In reading the short story The Lady with the Pet Dog by Anton Chekhov one can make many assumptions about the main characters. The short story is about an affair that leads to something more than the two main characters expect it to be. Throughout the story, Chekhov shows the portrayal and transformation of the main characters through different events in their lives. The end leaves the reader with little idea of what's going to happen to the main characters.
We first meet Dmitry Dmitrich Gurov in Yalta where he is taking a holiday alone. Gurov is an attractive man form the upper class. He is dissatisfied to say the least with his present situation and his marriage to his wife. Then we meet a new person known as "The Lady with the Pet Dog." She is married but not happy in her marriage. She married for convenience.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. Oil on canvas. From the c...
Anton Chekhov's Birthhouse in Taganrog, Russia
Portrait of Anton Pavlovich ChekhovShe never had an affair and wasn't sure why she was in Yalta. Chekhov shows this by stating, "...and though he secretly considered her shallow, narrow-minded, and dowdy, he stood in awe of her, and disliked being at home." Not yet forty, he has already become an experienced seducer. His affairs always end badly, but he cannot resist starting new ones. His doomed adulteries have left him cynical and bitter. Chekhov presents Gurov in a mostly unfavorable light manipulation, hatred of women, and no moral sense, and yet the author refuses to reduce his protagonist into a villain. Chekhov states, "There was an exclusive charm in his appearance and disposition which attracted women..." Gurov possesses different impulses. For example, his low opinion of women accompanies a bewildering preference for their company. In the opening nothing is suggesting the inner transformation that Gurov will undergo.
Chekov conveys his main characters' transformation...