever do we experience love without some sort of difficulty involved. Anton Chekhov's "The Lady with the Pet Dog," Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, and Henrik Ibsen's a Doll's House are stories that revolve around the pain and disappointment that love can bring. While love is often celebrated as a positive experience, we would be wise to learn from these characters and their situations to avoid the same heartache they experienced. Gurov has a chance for love but he must break away from his wife in order to take that chance. Nora discovers that her husband is a fake and she, too, must leave her home and family to embark on her new journey of self adventure. Finally, Linda must live the rest of her days as a widow because her husband decided that he would rather die than grow old with her. While characters in these stories experience loving relationships, they are also impacted by the negative effects of love and the difficulties that it sometimes brings. Their situations demonstrate that love has more than one side.

In "The Lady with the Pet Dog," Gurov and Anna experience many aspects of love. They enjoy the sensation that an illicit affair brings and they also realize that they have feelings for each other in the process of having that affair. Love may be beautiful but it is not without its complications. Gurov does not mean to fall in love with Anna and when he sees his reflection in a mirror, he realizes he "never once loved; it was anything as you please, but not love. And only now when his head was gray had he fallen in love, really, truly -- for the first time in his life" (Chekhov 209). While this may seem like good news, he is already married. So, while he should be happy that he knows real love, he cannot enjoy it fully because he is attached to another woman. Undoubtedly, this saddens him. He thinks that the two of them are like birds "caught and forced to live in separate cages" (209). Interestingly, he "no longer cared for logic; he felt profound compassion, he wanted to be sincere and tender" (210). Gurov's change is delightful because we believe it is sincere. Gurov is faced with a difficult future because he wants to be with Anna but to do so would mean ending his present life. While he may feel ready to do just that, we know from the end of the story that this process will not be easy. It is never easy to end one life and begin another and Gurov knows that the new couple will encounter some difficulties along their way. In this case, love leads to heartache and angst because Gurov and Anna do not know what their future will bring and they are relying on the fact that their new love will be better than the love they left behind.

In a Doll's House, Nora Helmer is the happy wife of a chauvinist - at least for a time anyway. She suffers the consequences of love after she sees Torvald for who he really is, which is a money-grubbing hypocrite. Suddenly, the light of truth made both husband and wife see each other very clearly. As Nora understands who Torvald is, she comes to realize who she is as well. She tells him, "I must stand quite alone if I am to understand myself and everything about me. It is for that reason I cannot remain with you any longer" (Ibsen 196). The reality of this truth is that is Nora does not know herself, her husband cannot possible know who she is. Nora experiences the pain of a blind love that has finally seen the truth. In a moment of enlightenment, she tells her husband, "You don't understand me, and I have never understood you either -- before tonight" (194).

For years, Nora lived safely behind the lie that she called a marriage but after Torvald found out about the loan, the happy marriage was gone and both partners saw the lies of one another. Nora's difficulty with love is different in that she makes a positive discovery in addition to the terrible truth she has learned. In short, not all is in vain. Nora can walk away a more informed, educated, and independent woman as a result of what she went through with Torvald. She can also look forward to the future. In this case, love leads to heartache and disappointment because Torvald was nothing that Nora believed he was and she must leave him and her family to discover who she is.

In Death of a Salesman, Linda experiences the pain of love through her husband's suicide. In this tale, the consequences of love are probably the most painful in that a life is lost. Linda spends her entire life married to a dreamer and believing in him. While Willy cheated on his wife and he was a pathetic husband; however, she still loved him, bore his children, and had faith in him. At his funeral, she claims that attention must be paid to this man's life and she appears to be the only one willing to pay him any attention. Willy never seemed to get anything right or perhaps he just got things barely wrong. His suicide was untimely because he was about to have the house paid off. He could have spent more time with Linda and perhaps they could have embarked on a new life together. This thought causes Linda incredible agony because they we so close to being free. Not only did Willy take away Linda's best years, he also took away her later years by forcing her to live them in the shadow of his death. In this case, love leads to pain and heartbreak because Linda must live on after Willy's suicide.