Realism in The Lady with the Dog
Anton Chekhov was born in an era where literature was transitioning from romanticism to realism. Writers during the 19th century started to deviate away from the era of romanticism, where authors value individuals and imaginations. As a result, authors started to move towards realism, a movement that opposed romanticism and focused more on everyday life and modern society. Anton Chekhov is best known for his short stories, portraying the modern Russian life during that the 19th century. The Lady with the Dog is a well known short story written by Anton Chekhov that represents the modern life of society. The short story presents a situation where two individuals having an affair and problems arise due to the
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Instead most people experience a dull life after marriage and obtaining a divorce was not an option because of a divorce was a social taboo during the 19th century. Chekhov clearly captures the discontent and frustration experienced by the individuals in The Lady with the Dog. The dissatisfaction with marriages is evident in both the main character Dmitri Gurov and his secret Anna Sergeyevna. In the first couple paragraphs of The Lady with the Dog, “[Dmitri] secretly considered her unintelligent,narrow, inelegant, was afraid of her, and did not like to be home. He had begun being unfaithful to her long ago”(Chekhov ). Likewise with Anna, “It’s not my husband but myself I have deceived. And not only just now; I have been deceiving myself for a long time. My husband may be a good honest man, but he is a flunkey! I don’t know what he does there, what his work is, but I know he is a flunkey!” (Chekhov ). From these two previous passages, it can be obviously seen that both Dmitri and Anna are unsatisfied with their prior partners and marriage. Anna goes further to state that she was trying to make to deceive herself of the dissatisfaction. As the story progresses, Anna and Dmitri starts to have a affair that satisfies their desires to have a more dynamic life. The universal truth that is being portrayed is being unsatisfied